Caruso's Grocery
Italian restaurant · Capitol Hill ·
Classic Italian-American red-sauce joint with house-made pasta
Classic Italian-American red-sauce joint with house-made pasta
"The specials at this Italian American staple in Southeast are incredible right now; I was getting serious pasta envy on my last visit. Even as I tucked into a spicy, seafood-heavy fra diavolo that hit all the comforting notes I wanted on a windy Monday, I kept stealing bites of my dining partner’s baked ziti: creamy melted mozzarella blanketing rigatoni in a delicious red sauce with a little zing of spice. My pescatarian partner was especially gleeful because most zitis include ground beef, but this vegetarian version still delivered hearty flavor. I also sampled (and took home most of) the seasonal cavatelli with delicious sausage and roasted tomatoes that tasted like a sleeper hit. If you’re a cookies-and-cream lover, there’s an Oreo cheesecake on the specials, along with a Caesar-topped chicken cutlet held over from the summer because it was so popular. The regulars still shine, with semolina-dusted calamari and creamy burrata with basil pesto as perfect starters." - Tierney Plumb
"There's nothing like a place where you can joyfully shout across the table and maybe spill tomato sauce on your new white shirt, and that’s why we come to Caruso’s Grocery. The always-busy Italian-American restaurant is inspired by old-school spots that peddled everything from parm to prosciutto and served heaping plates of pasta in the center of it all. Caruso’s plays up its affection for them with black-and-white photos lining the walls, tables tightly packed together, and a bar stocked with affordable red wines. Expect a menu full of comfort meals, like saucy pork meatballs, sides of spaghetti marinara, and warm garlic bread." - Team Infatuation
"Dining at this Italian restaurant in Capitol Hill feels like entering a world where bad days don’t exist. Diners are snugly packed into tomato-red cushioned booths, trading in the day's passive aggressive emails for zesty lemon-butter chicken piccata and rich and velvety blood orange crème brûlées. The restaurant is always bustling with regulars who know to book weeks in advance so as to not get stuck eating dinner at 9:30pm. But it doesn’t really matter when you eat—or what you eat, because each bowl of truffle butter alfredo and spicy seafood tagliatelle is here to remind you that while not every problem has a solution, pasta is always there to make it just a little better." - omnia saed, allison robicelli, mekita rivas
"Even the most dreaded talks are tolerable at Caruso's. We’re not saying that dinner with your parents will automatically lead to a bad conversation, but it’s nice to know that if it does, it’s not hard to tune out over a huge plate of delicious Italian comfort food. The Capitol Hill spot serves all of the expected classics, including a pasta alfredo that’s smothered in a creamy truffle butter and a blood orange creme-brulee that might be one of our favorite desserts in the city." - omnia saed
"There's nothing like a place where you can joyfully shout across the table and maybe spill tomato sauce on your new white shirt, and that’s why we come to Caruso’s Grocery. The always-busy Italian-American restaurant is inspired by old-school spots that peddled everything from parm to prosciutto and served heaping plates of pasta in the center of it all. Caruso’s plays up its affection for them with black-and-white photos lining the walls, tables tightly packed together, and a bar stocked with affordable red wines. Expect a menu full of comfort meals, like saucy pork meatballs, sides of spaghetti marinara, and warm garlic bread." - madeline weinfield
