One of the gripes from my wife Jun since we moved to the DC area is a lack of go-to restaurants within the walking distance from our home in Bethesda, Maryland. So we were both very excited to hear about the opening of a new project by chef Mike Friedman behind DC’s popular Italian restaurant The Red Hen. Recently, we finally checked out Aventino, which opened in January (there is also a companion AP Pizza Shop focusing on pizzas from the same chef). It was certainly refreshing to visit a restaurant without driving our car and worrying about not drinking too much (not an insignificant drawback from living in the suburban area outside of DC as we enjoy complementing food with at least a glass of wine or cocktail). More importantly, our first meal at Aventino showed a lot of promise.

Reflecting chef Friedman’s Italian-Jewish background, the focus of Aventino is in traditional Roman cuisine with inspirations from the Roman-Jewish ghetto. While I am not particularly well-versed in different culinary traditions of Italy, the dishes we ordered were mostly very delicious. Jun was intrigued by the description of fried gnocchi in the starter section, but what really made me a fan of the dish was the house-made mortadella meat that was wonderful, especially with cherry and toasted pistachios that give added flavor and texture. Among all the appetizing pasta options, we chose ravioli and lumache. The ravioli was more than solid, with ricotta, morel mushrooms and spinach to give the impression of a pasta dish directly brought from a garden. It was the lumache, however, that I couldn’t stop thinking about, especially the fabulous pieces of guanciale that, with tomato and Calabrian chili, created wonderful effects to the pasta. If that dish is available again on our next visit, I will be sure to try it again.

For the main dish, we split the porchetta-spiced lamb ribs. The lamb, accompanied by soft herbs and pickled fennel, was another winner from the menu, especially with a side of roasted Italian cauliflower that provided really nice crunchy texture; the only pet peeve from both of us was that the portion could’ve been somewhat larger at the $48 price tag (or perhaps that’s the reality of restaurant dining in the current inflationary environment). We finished our meal with two desserts, both also very good. The pasta fritto that you can dip onto honey mascarpone alongside pistachio gelato is something that you could love sharing with fellow diners on a bright sunny evening, and the poached rhubarb with whipped vanilla mascarpone and rhubarb sorbetto was also well-executed to bring a delightful touch.

Not surprisingly from the restaurant behind perennially difficult-to-reserve The Red Hen, it will take more efforts to book a table at Aventino than you would normally at a suburban Maryland restaurant. There is full bar with a thoughtful Italian-focused wine list (a good bet is to look at volcano symbol denoting wines from volcanic soil, although I found it curious that the list didn’t feature as many Sicilian wines as I had expected). The bright, upscale dining room that certainly looks like an upgrade over other suburban restaurants is another plus to the dining experience at Aventino. Jun and I are very glad that we now have a restaurant where we can casually walk from our home for dinner or, perhaps next time, even drop by at the bar for some quick cocktails and pastas. We will absolutely be back again in the near future to try other dishes from this very welcome newcomer to our neighborhood.

Address: 4747 Bethesda Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814

KenScale: 8.25/10 (Jun’s Score: 8.0/10)

Website: https://aventinocucina.com/

Reservation via Resy