Food find: Buca di Beppo

Another post about lasts! To celebrate the fact that most of my class was graduating, we had a class dinner last week at Buca di Beppo. While there are a few of these in Illinois, I had never been to one of these family-style Italian eateries.

So let's start with the drinks -- one of the specialties they were offering is a raspberry lemon drop martini -- isn't it pretty? It was a sweet cocktail, but not overwhelmingly so. I also liked the little punch of tartness from the lemon juice.

They served a standard iceburg salad to everyone along with garlic bread made in a pie plate. It was very garlicly but not as buttery as I had hoped. Oh well -- it was at least browned and toasty. It was the day it snowed in D.C., so I was happy to have something hot out of the oven.

So for the first family dish, my table went with spaghetti. It was a marinara meat sauce that was what I look for in a tomato-based sauce -- not too sweet, smooth texture and enough meat to keep me full. Also, the pasta was well cooked -- not too al dente.

Next, we had chicken Parmesan -- it was so awesome. The chicken was tender, the breading crusty and the cheese perfectly melted. There was just a bit of sauce on top, so nothing got soggy.

Finally, my favorite part. A strawberry cheesecake. It was so tasty and smooth, but I wish there would have been more strawberry sauce.

The only bad thing I have to say about this place is that my friend had hair on her plate -- ick. A little unclean. But then again, I won't be going to this particular location in Dupont Circle again anytime soon.