Ristorante Bunorotti, Vienna, VA

428 Maple Avenue, Vienna, VA 22180

703.281.7550

There are Porsches, Camrys, and Civics on the road.  There are Porsches, Camrys, and Civics in the dining world as well.  Ristorante Bunorotti is certainly a Porsche.  Its kitchen is the Porsche’s engine—revving up some amazing dishes.  The wait staff and hosts serves diners with the sleek lines expected of fine motorcars.  The establishment itself is very traditional Italian style reminiscent of the style of the Porsche itself (meaning it is what you expect a high-end Italian restaurant to be).  That said, Ristorante Bunorotti, located in a small strip mall perpendicular to Vienna’s Main St (yes, we drove right by the place before realizing we had passed it), is all one can expect from a high-end dining experience.  Approaching the place is a bit like parking your Porsche at a 7-11 (if you’re keeping up with the analogy).  But once inside, your eyes are drawn to the collection of photos with various sports and local celebrities intertwined with Italian “kitsch.”  While waiting we were able to identify a variety of players and other local celebs including Chris Cooley, Tony Siragusa, Mike Shanahan, and (sad to see) the late NBC-TV Sports Director George Michael (what??? No hockey players?).  Even though we had reservations, there was a bit of a wait for a table.  Picking out the celebrities helped us endure the wait.  The time had come for Sergio Domestici the host and owner to give us the keys to the Porsche (still riding that metaphor) and take us to our seats.

We were seated in the main dining area along the back wall.  A great seat considering we were out of the way from diner congestion.  We had the customary basket of fresh breads, but to our surprise were servings of an olive tapenade and a tomato mixture to accompany the butter for the breads—a delightful accompaniment.   Our waiter Charlie rattled off a novella of house specialties for the evening and we decided to go with what was on the menu.  We started off the meal with the Swordfish Carpacio and a Caprese salad for appetizers.  Both were fresh and excellent.  While the specialties were enough to choose from, we went with a Puttanesca pasta and the Veal Cotoletta Parmigiano.   Even though the Puttanesca pasta was not on the menu, the chef and staff were more than willing to prepare the dish which was a wonderful medley of anchovies and olives over angel hair pasta.  The Cotoletta came with a polenta puree and roasted vegetables.  Very well done.  We shared the raspberries in Chambord cream sauce for dessert.  

This is fine Italian dining and unless you have an endless food budget we recommend Ristorante Bunorotti for when a very nice meal will complement a very special occasion.