Pulcinella Italian Kitchen

We used to drive from Capitol Hill to Pulcinella restaurant in McLean long before we moved to northern Virginia. It wasn’t uncommon to drive on a Sunday evening to avoid the large crowds on Saturday evening. After a while we used to drive in for lunch. It was quieter and we got just enough for leftovers. We always got soup, salad, lasagna and usually chicken Parmesan. We tried the pizza a couple of times. The bread was also very good! It was the last place we had lunch before my mom passed away. Then the pandemic struck and we hadn’t been back. Since that time the restaurant closed and moved to another spot not far away. It’s a smaller space, but still has the same menu items that we liked. So for the first time in a very long time we ordered pick up from them last week. It was a Friday night and the few tables were filled. And there were several customers waiting for pick up. We got our order and brought it home. It was exactly as it was before. We hadn’t had lasagna for a while. There are places that you go for dinner that you’re not sure you will go back. We will definitely go back to pulcinella. Too bad we still won’t go inside for dinner. I’m not sure when we will ever be comfortable doing that again. 

Pulcinella Ristorante in McLean

On Old Dominion Drive in McLean, Virginia is Pulcinella Ristorante. We are always on the lookout for a reasonably decent Italian place because we love pizza and all things pasta. In Milwaukee we always went to Palermo Villa. In fact we had a surprise fiftieth birthday party for my husband there all those years ago! There are several italian restaurants on Capitol Hill, but they are typically needlessly expensive, and sometimes we prefer taking the short drive to McLean along the George Washington Parkway. We noticed the place several times when we drive that way, which is quite often. We go to McLean Family Restauarnt every Saturday for brunch. So we finally tried it out the other day and liked it. It's obviously been around for quite some time. The decor shows it. But the wait staff and food was worth having again. We took home some of the lasagna and chicken Parmesan, and a half loaf of delicious bread was thrown in. We will go back and try the pizza. So glad we found it!