Extra Virgin

The only reasons for giving Extra Virgin in Shirlington, VA 2 stars, is for the string quartet that was playing on the Friday night that we visited and for the white wine sangria which may have been the best I’ve ever had.
We waited for our table with our kids in the bar while listening to a very pleasant band. We really had high hopes for our first visit based on our sip of the sangria and because the restaurant is attractive and was bustling on a beautiful, spring evening.
We were seated at a pleasant patio table and the anticipation grew.
The dipping sauce that arrived with the bread was yummy with ground up olives, spices and olive oil, but the bread was the fluffy, white, italian dollar loaf variety found in any supermarket bakery. I started to get worried.
I ordered a beet salad that had butternut squash and gorgonzola. The dressing was much too salty for my taste, and I think goat cheese would have been a better match with beets and squash. The gorgonzola just added more salt.
The portabella raviolis that I ordered was also overwhelming flavored with salt. There was just a scant of cream sauce which was, as you may have guessed… too salty, and it could have used some wine. I also think they took «al dente» to a new level that should be called «leathery» because the pasta on the ravioli was tough.
As for the pizza my husband ordered… my kids didn’t even like it. The toppings were all scantly applied and it was even on the cold side.
My kids spaghetti with meatballs (prepared with angel hair pasta) tasted the best of any of our food.
Service was friendly but sluggish and our young children received their food several minutes after my husband and I were served.
Needless to say, we may have one reason to return: after-​dinner drinks in the bar with the fabulous band.
UPDATE: Seems they’ve closed since I first wrote this last year.

I really wanted to like this place, but it feels like an upscale olive garden…
The antipasto reminded us a little too much like low quality lunch meat.
The meatballs weren’t bad, but a little dry.
They were out of the clams for the linguine, so I opted for the Florentine Portobello. All you need to know is that it was basically Alfredo soup. WAY too much sauce. This place is more like an average chain restaurant than a legit Italian place. The service was quite good, but it couldn’t compensate for the sub par food.

We came here back in ²⁰¹⁰⁄₂₀₁₁ and the food/​service/​live music were great, but what I did not like was half of the restaurant was smoking while the other have was «non-​smoking.» News flash — just because half of your restaurant is non-​smoking it doesn’t mean the smoke from the front half isn’t traveling to the «non-​smoking» half.
If smoking bothers you, give them a call first to see if they’ve eradicated this policy yet.

This has a pretty good brunch. Everything we got was fresh, hot, tasted good, and everyone’s food around looked just as good. We will come again. Plus our 11month old son like the place so much he decided to eat the bread and throw the rest on the floor. Next time we gotta try there lunch and dinner. Go try it you won’t regret it.

This place was great! My boyfriend and I went here for a nice dinner out and liked everything we got!
They had a great deal where you can pick an app, salad, entrée and dessert for $ 40, NO exclusions! It was nice not to have to worry about what I could and could not pick.
I chose the lobster/​crab mac and cheese, the goat cheese salad, the 12oz. veal and bread pudding for dessert.
The lobster mac and cheese was delicious. A good sized portion (got to take some home) with wonderful flavor (truffle oil was great). I had to stop myself from eating the whole thing with all the other food coming!
The goat cheese salad was fine, normal. Nothing to rave.
The veal was nice. It was served with pasta, cooked carrots and squash. It had nice flavor and was enjoyable.
Didn’t even get to the bread pudding (took it to go!) because I was so stuffed.
The boyfriend got the mozzerella triangles (glorified mozzerella sticks). He LOVES mozzerella sticks and said these were very good. I thought they just tasted like mozzerella sticks :)
For his entrée he got Sunday Sauce. He loved it! I didn’t get to try any but it did look quite yummy.
Their bread and oil/​kalamata olive mixture was delicious! Definitely unique and different from the normal oil you get. YUM!
This was an enjoyable meal in a nice, quiet setting. We sat right along the window, so that was nice as well! We’ll definitely be back!

