Dinner at Dino

I had a nice dinner at Dino last night in D.C.'s Cleveland Park neighborhood. It seems as though it had been ages since I'd eaten there.

My friend and I shared several small plates. One of them was a dish of marinated artichokes -- and they were excellent. Cooking or marinating artichokes can be tricky, but Dino managed to do this well.

The prosciutto-wrapped asparagus was pretty good. The asparagus was cooked perfectly. The dish would have been truly perfect if someone in the kitchen had stayed away from the salt shaker. Prosciutto is already salty so there was no need to add the amount of salt that was added to the asparagus.

The calamari fritti was mediocre. The marinara dipping sauce was fine, but the calamari tasted as though the batch I was served had been sitting around the kitchen for 15 minutes.

Wines by the glass are good here, priced fairly and offering as much diversity as you'll ever see for an all-Italian list.