Restaurant in Washington DC, United States
Hand-rolled pasta, $$ prices, OAD-ranked.
A Michelin Plate trattoria from the Fabio Trabocchi group, Sfoglina delivers regionally specific, hand-made fresh pasta at a $$ price point that makes it one of Washington D.C.'s most reliable casual Italian options. Ranked in Opinionated About Dining's top casual North America lists in both 2024 and 2025, it's worth booking for lunch any weekday or dinner Friday–Saturday. Easy to book, strong on value.
If you're weighing Sfoglina against Washington D.C.'s higher-end Italian options, the math is direct: this is a $$ trattoria that punches well above its price tier, with a Michelin Plate recognition and an Opinionated About Dining ranking of #525 in Casual North America (2024), improving to #754 (2025) in a larger competitive field. For fresh pasta executed with regional precision at a price that won't require a business expense account, Sfoglina is the right call. If you want the full Fabio Trabocchi fine-dining experience, that's Fiola. If you want pasta without the occasion overhead, book here.
Sfoglina is named after the sfogline, the northern Italian matriarchs, typically from Emilia-Romagna, who mastered the craft of hand-rolling fresh pasta. The premise is specific: the menu is built around hand-made pastas drawn from multiple Italian regions, executed at a trattoria price point with visible craft. There is a working pasta station in the dining room, which tells you everything about the kitchen's priorities. This is not a red-sauce restaurant or a pan-Italian crowd-pleaser. The regional specificity is the point.
The room has energy. It runs cheerful and lively during service, with the kind of ambient noise that comes from a full, happy dining room rather than a design failure. If you are looking for a quiet, intimate setting for a serious conversation, the atmosphere leans louder than calm, particularly on Friday evenings when the kitchen runs until 10 PM. For a working lunch on a Tuesday or a relaxed early dinner mid-week, the energy is easier to manage. The whimsical Sophia Loren portrait on the wall signals clearly: this is a place that does not take itself too seriously, even when the cooking is serious.
For a diner returning for a second visit, the move is to go deeper into the pasta selection rather than default to what you ordered before. The OAD write-up specifically flags the three-pasta tasting option as a way to cover more regional ground in one sitting, which is particularly useful if you want to understand the range without committing to a single format. From the documented menu, that means regional contrasts like Emilia-Romagna's tortelloni in rosemary cream against Le Marche's herbed goat cheese ravioli, alongside Roman bucatini carbonara with guanciale, pecorino, and black pepper done as it should be.
Washington D.C. has no shortage of Italian restaurants at higher price tiers. Masseria operates in a different register entirely, as does Obelisk, which has been making the case for simple, rigorous Italian cooking for decades. L'Ardente and Cucina Morini offer their own takes at different price points. The question Sfoglina answers is whether you can get technically serious, region-specific pasta in D.C. without paying fine-dining prices. The answer, backed by two consecutive OAD Casual rankings and a Michelin Plate, is yes.
For context on what a Michelin Plate means: it signals food worth a detour but below the Bib Gourmand and star tiers. For a $$ trattoria, that recognition is meaningful because it confirms the kitchen is cooking to a standard that justifies the trip. The OAD ranking in casual dining is arguably the more relevant credential here, since OAD skews toward exactly this category: places where serious eaters go without the formal-dining framework.
Globally, fresh-pasta specialists at casual price points are a rare category. 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana in Hong Kong and cenci in Kyoto represent what Italian cooking looks like at the fine-dining end of the spectrum abroad. Sfoglina is not in that tier, nor is it trying to be. What it offers is a different but coherent proposition: craft-focused, regionally grounded pasta, priced for repeat visits.
Lunch is the stronger call for most diners. The kitchen runs Monday through Friday from 11:30 AM, which means you get the same pasta program at likely lower cost and in a calmer room than Friday or Saturday evening. If atmosphere and energy matter more to you than a quieter table, Friday dinner runs until 10 PM and the room will be at its most animated. Saturday is dinner-only (5–10 PM), so if you're booking a weekend visit, plan accordingly.
Yes. The working pasta station gives solo diners something to watch, and the trattoria format is well-suited to eating at your own pace. At a $$ price point, it is one of the more affordable ways to eat well alone in D.C. without feeling the pressure of a tasting-menu format or a formal dining room. The three-pasta tasting option is particularly well-suited to solo visitors who want to cover range in a single sitting.
A few days is typically enough for a weekday slot. For Friday evening or Saturday dinner, aim for one week out as a safe margin. Sfoglina is rated easy to book by Pearl, and with a Google rating of 4.4 across nearly 1,000 reviews, it draws consistent traffic but not the reservation-war pressure of Washington D.C.'s tasting-menu restaurants. If you're flexible on timing, walk-in attempts at lunch mid-week are reasonable.
The venue data does not confirm a dedicated bar-seating option, so this is worth checking directly when you call or book. The trattoria format and visible pasta station suggest an open, sociable room, but we would not book with bar seating as the plan without confirming availability in advance.
At a $$ price point with a Michelin Plate and two consecutive Opinionated About Dining Casual rankings, yes. The value case is strong: you are getting regionally specific, hand-made fresh pasta from a kitchen associated with Fabio Trabocchi, who operates at Fiola at a significantly higher price tier. For a casual lunch or relaxed dinner, Sfoglina gives you more culinary precision per dollar than most comparable options in D.C. If you want to spend more and get a fuller Italian fine-dining experience, Masseria or Obelisk are the logical next steps up.
Lunch is the practical play if you want flexibility: Sfoglina opens at 11:30 am Monday through Friday, giving you access to the full pasta program without the evening competition for seats. Saturday is dinner-only (5–10 pm), and the restaurant is closed Sundays. If the pasta tasting is your goal, either service works — but lunch on a weekday is the easiest time to walk in without a wait.
Yes. The working pasta station gives solo diners something to watch, and the trattoria format at $$ pricing removes any pressure to justify a table. The three-pasta tasting option is well-suited to solo visits — it's a structured, self-contained meal that doesn't require company to make sense.
Book at least a week out for weekday dinners; Friday evenings and Saturday dinner slots fill faster given the shorter Saturday window (5–10 pm only). At $$ pricing with OAD Casual recognition two years running, this draws a consistent crowd. Weekday lunches are your best shot at a same-day or next-day reservation.
The venue data doesn't confirm bar seating specifics, but the trattoria format and working pasta station setup suggest counter-adjacent options are worth asking about when you book. Call or check directly at 1099 New York Ave NW — bar availability at restaurants this size typically depends on the night.
At $$, it's one of the stronger value cases in D.C.'s Italian category. OAD ranked it #525 in Casual North America in 2024 and #754 in 2025, and it holds a Michelin Plate — credentials that would typically sit two price tiers higher. Compared to Masseria or Obelisk, you're getting regional Italian pasta with real craft at a fraction of the cost. The three-pasta tasting is the move if you want to benchmark the kitchen.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