We hadn’t been here in a while and it’s been updated a bit with drapey curtains and new chairs, altho’ we understand they will do more stuff soon like a new floor. Anyway, we went for the food early one Saturday evening before going to the movies there in Shirlington, didn’t mind the new décor and were pleased with our two pizzas (actually we could have shared one, we didn’t realize they were so big!). I had spinach and brie and hubster had chicken (which had a lot of cheese). Very tasty, crust was crunchy though the fillings a bit on the oily side. The waiter was very helpful and professional. I ordered a martini straight up with a twist of lemon and it was served dirty! The olive taste and lemon just don’t mix. So asked for correct one and it was served without ado. The expresso coffee was just fine too, although not very strong. Hubster ordered an Italian beer, Peroni, and they didn’t have it (!) so he got Yuengling instead. While it was $ 50 for two drinks and two pizzas, which came with iced water and warm foccacia bread, it was fresh and appealing and we’re likely to go again as we occasionally go to the movies here and need a snack beforehand. I did find it odd that both our drinks orders had «bumps.»

Jeez I ate out like 5 times this weekend.
If you’re coming here on the Living Social, they haven’t updated their Brunch Menu on their website… FYI.
Anyway, this place was alright. Ordered the hot chocolate (powered, unfortunately) and got charged a dollar more than it was listed on the menu, but I noted that to the server so hopefully they fix it. Not a lot of substitutions… no smoked salmon… or anything… except like spinach… for the eggs Benedict, for instance :-(and in general, there weren’t a lot of choices of protein for the brunch menu.
Steel cut oatmeal: pretty good. Came with raisins, strawberries, and this brown sugar that was… probably crack, I couldn’t stop eating it. (with the oatmeal, duh)
Egg/​potato scramble: delicious. It was a little heavy on the cheese, but everything in it was really. Careful with the metal wok/​thing that it comes in – super hot. It was good though because it made the potatoes crispy.
Egg panini: pretty good, kinda plain, and was basically… an egg sandwich. It came with a slice of watermelon, some cantaloupe, and 2 pieces of pineapple… bare.
Service was alright. For some reason, everyone else got bread, and we never got any at our table. what gives. The girl came around and said, «How is everything. Great? Good» and walked away again… I didn’t even say anything back. It was not that busy in there…
This place was decent… Might come back to give it another chance.

In the words of Dan’s review… Some good, some bad.
The good:
– Service was great.
– Ambiance was great.
– Loved the patio.
– Lobster and crab mac and cheese was great. Very nice tasting without the overwhelming fishy flavor. It was subtle which made it a perfect dish. What made it even better is we used our Unilocal check-​in and got it for free. They offer a free appetizer. Utilize this! It would have added $ 9 to the bill. It would have been worth it though.
– Our meals were tasty. Everyone liked what they got. Personally, I the House Gnocchi that came with ricotta cheese gnocchi, braised beef with a porcini mushroom sauce for $ 17. The ricotta cheese taste was subtle and the meal itself is extremely earthy. If you like that kind of stuff then this is the meal for you. I thought it was okay, but probably would get something different next time since this isn’t the exact fit for my taste pallet. The meal was good though and definitely worth trying if you’re into this kind of stuff.
The bad:
When we first arrived there was this EXTREMELY OBNOXIOUS Italian (pseudo Italian maybe) man who greeted us. Our server told us he was a friend of the owner and that he was helping ‘consult’ the place. Yet, he was acting as the host. He was very overbearing and unpleasant. If anything I think he was causing a hindrance and chasing off patrons more so than bringing them in. When he stopped by our table and decided to strike up a convo with us, we just couldn’t get him to shoo away until our server saw how uncomfortable we were and intervened by asking if we needed anything. Once he got then hint, she made mention that his presence was making a lot of her tables uncomfortable. I hated it for her that she had to deal with man who really doesn’t have a solid place at a restaurant such as this.
I really do hope the owner or manager sees the Unilocal review and will make a point to either:
1. Get rid of the nuisance altogether or 2. Tell him to tone it down a bit.
You really can’t miss him. He has wild wavy untamed dark brown hair and he wears tight formfitting clothes. Did I mention he is loud? Oh yeah, that too. Very loud.
Extra Virgin, you would have 4 stars from me if that man did not exist in your establishment. Just sayin’.
Hopefully next time he won’t take away from the meal as he did this time around.

