Cucina Morini

Overall Rating: 9/10$7 Martini Hour ALL DAY EVERY DAY in the lounge? Say no more! After a few, you're transported to a dimly lit, trendy Italian spot serving some of the city's best Italian food.Food: 4/5Crudi:* Ricciola: The pistachio crunch with yellowtail? Perfection. Almost ordered another.Sfizi:* Rapini: Broccolini with a sauce? My Italian dream come true.* Calamari Fritti: A classic--good, but nothing groundbreaking.* Polpettine: Meatballs at an Italian restaurant? Always a yes!Pasta:* Cappelletti: Truffle prosciutto ravioli--sounds like a winner, tastes even better.* Gramigna: Rich, creamy, and mood-lifting. This pasta alone made my bad day a good one!Sfincione:* House Baked Tomato Focaccia with Stracciatella: Keep this away from me--I have no self-control.Pietanze:* Capesante Alla Capri: Scallops + risotto + the perfect kiss of lemon = chef's kiss.* Pollo All Diavola: I never order chicken, but this dish? Worth every bite.Service + Décor: 5/5Unpretentious, inviting, and effortlessly cool--ideal for date night, family dinner, or flying solo. Cucina Morini just gets it.Full Review on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGilBDxxuwb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions. Please try these restaurants and form your own judgments--it's what I would do.

Love the spaced. It was cozy night vibes with a great bar area for grabbing a drink. The service was attentive and had great recommendations. We split a few pasta dishes and not one of them let us down. Ordered the cappettelli, gramigna, and pansotti. Also, we started with the patate which was absolutely delicious.

Me and a friend came in for Morini Monday where they do half pastas for $10/full pastas for $20. The reservations were fully booked out until 930 but we came in around 6:20 PM and were able to seat ourselves at the full service bar. They have the full restaurant menu + drink menu + Morini Monday menu but the happy hour was not available (it's in the lounge area). The Monday pasta menu had a majority of the pastas that were on the regular menu except for the agnolotti and frutti di mare with the addition of a gnocchi that we didn't see on the regular menu.My friend got two 1/2 portions of the gnocchi and cappalletti- she said the cappalletti was great but her two half portions definitely did not add up to a full portion. I got the taglioni neri as a full portion which was a great serving size and was pretty good. We got the focaccia to share- the bread itself was delicious but neither of us enjoyed the olive oil dip. Overall would give It a 8/10 for Morini Mondays and if they continue to do them, we'll probably come back and order full servings with different apps. The service and ambiance is great though.

Visited for Morini Monday (discounted pasta dishes!) Went to the lounge first for martini hour! Love how lowkey the lounge is and that you can take your martinis into the dining room straight to dinner. Espresso martini was solid! They're smaller but for $7 a good deal & more of a coffee-forward martini! Ambiance is nice in the dining room! Focaccia bread with the straciatella was delicious and perfect appetizer to share with the table. Rigatoni & Gnocchi pastas were really good and def a good spot for dinner with the girls or date night! Service was also fast and servers were friendly!

So 4 stars only because I didn't eat there and this is strictly for the lounge! It may be a a best kept secret but $7 martinis was an amazing find. The space was limited with limited seating but worth the stop and enjoyed my drink! Service was quick once you got their attention and would like to return to try the food

The Morini Monday deals are the best thing to ever happen to Mondays. I think I've tried all the pastas at this point, and you can't go wrong with any. Four primi sized pastas is perfect for two people to share and leave feeling appropriately full!

Came back (again) for dinner. Had the Pasta Al Limone special and it was so lovely and bright. Also tried the Paccheri a la Norma which is a new favorite with charred eggplant skin imparting the most beautiful earthy and smoky flavors to this decadent and comforting dish. Chef Adler always crushing it!

I was expecting outstanding and I did not get outstanding, I got pretty good. From the excellent reviews, both on yelp and by critics, I was expecting to find a new favourite fine dining restaurant in DC. To begin, they were out of the first mocktail I ordered. I was informed of this once I had already ordered it. Other members of my party were given wrong information about a bottle of wine and had to be brought a new bottle. We all enjoyed the drinks we eventually ended up with but I did not love that the absence of the mocktail I originally ordered left dry January participants/non-drinkers with only one choice. The restaurant was also out of an entrée. This was at the beginning of dinner time. We all enjoyed the appetizers however we found the selection to be quite standard and not particularly Italian. Because we got several appetizers, we all ordered half size plates of pasta. I found my plate to be quite sizeable however, the flavour was nothing special. I thought it could've used more spice. For dessert, we had the olive oil cake. this was again standard, not exceptional.The service also left something to be desired. Although prompt, we were brought the check before we had finished eating. Personally, it is my feeling that you should not be brought the check before it is requested and especially not while you are still still eating.

Came here for a weekday girls' night with some Yelp foodie friends during the first month of its opening! The ambiance was warm, modern, and a little dark. The front of the restaurant is a large bar area where they also have happy hour! I've heard really good things about it, but have never been. There are these GIANT decorations that don't seem big for the space, but are bigger than any human LOL. Just a random fact. My friends and I sat at a table adjacent to the dining room bar and kitchen. Every table has a cute mushroom-like lamp. It was cute and we realized it's on/off was to just touch the base. We needed it for our "camera eats first" pictures. We all ended up ordering a variety of appetizers to share: Mozzarella di Bufala, two of the crudi, and the Polpo Alla Piastra. We liked everything overall, but felt like the crudi was pricey and we could've done without. We each ordered a pasta dish. I got the Taglioni Neri which was really good. Not the best one of ever had, but still well executed. I love any squid ink pasta. My friends also enjoyed their pastas. We all ordered the "primi", smaller portion of the pasta and felt like we could have ordered the full instead and eaten it all, too. We also ordered three desserts to share: Olive Oil cake, Creme Brulee, and the affogato. We each liked a different dessert the best and it was the most we disagreed all night LOL. I was personally partial to the affogato and did not like the olive oil cake. The service was good, but extremely slow. We chocked it up to a fairly full restaurant and newly opening issues. Our server had disappeared for most of the night and eventually he did come by to apologize. Overall, it's a good restaurant. It didn't stand out to me, but I'm open to going again in the future.

Back here for the second time and continue to LOVE this place. I want to shout out the service especially this time -- a mistake was made with our order and they immediately made the correct dish for us and were so above and beyond to make sure it was corrected. I think the standouts were the mozarella di bufala with garlic crustinis, and the squid ink ragu linguini. SO GOOD. We also got to try the sea food pasta and really really enjoyed it if you're into a seafood dish. This is really an amazing spot for an upscale date, celebratory dinner, or for any group who is ready to share and enjoy all the apps!