The Washington Post
By Tom Sietsema
Washington Post Magazine
Sunday, October 19, 2003
**** (of four stars)
There are three delicious reasons to keep Galileo restaurant in your BlackBerry. One is the bargain lunch menu served in the bar on weekdays-meatballs on polenta from a famous chef for $7! Another is the dining room behind it, the source of dishes like smoky octopus set on corn puree and Barolo-sauced venison. If I'm feeling flush (really flush) and want to toast a special occasion, however, I head to the small and handsome Laboratorio del Galileo in the back. As its name suggests, this space is chef Roberto Donna's showcase for whatever is in season and whatever he's inclined to cook. He and his crew scour the market to see what looks good in the morning and return to the Laboratorio's exhibition kitchen in the afternoon, where they spend the rest of the day thinking up ways to keep you well fed through the night-the ever-changing menu stretches to include an amazing 12 courses, after all. One recent evening turned out roasted duck liver with peach sauce; celery root soup poured into a bowl decorated with blood sausage, garlic chips, pancetta and crisped onions; tiny and delicate ravioli filled with sausage and apple, the pasta lapped with veal jus; and extraordinary risotto crowned with sweet diver scallops ..... just for starters. During the show, Donna welcomes guests to come forward and see what he's working on-never mind that he is cranking out pasta or removing a salt crust from a baked branzino. Everything about dinner here is carefully orchestrated, from the intelligent wine service to the first-class cheese trolley. And only one detail ever gets repeated, swears the chef: It's bomboloni (fried doughnut balls), arriving just before the check, to send you home on a high.
