Thanks for the recomendation guys. Follia was nice. The neighborhood was a little worrisome to someone not familiar with the city. (I feel a lot safer in sketchy places when I know the turf!) But the restaurant was a little oasis. The decor was awesome and I second the beautfiful people comments. My girlfriend and I were wondering about the tiny pizza oven out front and decided there must just be a small tiny opening for the 25 year old model "chef" to use in front of the customers and a big opening to the oven in the back for the 300 lb. hairy real chefs to use.

Food was solid but not blown away or anything. The anitpasto plate was actually my favorite dish. Real quality ingredients and thoughtful selections. I thought the saltimbocca and the tricolor halibut were both good but not so great or imaginitive that we stopped our conversation to comment on them. One sidenote, I think they have a pretty limited bar and probably only carry the basics and the ingredients they need for things on their cocktail list.

I didn't see anything interesting so decided to have a Hendricks martini but they didn't have it and I found out they didn't have a couple of other top shelf gins or whiskys so I just went with one of the cocktails. It was definitely good and I don't think this was a problem, just don't go expecting your favorite brands. (unless it is Grey G., plenty of that)

The service was fantastic. Out of recent trips to Minneapolis, NYC and the last month or two of dinners out in DC I can say that this was easily the best service. Attentive but not over zealous and definitely picked up on pacing hints well. Decent wine recommendation also but having only ordered one glass not that big of a deal because there are only 4 reds available by the glass I think, so it was a 1 in 4 chance.

Overall I think it was a great night out and a great atmosphere for going out specifcally to hang out with friends and catch up over a very nice meal but I don't think it is a destination restaurant, one of those ones that you owe it to yourself to go taste the food. Not a world renowned symphony orchestra but a great pit orchestra. The kind you never notice until your way home from the show and think, "that pit orchestra did a really nice job" Hope that makes sense. Also REALLLY cool bathrooms!!

BlakeG wrote:Food was solid but not blown away or anything.

It just dawned on me-- you didn't order pasta, did you.

That's the star-- well, that and the people-watching.

Mike G wrote:

BlakeG wrote:Food was solid but not blown away or anything.

It just dawned on me-- you didn't order pasta, did you.

Or the pizza?