Joseph’s Italian Restaurant’s service was up-to-par, their spinach ravioli, however, not so much.
Joseph’s is a privately owned Italian restaurant located at 3013 F St.
The server informed me that most people come in for the spaghetti with meatballs, lasagna with meatballs, or the spinach ravioli. Regretfully, I chose the ravioli, although I did get a taste of my friend’s dinner, a mini-calzone loaded with meatball, cheese, sausage, and olive, and topped with a marinara sauce.
Dinner was started with an appetizer of Italian bread and a salad.
The bread was great. It tasted very fresh and soft, but not in a way that made it mushy.
The salad was my favorite part of the entire meal. Although it was quite a big salad in quite a small bowl, that did not affect the flavor. Given my clumsiness, a lot of the salad ended up in a royal mess surrounding the bowl, but what made it to my mouth was delicious.
The salad was loaded with ham, salami, pepperoni, peppercinis, olives, cheese, and lettuce.
The ravioli was given as a very large portion and the plate presentation was clean, making the ravioli look very delicious covered in marinara sauce and melted cheese. However, when I first bit into the ravioli I couldn’t taste the spinach because the marinara sauce and melted cheese overwhelmed the spinach.
The cheese was just too much and oh, so sticky! The only way to describe it is that awful feeling of having a hair stuck in your mouth.
Without the cheese and sauce, the spinach ravioli was good at first. Then, I realized, it produced something like a cardboard aftertaste in my mouth. My first thought was that they must have been prepared from a package, but my server informed me that the spinach ravioli is made in the kitchen.
The mini-calzone, however, was delicious. It’s not like any calzone from some corner pizza restaurant.
The meatball, sausage, and olive made for a trio of deliciousness. The crust on the calzone was crispy but not overpowering. It was refreshing to cut into it and see more toppings, not just loads of crust. It was an excellent crust-to-topping ratio.
The staff of Joseph’s was attentive to our needs as guests, but not so much as to bother us. They were friendly and helpful to all questions.
We began our dining experience rather close to closing time, but they were never rude about us staying later. I realized that we ended our meal about a half an hour after closing time and were never made to feel bad about, which is how it should be.
Although I would not recommend the spinach raviolis, I would definitely recommend Joseph’s Italian Restaurant.

3 Stars