First visit:
It was a while ago so excuse the length/​detail, it matches my memory:
I went on a weeknight, it was faily slow. I ordered a pizza (no pork) and it was pretty good. The electricity went out toward the end of the meal, the servers scrambled to get us all additional candles and so forth. Good job and thanks. The waitress told us we didn’t have to pay for our pizza due to the electricity and we were free to go. I dropped 15 bucks as a tip and rolled out. Score!
Second visit:
Friday night, toward the end of the rush. They seemed to have changed it up a bit, I don’t remember a band or an emphasis on wine… maybe cause it was Friday? Oh well, the ambiance was great on the restaurant side.
We were seated promptly. Server came promptly. Drinks were prompt.
The bread was late/​delayed and showed up after my mac/​cheese/​lobster/​crap thing.
Ordered food as we finished up the mac/​cheese combo thing.
Wife had the salmon salad and water, flavorful and she enjoyed it. Next time I would say easy on the red onions please.
I had the salmon bow-​tie pasta and a soda water. Pretty decent, good portion of salmon to pasta ratio. Tasty. Again, less red onions please.
The prices were a little high, like 50+tip and we didn’t have wine or alcohol.
But it’s Shirlington and you pay for that and the ambiance and so forth so not a bad deal!
The bonus is that there is a small AMC theater there and it is super slow, dinner and a movie where you got the theater basically all to yourself ain’t bad. Although the theater is kind of run down… but that is for another review.
Extra Virgin, I shall return.

Some good, some bad… overall average. Stopped by for a Shirlington Restuarant Week lunch. The two offerings were better than most of the crap places offer for RWs: Spinach salad and Penne pasta /​/​or/​/​Beef & Barley soup and a Sausage Calzone.
I went with the salad/​pasta and it was actually very good. Although they came on the same plate together and the pasta was only in a small bowl so their wasn’t a whole lot of it.
When dining out there are little things that speak to how well the restaurant really cares about the quality of the food they serve… or not: for instance, we received some slices of italian bread at the table — it was obvious that it was old and/​or re-​warmed because the top was soft but the bottom was rock hard and crumbled into dust if you attempted to eat it. They also poured (what I assume to be) pre-​mixed olive oil and balsamic vinegar for the bread. The balsamic vinegar was curdled and it was completely disgusting. Seriously, why not have 2 bottles and mix @ table. It was gross.
If you’re really hungry at lunch they also have an all-​you-​can-​eat pasta for $ 12 which also comes with a salad and a dessert. Not all pasta dishes are included but there are about 5 or 6 which sound good (you can mix&match).

Extra Virgin’s food is only on the fair side of good, especially considering the prices. It was deserted the night we went, and the service was attentive and friendly if really poorly trained.
However.
There was a mouse scurrying around the floor of the dining room. We watched it for about 20 minutes as it darted from underneath the bench to a table and back again. I understand that restaurants sometimes get mice, and didn’t freak out about it, but when I told the manager he just sighed and offered a half-​hearted apology, then told us that mice are a problem there because of the way the restaurant disposes of its trash.
Which, I don’t know, seems kind of like a weirdly laissez-​faire attitude towards vermin in a restaurant?

I was contacted by the owner following my poor experience at Extra Virgin. She was incredibly apoloogetic and very kind.
We went back last night — the food was great and our service was outstanding. The restaurant has a great ambiance and amazing food. I am so happy our second experience was so great. Looking forward to coming back again.
Thank you!

