"No outside bottles of wine are permitted..."

"Our menus feature homemade pastas, homemade desserts, the finest Italian imported cheeses and olive oils, and farm-to-table ingredients."

It's just what they do with the "finest Italian ingredients"..............they murder them!!!

There is a new Roman outpost of Antica Pesa in Williamsburg. We tried the one in Rome about two years ago. We were very unimpressed. They had told us then that they had opened a restaurant in Williamsburg. After about a year we somehow we ended up at this restaurant not knowing that it was related to the one in Rome. Finally a lightbulb went off and we realized we were dining with the same Roman family. The food was not good and we left dissatisfied.

Saturday night we returned to the restaurant again to give it one more chance. We went in with a very open mind. There were seven of us, so I have to say that we did have quite a variety of food on the table. Three people raved about the lasagna. And then the raving stopped. The fried fish in the center of the table was tepid and bordering on soggy. The Cacio e Pepe spaghetti was cold and although it is served al dente, this was so hard you could haves used it as a weapon. The hard sticky pasta was getting stuck in my teeth. The lamb shank had a coffee flavor, which almost tasted like a dry rub. It was not consumed, which was a dead giveaway that it was not great. Neither was the pulpo.

The service was very good, but it is difficult to devour service. We ordered an Amarone. It could be a bit tart in beginning, but this one was terrible. Our second bottle was a “super Tuscan” wine. The “best” wine on the wine list. This wine was also terrible. It never “opened up”. That was the best they had to offer. They have a lot of nerve saying no outside bottles of wine are permitted. They ought to wake up and redo their wine carte. After that we threw in the towel and gave up.

Water was good.