Permanently Closed - Graffiato

DON'T EAT HERE! Don't be lured by the bonus points! This place is DEAD! I used to enjoy it. Tonight was an epic fail. Their menu was TINY compared to what it used to be. To add insult to injury, they were out of so many ingredients that the pizza choices were reduced to three. We ordered them. All three were sparsely covered with their assigned ingredients and terribly under seasoned. We, as a party of 5, were automatically charged a 20% tip which is illegal in DC (especially if it isn't mentioned on the menu). We were running late for our movie thanks to the lackluster service so decided to pay it and move on.

Food and atmosphere were good! We were on a foodie family night, so this was our 1st stop!

Ran out of most of the menu by 8 pm. Wait staff was spotty and gave half the table the wrong orders.

DO NOT GO HERE EVER!!!

When we arrived we were taken to our booth which was upstairs. They had a summer menu which consisted of the Jersey Shore. This meant a lot of seafood cooked and peel and eat. My wife had the spaghetti and meatballs. The spaghetti was more like angel hair. And the tomatoes that were in the sauce were fresh and cooked into meal. They had a few beers on draft. A couple more in bottles and cans. We ordered the zeppoles for dessert. They were exquisite since they were warm and had a side of Bavarian cream.

We went on Friday evening and had the crawfish boil (Jersey summer boil or some name like that). I had a feeling after a few bites that the seafood was not fresh and avoided eating any of it. My friends however ate the seafood, including the mushy shrimp, and got quite sick for the next few days. For $125 it was definitely not worth it and I was thoroughly disappointed.

The food and service were good. My only complaint is they were out of almost everything on the summer seafood menu at 8:30 pm on a Friday night.

Poor service, during the entire dinner our waitress has never checked on us, our waters have never been refilled, our wine bottle sat there while we were fighting some over cooked crabs. Long waits, bad food, just a bad experience

Met a friend here for dinner a couple weeks ago. They weren't busy as it was not a game night at the Capital One Center. Our service was very good but the menu was a disappointment to me. I've been here numerous times in the past and loved the Italian inspired small plates and flatbreads. Only 4-5 of the the flatbreads remained but the rest of the menu was a Jersey Shore themed menu, which is great if you're looking for a seafood platter. The seafood platters were not what we wanted so we ordered two of the flatbreads to share and they were quite good and filling and they had nice wines by the glass to pair with them. Because the restaurant was fairly empty it wasn't noisy, but when it's filled with diners, it can be quite loud. Anyway, I hope the menu change is just a summertime variation.

Disappointed and it would have been entirely avoidable. Booked reservation for this Italian restaurant only to show up and learn the menu I’d reviewed when booking had been replaced with a seafood boil theme — if you book reservation in advance based on the traditional menu, and then they switch the menu in it’s near entirety, there should be a communication to those with reservations. They texted to have me confirm I was coming — so it wouldn’t be difficult to let folks know about menu takeover in advance — especially when bringing a guest who doesn’t eat seafood! I’d have left when I read the menu if not for fact everywhere was packed due to concert in area.

My wife and I were visiting DC to see U2 at the Capital Centre and I was looking for a restaurant nearby. I found Graffiato online, read the reviews, looked at the menu, and got a reservation. We had a great experience. Our server, Fran was a sweet, very good ambassador for Graffiato and she did a great job on her recommendations. My rigatoni was delicious. We will go back.

I was very surprised by the menu. It's switched from Italian (via NJ) to seafood (via NJ Shore). I hope this change is temporary for the summer. I love to go here before an event at the Veriz...I mean Capital One Arena. But, I want Italian food. The food in the past has always been great. I want the old menu back.

Graffiato changed its menu on or about the date we dined there.

The menu was limited and somewhat lackluster, particularly as it was for a special occasion (Father's day). To their credit, they did call to let us know that they had changed their menu.

The change also appeared to scare off people, as we were only 1 of 3 occupied tables.

Not sure we would go back. Our recommendation to Mike Isabella and his management team is to do more research on his menu at the restaurant.

Disappointed due to there not being any Sunday brunch type food items on the menu at noontime on Sunday.

See private note for details.

Ate here years ago and really liked it, but found it uninspired this time. Only vegetables on the menu: caesar salad, and corn on the cob! Disappointing...but tasty pizza.