I LOVE the olive dip for their bread. It’s sooooo good. My girlfriend loves olives and she is in love with the dip as well. It’s just amazing. If we can just buy the dip, we definitely would. The bread is also baked fresh so it’s nice and warm and sucks up the oil very well.
The food otherwise was decent. I got an appetizer that had manilla clams but it seems to be different as compared to their current menu (I had gone several months back). I remember it actually being too salty for my taste. I actually don’t remember what I had for my entrée, but I figured I just had to give them a 4 star for now just because of their bread. I’m sure we’ll be back again :)

Meh. I’ve experienced better. That pretty much sums up my impression of Extra Virgin. Want to know more? Okay, here’s the long version…
We tried Extra Virgin several years ago, once for Valentine’s Day and another time for lunch. Both experiences left me with a «Nice, not thrilling, but nice…» feeling. When they offered a Groupon for $ 35, I saw as a good opportunity to give it another chance, but third time was not a charm.
After arriving for a 6PM reservation, we were quickly seated, so far so good. Then we sat for quite a while before anyone came over to our table. After five minutes or so, someone came with bread and an olive and olive oil dipping sauce who I thought was our waitress, but it was just a runner who smiled and walked away when I said thank you to her.
It appeared our waitress was responsible for our table which was by the bar and another set of tables way on the other side of the restaurant. Not her fault at all, but I knew that meant we would have slow service tonight.
For starters, we got a mixed green salad with tomatoes, pine nuts, grated carrot and balsamic vinaigrette and a cup of tomato basil soup, both were $ 6. My salad was good, but nothing fantastic and certainly nothing I couldn’t have made better at home. In fact, there were both chopped and shredded carrot, which was weird. The tomato basil soup was nice though, very flavorful.
I got the «Sunday Sauce» which was billed as meatballs, sausage, and pepperoni in a marinara sauce over rigatoni. There were two small meatballs and three thin slices of sausage as far as I could tell and no discernible pepperoni. The rigatoni was overcooked past al dente and there were bits of angel hair pasta mixed in as well, and there wasn’t a lot of it. In fact, I dare say I had more sauce than the pasta and meat combined. Speaking of the sauce, it was a mess. There were three or four whole canned tomatoes in it that were not crushed at all, huge chunks of garlic, I had to spit out some woody rosemary stems, and a ring of greasy oil rimmed the bowl. Everything tasted «okay», but I expected pasta with meat and sauce, not sauce with a bit of meat and a little bit of pasta.
My wife got the «Sicilian chopped salad with cured Italian meats». We were both expecting antipasto in salad form with meats and cheeses, olives, pepperoncini, etc. over lettuce. Instead it was just sliced deli salami, mortadella and provolone that had been chopped over lettuce. I could have gone to the Italian Store and gotten a bag of lettuce at the grocery store and done better. Again, it tasted okay, but for $ 14 we expected better.
The bill came to $ 44 for a salad, a cup of soup and two entrees. While the flavors were okay, the execution was amateur and way more expensive than it should have been. I’ve eaten at plenty of «ma and pa» Italian restaurants that could do just as well but for much less. Value wise, I would say the starters should have been $ 4 and the entrees $ 10. Looking at their web page, their lunch menu seems a lot more reasonable, so if I went back it would be for that. Otherwise, Extra Virgin is trying to make itself out as a high-​end Italian restaurant with high end prices that aren’t justified.

