Alphonse Italian Market & Osteria Opens on U Street – Looks Amazing! – Check out the menu

by Prince Of Petworth — August 14, 2014 at 10:10 am 16 Comments

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1212 U Street, NW

A little bit later than we anticipated but worth the wait! Also standby for a restaurant upstairs, looks like being called Nona’s Kitchen. This is the spot from the owner of Russia House and Biergarten Haus. Alphonse’s current hours are 6am-11pm with lunch starting at 11am and dinner starting at 4pm.

Mark this as another phenomenal transformation – remember when this was Almaz Ethiopian restaurant back in 2011 before later becoming CB 1212:

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Have a look inside at the first floor today:

After the jump check out the menu.

Anonymous

great signage!
Anonymous

It looks great but they need to get rid of the boarded up windows on the second floor, looks like it’s still under construction and not fully open
DC225

It’s going to be a great place assuming they buck the DC status-quo for Italian restaurants, which is charging $17 for 5 raviolis.
Anonymous

So wait, is there an actual Italian market where I can buy Italian food products?
- DM
  
  Right?! I thought this was going to be like the Italian Store in Clarendon. Disappointing if it’s just another restaurant.
- AMDCer
  
  Note that the sign does say “market items to go,” though it does look like the main business is a restaurant.
Anonymous

I’m dying for a good place in the area for a breakfast sandwich. Keeping my fingers crossed…
- Anonymous
  
  Look at a picture of the breakfast menu, maybe they have a breakfast sandwich on it, I’m not sure. But I would check the menu if I were you, you know, for a breakfast sandwich or something.
  - Anonymous
    
    Sorry, should have qualified that as a “decent” breakfast sandwich… hoping theirs are actually good.
Anonymous

Al Crostino has the best italian food in the U-street/shaw area.
Anonymous

OH MY GOD THEY DO BREAKFAST THEY DO BREAKFAST YAAAAASSSS
Col. Brentwood

Man, Almaz had a bad ass lunch buffet.
So disappointed!

We went here tonight with night hopes and it ended up being a total disaster.

First we asked about the sandwiches which are displayed on their large wall manures. We had to ask twice to get an answer and were finally told they are only available for lunch.

Our waiter seemed completely confused, forgot to place our order and 30 minutes after waiting for our food, he stops by our table to ask if we wanted anything else. We reminded him that we were still waiting for our food and then he asks us to remind him what we ordered, he goes away for another ten minutes and we ask him again and he tells us that another table ordered the same thing as us, so that’s why we didn’t get our order. What? If another table ordered the same thing then their would have been two of each dish created. We could all tell it was a lie but let it pass and in hopes the food would at least be delicious.

My husband ordered a $17 pasta dish and when it arrived it was 4 ravioli in a lukewarm tasteless sauce. I ordered a salad and it literally was just a handful of mixed greens in a bowl with for or five corn kernels on it. In the menu it sounded like a very appearing salad with a garnishes but I’m not sure what happened there. We all remarked that I could have bought a bag of salad at trader joes and had a better salad.

Our friend ordered a peparoni pizza (which arrived a full 20 minutes after the rest of the food for our table) we had to ask repeatedly where the pizza was and got excuses like “it’s being cut” then another 10 minutes would go by and no pizza. when the pizza finally made it to our table it was completely the wrong pizza, it was a mushroom pizza with no peparoni on it.

After we complained, the waiter comped us the pizza and blamed the guy working the pizza oven on the mix up.

We could have forgiven all of that if the food tasted good. However, all of food was bland and tasteless and we all felt that we had wasted our money. Other people in the booths looked equally as confused and people at the bar were talking to the hostess to explain their various grievances. The manager never once came by to check on us which in an opening week of a restaurant is customary.

We left feeling sad and frustrated. We live near this restaurant and had such high hopes. We wanted it to be as wonderful as the decor but we won’t be back to give it a second chance.
- So disappointed!
  
  Sorry for my iphone typos in this review!
Anonymous

Went on Friday night — was told that sandwiches aren’t served after 3 p.m, boo. Wine selection was decent, also liked that they offered 3, 6 and 9 ounce pours. That said, the pizza was meh. Will probably not try the pizza again, but will give the sandwiches a try soon.
Anonymous

As Italian, there is nothing really Italian in this place. Starting from the name: Alphonse is not an Italian name. Nobody would serve this food in Italy.

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