Travinia Italian Kitchen: Style to Spare but Lacking Substance

By URIAH KISER

My wife and me celebrated Valentine’s Day a bit early and went to Travinia Italian Kitchen and Wine Bar on Wednesday night.

It’s one of several new restaurants that have opened at Potomac Town Center next to Wegmans grocery store. It’s a nice place to meet and greet, and the service was awesome, but I wasn’t too impressed with the food.

First off: the short, fat glasses. Loved ‘em. In fact, my wife and I are looking for replacements for my collection of pint glasses I collected during my formidable years. The drinking glasses at Travinia fit right into the palm of your hand and were perfect for a soda, the glass of water I ordered, or would be great for use as a non-stemmed wine glass.

Both hungry, we each ordered a Caesar salad before our meal. Because the kitchen has a great large window that allows guests to peer inside for a behind-the-scenes look at how their food is made, we saw our salads being prepared. But whoever made them skimped on the dressing leaving it rather dry. I’m still hard-pressed to find a restaurant that can make a better side Caesar salad than Sweetwater Tavern.

Next, it was on to our meals. I had the Pollo Isabella, which reminded me of the Chicken Bryan at Carrabbas – a chicken breast topped with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, basil, served over a bed of baby spinach in a lemon butter sauce for $15. While it sounded good, unfortunately, it wasn’t. The chicken was overcooked and crusty in some places. And the butter sauce tasted more like straight butter, conjuring up the taste of movie theater popcorn. Some butter sauces I’ve had in the past were matured and browned, but this tasted and looked more like melted butter. 

The goat cheese, when mixed in with all the other flavors, did little to save this dish.

My wife had the Sinatra Chicken also for $15 (with a name like that how could you go wrong, I thought). I had a bite of the chicken topped with mozzarella, cream sauce, and cappelinni. We both agreed the chicken on this dish was tasty, but the pasta that came with it went under seasoned, and reminding us of the salads we had just had.

The one thing that was great, overall, was the loaf of bread that came before the meal. While Travinia hasn’t mastered the art of the olive oil dipping sauce which is better served at Carrabbas and Bertucci’s, the bread was a nice touch.

Overall, great atmosphere, prompt service, but the food needs work.