Caruso's Grocery

What a great spot! Casual, excellent food, great service. This is a wonderful neighborhood type spot that everyone flocks to. The food is incredible: the antipasti for two is huge, the shrimp scampi large and flavorful, and the Caesar salad a nice, large portion. As the aforementioned indicates, you won't leave here hungry. Prices are reasonable and it's a real bang for your buck. The Antipasti Martini - with a mozzarella, olive, and tomato garnish - is cold and crisp. The wine selection has something for everyone. And you must get the Nutella cannoli: I don't think i need to explain why.I really want to try the Mozzarella in Carrozza, Trout Piccata, and the Butterfinger Sundae next time.It's a popular spot, though, so reservations are hot and bar seats go quickly, so plan ahead.

I was so excited to go to Caruso's as a NYer that is visiting DC all the time looking for a good italian meal. Caruso's appeared like a busy spot with a lot of hype, and young people going in droves. To me it seemed like the Torrisi or Carbone of Washington DC. That is until I was in the midst of my meal. It then felt like an Staten Island Italian-American Grandmother that wanted to show her love, but could only really remember how to make some of the dishes she was making. First off the wine list is silly - very few interesting wines on it, good if you just want an everyday Italian wine - not good if you're looking for a Scavino Barolo or something of actual interest. The cocktails are not bad, but they're also not great - I ended up with a glass of wine and a couple manhattans...overall okay drinking experience.The service is kind, caring, happy to put parmesan on anything you want and I really liked everyone that served us. I don't think it was anything becoming of a fine dining establishment, but that's not the goal here - consider it classy oliver garden - you're family and we know we're professional servers, but let's all be friends.The food was wildly inconsistent - some of it was really good, and some of it straight up just didn't do it. The meatballs were out of this world, so good, and with some pepper flakes and parmesan, they were to die for! The garlic bread and burrata was soooooo good and I would have eaten like 10 of those and called it a meal. The pesto with the burrata just truly great, everything on that plate was so good. The Caesar salad was very mid - I think that's to be expected at a lot of places, but I really wanted it to be better, it wasn't. It was large, tasted like a caesar salad - i wish it had more perspective, but i wouldn't have docked them for it had it not been for some of the what else was being served.Chicken parm - couldn't have been more boring. Lacked the flavor, crispiness, cheesiness, interestingness you want in a chicken parm. The spaghetti that came with it was extremely over cooked. Pretty disappointing there. It was just not anywhere near al dente, this definitely drops it a star. The next issue is the other main course we got, the famous Spicy Ragu pasta. It had flavor and was spicy, which i loved, but again the noodles were overcooked and just the overall ratios were off - it wasn't doing it for me at all. The mains not pulling it together really made this meal harder for us.Dessert however turned it around with a great tiramisu. Maybe one of the richest tiramisus i've had ever - this was a great way to end the meal and i had a nice espresso to accompany it. The price was very doable, and if I went back I would be very selective about what I eat, but Caruso's you can do better, you showed it to us with your meatballs!

We went to Caruso's for the NYE pre fixe experience. It was a great way to ring in the new year!The dinner included garlic bread, an appetizer, a main dish and dessert. The garlic bread was amazing. It came with a cheesy dipping sauce. For apps, we had the caprese salad and meatballs. The tomatoes and mozzarella were super fresh. For my main, I had the penne a la vodka. It had peas and prosciutto in it, which was delicious. For dessert, I had the Oreo cheesecake. It was so rich and delectable! The portions were generous for all the dishes, so we ended up taking some food to go. The server was friendly and quick to bring us our food and drinks. We also got a complimentary sparkling wine and limoncello shot. The restaurant has the look and feel of an old-school family owned Italian restaurant. We had a wonderful dinner and would definitely recommend Caruso's.

There is so much buzz surrounding the restaurant that we decided to pop in on a random Wednesday after enjoying happy hour at another spot. Thankfully, the young hostess put us on the waitlist, and we only ended up waiting 30 minutes, which isn't bad considering the restaurants popularity. We ended up sitting at the bar, which is one of our favorite spots to people watch and enjoy food and drinks. We started with the Romain escrow and radicchio salad, which was overall good until I bit into at least two pistachio shells-color me extremely surprised as I thought I cracked my tooth. The calamari was nothing special, and definitely nothing to write home about. The ravioli was good, but basic. The sauce was definitely tomato based and pretty bland. We did however enjoy our half liter of Chianti. I don't know if we ordered the wrong dishes, but I'm not sure if this is a spot I would bother returning to you. Best of luck to everyone else and hope your experience is better.

