Sette Osteria
Oct 25, 2004
eh. 'twas nothing special. Sette is basically a 2 Amys rip-off in a swanky location.
Ok, that is probably not enough for a review, but that about sums it up. Friday night, Amy and I went to Sette Osteria in Dupont Circle. I decided to try it was because I received recommendations for Sette from a few of my friends after reading my review of Olazzo. They said I should try the pasta at Sette if I liked Olazzo.
Now, before you read the rest of this entry, I have to be honest with you - I was sick. I'd been coming down with something all week, and Friday, when I was at work it finally hit me. Hard. So my taste buds were probably not at their full tasting capacity. Nothing was going to keep me from going out though. I had no temperature so I medicated myself up with Theraflu and we were off to Dupont Circle. I tried calling ahead but Sette Osteria doesn't take reservations. On the phone, the hostess said that there was no current wait for a table for two. By the time we arrived at 7:30 though, there was a 45 minute wait.
I looked back at Amy and she shrugged her shoulders, "Where are we going to go, Etrusco?" she said with a sarcastic tone.
"Ok. Fine. I hope this place is worth a 45 minute wait though"
We went over to the bar, which was large and very crowded. There were no seats so we just stood for a while and ordered a couple glasses of Zinfindel. After a while a chair opened up so Amy could sit down. Looking at the wine list, the first thing I noticed was how expensive the glasses of wine were. They charge $8 for a glass of Ravenswood Zinfindel and that was one of the cheaper glasses on the menu. You have a choice of a half glass of full glass. Most of the half glass prices are the same as you would be charged for a full glass other places. Just a tip, if you plan on having more than one glass each, order a bottle from their extensive list of wines. (Gee, isn't that a helpful tip?) Bottles of wine are fairly reasonable ranging from $22 - $80, with a majority of them below $40.
We were seated almost exactly after 45 minutes AND ONLY AFTER I REMINDED THE HOSTESSES THAT WE WERE STILL WAITING. After we sat down, we were greeted very quickly by our waiter asking us if we needed anything to drink which I appreciated. (I really appreciate it when a waiter greets you right after you sit down.) The best thing about the whole meal was the service.
Half of the menu was dedicated to pizza and the other half to the appetizers, pasta and specials. Appetizers or Antipasti, range from $6 - $8. They had the usual tomato and mozzarella salad, which we saw other people ordering and looked very fresh, but we wanted something different. There were a few that really looked interesting to me, in particular, the panzaroti (mini calzones) and gateau di patate (potato cake with salami and smoked mozzarella). They came out pretty soon after we ordered. The mini calzones tasted all right. They are better in concept than execution. I would have to say the best dish of the night was the potato cake, which came with marinated red and yellow peppers.
For entrees, we tried both a pizza and a pasta, opting for the lasagna and the proscuito e rucola (prosciutto and arugula) pizza. Standing at the bar, I saw both coming out and they both looked mouth watering. They looked a lot better than they tasted. The lasagna was overcooked and did not have enough sauce. I make a better lasagna. The lasagna I had a couple weeks ago at Olazzo was much better. The pizza was ok but nothing really special. I would equate it to that of Pizzeria Paradiso with a better tasting crust, but toppings that were not as fresh.
We thought about ordering dessert, but decided that I needed to get home because I was getting sicker by the minute. The bill came to $85 before tip. We had 3 glasses of wine each (mostly because we waited forever for a table), 2 appetizers, pizza and lasagna. Most of the cost of the meal came from the wine, and like I said before, we would have saved a lot by ordering a bottle of wine instead of the glasses.
Sette Osteria
1666 Connecticut Ave NW (Corner of R and Connecticut)
Washington, DC 20007
Map
Hours:
Mon-Thu 11:30am-2am
Sat 11:30am-3am
Sun 11:30am-Midnight
Dress Code: Casual
Reservations: NOT Accepted
Closest Metro Stop: Dupont Circle
Valet: After 7 PM Sat. and Sun. $8
Jason, your culinary gravitas is amazing. I'll be sure and stear clear of this joynt. Thanks for posting your reviews. It's a great service to us DC foodie types. I'm at a loss for a good southern Italian restaurant. Has anyone heard of meat filled ravioli or tortellini in this town? It's disgraceful. How about a nice and hearty bolognese sauce? Is that too much to ask? I'm not into all this foo foo vegetarian Italian. What do you suggest oh gustatory wise one?