Food was good, though pricey--I wanted a side salad and the only salad they had was $15. The noise level was ridiculous, largely due to background music played at concert level. I saw some people on dates and wondered how they could hear each other. Would definitely NOT go back, but if you don't mind the noise, the food was good. We had the rigatoni with pork ragu and 2 pizzas.

They changed menus to “Jersey Shore” fish boil but did not update the menu on the web site. We were surprised when we opened the menus. My daughter (who doesn’t eat seafood) ordered a pizza off the specials menus that was flavorless and covered in dry chewy spinach. My shrimp in sauce from the regular menu was mediocre at best. We had heard great things and were very disappointed.

Good option for weekend lunch/brunch in Penn Quarter. Food is fine, Service is very good .
We shared a salad, chicken & waffles and baked eggs. It was easily enough for two.
One challenge was the high volume - with concrete floors and brick walls the place can get noisy when the tables are full

Fantastic bottomless brunch with a ton of variety and options!

Quite possibly the best sliders I have ever had... great location next to Cap One Arena.

Pre Caps game dinner, service a bit sketchy but very busy. Have had better pizza on other occasions. Still enjoy the restaurant and will be back.

fine on way to Shakespeare or capital one. food certainly better than in capital one.
a little pricey- would not do night out dinner there, but fine for pre event bite.

Caps Playoff game

The restaurant is nice, in a hopping area of DC, and he service was very good. I was unimpressed with the food.

All dishes were excellent. Cocktail “Wild Thoughts” was delicious! Server was great (she even got the cocktail recipe from the bartender for me)

Fairly small portions. Bibb lettuce salad had about 6 pieces of lettuce and a dressing mostly devoid of flavor. $18.00. Not inspiring. Grilled octopus was so tough it could not be cut with the knife on the table, much less chewed. Definitely would not recommend that to anyone. That said, my husband had a lovely, light tagliatelle, with a delicious sauce. The focaccia was light and tasty, and the spring onion butter served with it was delightful. Small potion though. This is a very mixed review because we had very uneven food. If we were to go back we might try a pizza... big if. Service generally good.

We went on a recent trip. The food was excellent and the wait staff was superb.
I had the spaghetti New Jersey style with meatballs. Everything was fresh and well plated. My wife had the gnocchi with lobster. She felt there could have been more lobster in it, but it was still good.

The food was really good. We got several smaller plates and some pasta to share - flavorful and memorable. The room is pretty cold, unwelcoming tho (we sat upstairs, which is a little quieter, so we could talk) - concrete floors, nothing on walls - feels sort of half finished.

The service was wonderful-when my wife said she didn't enjoy her dessert and told the waiter why, he removed it from the bill. That said the food was nothing special and it was really loud with only a few people there.

Food was good but definitely not the quality we are used to. The service was awful and it definitely wasn’t busy. There was a piece of metal in our gelato.

Celebrated my daughter's graduation from college last weekend. The staff both front and back of the house went out of their way to make it incredibly special. This is one of my daughter's favorite restaurants and in a City like DC with so many great restaurants that speaks volumes. I would go back again and again.

Interesting food selection, I think we made the wrong selections though.

Meal before event... was surprisingly empty.

I was looking forward to trying Mikes Isabella’s food as I was a big fan on top chef but I found the food missing on execution. It several dishes sounded great in description but missed on flavor.

Loved this restaurant. Came with my boyfriend for a fun date and we had a great time. Didn't love the Bruschetta, but the pizza was very good and the chocolate gelato reminded me of Italy. Would totally recommend for people who love authentic and not generic Italian.

Food supposed to be Italian but overall the quality of food is really bad!

Server and staff went out of their way to accommodate the special needs of our table.

The food was excellent! We loved the almonds, olives, asparagus, butter lettuce salad and burrata/tomato dish. Only dish that was mediocre was the New Jersey spaghetti. I have to be gluten free and the menu gave me tons of options. Server was very knowledgeable.

Avoid this place at all costs. You will 100% leave hungry as the portions are fit for an infant. No value for your dollar at all. I spent over $50 on entree and an app and I ate something immediately upon entering Capital One Arena.

This Place Was Amazing and the Brunch Was Awesome and I’ll Definitely Go Back