Saturday, February 7, 2009

Café Assorti open in Rosslyn

For something a touch exotic, without busting your budget or spending hours of your time, drop into Café Assorti at 1800 Wilson Blvd., about a ten-minute walk from the Rosslyn metro or from Westmoreland Condos. I had for dinner a beet salad, an eggplant salad, and vegetarian manti with cabbage and sweet potatoes as an entree. Yup, I like to eat. And for a total cost of $23 (which includes tax and tip), I ate a lot of unusual, fine-tasting food.

My favorite dish was the beet salad. You might remember your parents trying to force you to eat beets. Since your parents didn't have Wikipedia, they didn't know to tell you this:
How about the fact that beets can also be used to make wine and sugar? Whatever. The Café Assorti beet salad was much better than the beets I pushed around my plate as a kid. The Café Assorti beet salad is made from thinly sliced beets mixed with walnuts, garlic, and some secret sauce. The salad had the earthy, broad flavor of beets and walnuts, with a bit of sweetness and a slight piquancy of garlic. Delicious.

Café Assorti offers a variety of lunch/dinner entries for $7 to $12. Various forms of dumplings, savory pastries, and crepes are specialties. There are also straight-forward entries like pasta with meatballs and Breton chicken. Some items on the menu are changed daily, so there will always be something new to try.

Café Assorti also offers a full breakfast menu along with an espresso bar, liquor bar, sweet pastries, and serious cakes and pies. So if I haven't convinced you to have a beet salad, you could just go for a slice of metropolitan cake or chocolate tart.

Hours of service for Café Assorti are 8am to 10pm, Monday through Saturday, and 8am to 9pm on Sunday. The restaurant's telephone number is 703 465-0036, and also 703 465-0038. The restaurant opened on January 27, 2009.

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