PS I had a wonderful dinner last night at the Lebanese Taverna at Pentagon Row (they also have DC & MD locations). Lots of garlic puree is a must! Fresh baba gannoush (sp?) and hot from the oven pita bread was also a winner. For an entree I had the shish taouk which is a fancy name for a chicken kabob (one of my favorites). I also recommend the chicken or regular schwarma. My wife loves the lamb kabob. Just make sure your bring plenty of strong gum or breath mints the next day to work. Did I mention there's lots of garlic? They even have mint mouthwash in the bathrooms. They have a huge menu with plenty of mezza, and many vegetarian dishes, something for everyone. I also recommend a citrus martini to kick the meal off right. At $7 a glass its reasonably priced. I'd also recommend a glass, half or full bottle of the lebanese Ksara red wine. Very good and reasonably priced. Everybody I meet in DC loves the Lebanese Taverna. That's no joke. Best, Dominic
Posted by: Dominic | Oct 27, 2004 at 04:19 PM
Vace on Conn. Ave. sells meat filled ravioli. AS far as restaurants, I don't know any that have it. Your best bet would be to try Maggiano's or AV Ristaurant Italiano on NY Ave.
Posted by: Jason | Oct 29, 2004 at 07:49 AM
Jason,
Really enjoy your page as I have moved to DC a little while ago and find you have to know the restaurants as some are really not up to snuff. I was wondering if you know of anyone who does samosa's, etc. for catering for a party here in DC? Thank you. Francesca
Posted by: Francesca | Nov 11, 2004 at 09:20 AM
I imagine just about any Indian restaurant will do that for you.
Heritage India would be who I would go with or Indique.
Posted by: Jason | Nov 11, 2004 at 01:07 PM
Jason
You were not sick before you went there, you got sick after that. The service you know is gone, because there are only rude people there now, but the lasagna is the same, not enough souce, bad cooked, small portion and a smaller portion if your friend order the same plate. Small tables and expensive drinks. They can't eve serve a coke right. I asked for regurla coke and got diet, I complained and asked for another coke and the waiter refused to do it.
Posted by: Omar | Jan 03, 2005 at 11:10 PM
The service at Sette was weird when we went there -- very attentive, but lacking in certain knowledge about how the whole dining process should work.
For instance, they continually cleared the silverware with each course. Normally, that wouldn't be too bad if the next course included special utensils (oyster forks, steak knifes, etc), but we were left with only our dessert spoons for the soup course and had to request salad forks to be brought back to the table.
The accoustics were also very loud. I think the beautiful glass walls reflect lots of sounds back into the dining area.
We haven't been back to try again.
Posted by: hudson | Mar 07, 2005 at 05:38 PM
Hi- I noticed tha you do not take reservations, and we were there on Wednesday, and even though they were lots of seating outside, the host said we could not sit outside. We left and went to Teaism. What's up tith that?
Posted by: Grac | May 09, 2005 at 11:39 AM
Don't like that Sette doesn't slice your pizza for you. Would also have liked it if they had given my companion and I some bread to go with our non-pizza entreé. Don't the Italians soak up the juice with the bread? The pizza with escarole and gaeta olives was amazing, though. Veal scallopini special was also very good.
Posted by: John | Aug 03, 2005 at 11:27 PM
An update on Sette's service: went there this week and had the worst service of my life. No attention, took forever, and all capped off by the fact that they overcharged us, and when we pointed it out to them, they ARGUED with us over it, including the manager. I will never return to Sette again.