Omg. I'd been hearing about Caruso's lately and figured I'd try them out. I did order takeout and picked up my dinner. The process was great. I was greeted and the host retrieved my food from the kitchen. I noticed that people at the bar had bread and asked for some to-go as well. The restaurant is nolstagic and cozy definitely great for a date night or solo date. For dinner, I ordered the Caesar salad (10/10) and the Neapolitan Ragu (omg 12/10). The ricotta and cheese came on the side and everything was amazing. I will definitely go back to dine in and experience the meal at the restaurant. I will be returning! I recommend you try it out. There was street parking right in front but parking is tricky in that area.

Food was really good. Got the Caesar salad - PHENOMENAL. Nice garlic flavor and the cheese added a nice sharpness along with the dressing. So good!Complimentary bread - great! Crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. The herb mixture that olive oil was great to dip the bread in! Chicken parmigiana- good! Comes with a side of spaghetti, but the spaghetti wasn't nothing special. The spaghetti was more acidic than I liked. The chicken parm tasted great and had good amount of cheese to get cheese pulls.Penne a la vodka - Great! The better entree out of the two. Had a really good creamy vodka sauce that was both sharp and velvety. Peas are in the dish, but I didn't mind it. Drinks. Mediterranean Margarita - just okay! Pomegranate lemonade didn't taste like anything. Forgot other drink. Tiramisu - I do not like coffee. But this place was listed as THE place to get tiramisu in DC and someone in my party is a tiramisu expert, so we had to try it. Let me tell you. I am converted. This tiramisu was SO delicious and the espresso wasn't too overpowering! A lot of places use a lot of espresso and it ends up being espresso ft. a dollop of cream with lady fingers instead of tiramisu. But this tiramisu at Caruso's is SO FREAKING GOOD. It was the perfect balance of flavors! All in all, I would come back in a heart beat for the Caesar salad, tiramisu and bread!

We ate there twice during our trip to DC. The food and service are excellent. Definitely recommend having a reservation if you can

The spicy ragu pasta was good. We got it extra spicy and it was definitely extra spicy. Lots of meat in the sauce and pasta was cooked perfectly The alfredo pasta was good but we did not taste the truffle too much. Still it was cooked perfectly and had a lot of mushroom flavor.Both were enjoyable Calamari was good and liked both sauces. Server Ivania was very very nice.

Pedro along with the hostess made me feel so welcome and provided excellent service. Overall the food was unique, tasty and I would definitely dine here again. They were so accommodating and gave me a half salad instead of a whole since I was alone. Here's what I ordered:Half Cesar Salad: 10/10 The salad had a nice crispy to it and I loved the soft fresh Parmesan. $6.00Garlic Bread Quattro: 10/10 I could have eaten the entire basket myself but didn't to spoil my appetite before my entree came. The four cheese sauce was amazing! I just wish I had more to take home! $11.25Spicy Neapolitan Ragyu: 10/10 The pasta was cooked perfectly and I enjoyed the fresh ricotta on top to cut some of the spice. $25.25Crema Bruciata: 10/10 I love crème brûlée and this was a unique spin on the traditional version. The blood orange flavor was light and refreshing! $12.50

4 stars for a really solid Italian restaurant.I was looking to grab some Italian food with a buddy recently and we decided to check out Caruso's Grocery. Located across from the Potomac Ave Metro at the corner of Pennsylvania Ave and 14 St SE (entrance on 14th) as part of a larger complex, I arrived at the venue and found a spot that truly had that classic Italian look. The host took me to an area on the right with slightly higher seats and took our drink order to get us comfortable. I wanted to try the well-known Espresso Martini, which came out fairly quickly and was pretty solid.After a few minutes, our waitress came over to take our meal. We decided to split the venue's famous Caesar salad while I ordered my own veal. The Caesar was indeed fairly solid and tasty (you could put it down yourself if you are hungry) and the veal was also a really solid dish (aside from the vegetables, which were pretty average). Overall, Caruso's Grocery delivered a solid classic Italian restaurant experience. While I wasn't necessarily blown away, I had a very solid experience and would be happy to check the place out again next time I'm in the area.