I must be honest that on a Monday night during torrential rains I was not excited to drive to Bethesda Maryland from my office in downtown Washington, DC for dinner. I was dreading the traffic and was thinking the food was going to be mediocre.

Well, to my surprise I arrived at Aventino Cucina and all I had imagined dissipated. I met my party and I asked them to order as they had been there before. We decided to get an assortment and share so we could taste different items.

We started with Pizza Rosa and the insalata and followed by the rockfish and pappardelle.

The pizza was flatbread with a delicious tomato herb tomato sauce, the insalata was petite romaine with a delectable anchovy sauce with parmesan crisps. The rockfish pan roasted with an assortment of spinach, yellow raisins, olives, and lemon zest.

What mesmerized me was the roasted wild mushroom pappardelle with parmesan and onion breadcrumbs. The noodles are so delicate and fine with the combination of wild mushrooms in a soothing parmesan accented ragu. It was heaven.

I was high from the food but we decided to have the dessert so we tried the dark chocolate and the Amalfi lemon sorbetto to clean our palate. The sorbetto arrived with simple sugar cookies that were divine.

The service was impeccable but friendly and our server surprised us with the hazelnut mocha parfait which was decadent but well worth the calories with the coffee mouse with the hazelnut ganache and candied hazelnuts. The whole dinner was memorable!