Posted by: Karen | Apr 07, 2006 at 11:54 AM
Without a doubt, THE most horrible restaurant experience I've ever had. We were a party of four and ordered drinks, appetizers, entrees and desserts(to a total of $120). After two hours (we had some catching up to do), our waiter comes over and says, "you've been here two hours and people are waiting!!" (there wasn't a soul waiting to be seated) After we inform him that his behavior is unacceptable, he says we can stay if we order more coffee or desserts. If I ever ran my business like that, I am 100% confident I would lose ALL my clients. Just like they lost the four of us as diners. The saddest part was that this guy insisted that his behavior was quite normal and we were the ones being rude. All of this was quite unfortunate, as the meal itself was lovely.
Posted by: Kim | Jul 26, 2006 at 02:54 PM
Sette Osteria: what a nightmare. After waiting waiting waiting we were seated at an outside table at the edge of a parking garage--and there were no plants or barriers against the constant exhaust fumes as cars went in and out. They didn't realize that it's not a good idea to seat people more or less in the parking garage?
Service here is abominable. It took about 25 minutes for our Prince Slacker waiter to bring some water and take orders for drinks. Then another 20 minutes for the drinks to arrive, and one of the orders was wrong. So there was another long wait until he could manage to deliver the drink I ordered.
We ordered a pizza to share as an appetizer, salads, and main courses. Everything took forever. Dirty dishes were left sitting on our table. Water was not refilled. Our waiter was a freakin' phantom--and rude to boot.
And an idiot who made mistakes in our orders and never once apologized.
In fact he acted as if we were imposing on him by asking him to bring the dishes we had actually ordered. Before some time next week.
The pizza was fine but not sliced. You should bring your own pizza cutter if you decide to visit Sette Osteria. Woe to you if you decline the waiter's recommendation (no one wanted the arugula marinated in lemon juice he was trying to get rid of). Expect for one diner to have to sit and wait while everyone else gets their food, and then there will be another long wait while the idiot waiter takes the wrong order back to the kitchen and puts in a request for what you had originally ordered around 75 minutes earlier. He has a short attention span. And what's really unbelievable: he arrives at the table when three out of four dishes have been served and announces--doesn't ask us, but announces "okay! everything's okay here!!" And then tries to slink away, as one of us yells "NO it's not okay! You got one of our orders wrong and one guest here has NO FOOD at all!" He doesn't even bother to check out the table, and scurries away for another long break.
When the dish arrives--45 minutes after everyone else at the table has been served, I am treated to a soggy mess of wilted salad that has marinated in what tastes like brine for way too long and a bizarre looking chicken breast that appears to have been vulcanized and boiled. It is dead white--no grill marks, no browning. It is tough, dry, and completely tasteless. And cold, since it was probably ready when everyone else's main course was ready but forgotten by the BAD waiter.
Did we want dessert and coffee? No way--who knows how long it would have taken, and how many mistakes the waiter would have made before bringing what we ordered.
Posted by: Pico | Aug 26, 2006 at 05:03 PM
I ate at Sette last night, and it was terrible. Entrees arrived about five minutes after we ordered them. Her gnocchi was rubbery, and my lasagna had obviously been sitting under a heat lamp for a long time--they just dumped a little tomato sauce on top to make it look freshly cooked. I'd take any of the red sauce joints in Dupont (like Otello) over this place.
Posted by: JD | Oct 31, 2006 at 09:17 AM
We ate at Sette last month and it wasn't that great either. I was really disappointed, as it has previously been one of my favorite "fall back" restaurants...somewhere you can go that is usually decent food and service. This time, the gnocchi was rubbery as well and had far too much cheese dumped on it. My pizza was ok, but nowhere near 2amy's level. The waiter was also a little inconsistent, as he kept forgetting waters and utensil requests.
Posted by: JM | Jan 04, 2007 at 07:40 AM
i love sette. i think thy have some of the best thin crust pizza (4 cheese rocks)in town. i stay clear of the rest of the menu. The meat plate is big and wonderful and the dessert is decent. i love to have a relaxed no frills pizza night there.
Posted by: frances | Dec 07, 2007 at 04:59 PM
I eat at Sette several times per month. Stick with the basics and you will appreciate the quality of the ingredients. The restaurant can be obnoxiously loud and the wait can be long on the weekend so go during the week. My staples are the fennel salad, wood grilled calamari, and the margarita pizza.
Posted by: Jon | Jun 26, 2008 at 11:00 PM