I've mentioned Dino here before. It's a great mid-range Italian restaurant that has very good food at reasonable prices. And the occasional "everything but the quack" ten-course duck dinner. But this past weekend marked the first time we had been there for brunch. We had just finished a strength training class at Stroga, so we were famished. Dino has a deal where you get three 'courses' for just $25, and we both went for that. It's not really a three course meal, since one of the courses is 'mimosa', but it's a pretty solid amount of food. I ordered a cheese course, with a blue cheese and a truffled goat cheese, and the peposo, and my wife got the burrata and the perch.
The appetizers were fantastic. The truffled goat cheese tasted like real truffles, not nastyfake truffle oil. And the blue cheese was nice, rich and pungent. The burrata was smooth and milky. The mimosas were excellent as well, with fresh squeezed orange juice and better than average sparkling wine. Sadly, the entrees weren't quite as good. Both I thought were better than average, but the short rib wasn't anything I couldn't have done at home, and the perch was somewhat dry. We enjoyed it, but given the logistical difficulties of getting to Dino from Columbia Heights, I don't know if we'll be back.