I feel like Extra Virgin is right on the cusp of greatness, but stumbles a few steps away. It has all of the earmarks of a successful restaurant, hot neighborhood, nice décor, attentive staff, and engaged management. the problem is the uneven quality of the food.
Came here for dinner during restaurant week and had the 3 course meal. First, out came the bread which was accompanied by pureed black olives and olive oil. TO DIE FOR. A little tangy, very smooth texture, and extremely flavorful without the usual bite from black olives. Love it.
Appetizer were the Angry Mussels. A huge heap of mussels in some lightly salted broth that they were cooked in, with some slices of jalapeño and ham. A little spicy, and just a pleasure to not only have a decent number of mussels to work through, but so good. I looked around and saw some of the other tables, and can conclude that this was by far not only one of the bigger starters, but surely the best one.
Entrée was the chicken carbonara. Good jesus this was weak. The sauce was thick and mostly flavorless with some chicken chunks thrown in. I greatly regretted this unsuccessful attempt at one of my favorite pasta dishes.
Desert was the Tiramisu. Pretty good if you bought it at Giant, very sad if you came to a decent restaurant and paid good money. Not recommended.
Overall, Extra Virgin has the potential for making you a very satisfied diner, I hope this is a case where they are just late bloomers and will in time come around.
NOTE: My father’s red wine was warm, and the waiter acknowledged that it was because there was a warm air vent above where they store their wine, and that this wasn’t the first time he had complaints on that. Hold on a second, you know it’s a problem, you know that wine spoils in the heat, but you’ve done nothing to correct the problem??? Hell, cover up the vent with cardboard, or just move the wine to another spot! At the very least, the manager comped my father for that glass, which was undrinkable so that’s the least she could have done. Really, she should also have offered him a free glass of something else.

Made my first trip ever out to Shirlington, which was quite cute, for this groupon and was pleasantly surprised.
App — triangles with mozzarella — very good
Main (1) — salmon with gorgonzola gnocchi — salmon was about average, but the GNOCCHI was some of the BEST PASTA I have EVER HAD!
Main (2) — pizza — the bf thoroughly enjoyed it and it was enormous
Dessert — pumpkin bread pudding — delicious!
Nice little getaway from DC and good prices for what you get — ORDER THE GNOCCHI!

Unpredictable service, mediocre food. But when it’s good, it’s good. Delicious salads and the meatball appetizer rocks your tastebuds. The gnocchi with beef is also incredibly tasty.
Give it a try and maybe you’ll get there on a good night.

We used a Groupon coupon.
Bread was too hard and the olive oil/​olive mix is overrated.
Appetizer:
Stuffed Dates — gorgonzola cheese, pine nuts and fresh sage, wrapped with prosciutto (these were pretty yum but the prosciutto was a little chewy)
Entrée:
Sunday Sauce Pasta (Linguine with meatballs and sausage — what the… so bland!!! Sauce no flavor, meatballs no flavor, Sausages two kinds again no flavor)
Spinach and strawberry salad (Pretty mainstream)
Dessert: (They had about 10 desserts to select from)
Marscapone cheesecake (nothing great)
Nutella ravioli (nothing great)
The service was very good but the food was not. Nice ambience and great wine selection. But the food was very overpriced.

This is my new favorite Shirlington restaurant. This is a great place to meet up with a friend or a small group to catch up. Extra Virgin has a very nice cozy ambience that will keep you chatting away. It never seems to packed when I have walked by. The service is great.
Some of the food is incredibly rich, like the type of food you crave when you’re either cold or depressed or just need a pick me up. I had a gorgonzola filled purse (pasta) with cream, peas and bacon. It was decadent. It was offered as a special so I am not sure how long they will offer it. It was an appetizer portion, and the only pasta served in that sized portion and I still had half left to take home. I also had a chopped salad with lettuce, tomato, red onion, parsley and fontina cheese in our creamy garlic-​parmesan dressing. It could have used more salt but was not drenched in dressing. The bread and the dipping olive tapenade were amazing!!! My friend also enjoyed her cripsy cobb salad with lettuce, tomato, red onion, parsley and fontina cheese in a creamy garlic-​parmesan dressing.
Overall, my friend and I were both extremely satisfied and were happy with our dinner choice. And we definitely plan to be back maybe for some dinner again or just some bread and tapenade, wine and some mousse for desert. The one downside is that this place can be pricey. Entrees and salads with meat range from about $ 17 — $ 25.

I’ve only been here for happy hour. Seemed like a pretty nice classy place to hang out… but then again so do most of the places in Shirlington. It’s been a couple of months since I was last there, but nothing really sticks in my mind as memorable.
I’d like to go back and try their weekday express lunch buffet or their weekend brunch.