For The Locals - Fontina Grille

 The Fontina Grille is located in Rockville, Maryland. They serve Italian cuisine featuring many different pasta and pizza dishes. 

We both started our dining experience with house salads. The dressing had a strong olive oil taste that Courtney loved but Ed described as meh. The cucumbers were not fresh at all.  

Ed next ordered the carbonara pasta with grilled shrimp added on. The flavor of the pasta was good but really just because anything with bacon tastes good!! The sauce tasted more like an Alfredo than traditional carbonara which made it really thick and heavy. The shrimp were over charred from the grill. All and all a pretty average dish.

 

Courtney ordered the penne con broccoli that includes sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil, and topped with parmesan cheese. She added grilled chicken because we believe pasta dishes should always have a protein. The chicken though was a little disappointing. It was pretty dry and flavorless. The olive oil in this dish tasted slightly spicy which was a little strange and unexpected in our opinion. The sun dried tomatoes and broccoli were pretty much the star of this dish. 

The dessert menu was also pretty underwhelming. We did decide to order the chocolate cake dessert which was not bad and presented nicely. But overall the cake was good, not great. Clearly not a freshly made whipped cream or cake. 

 

We also experienced extremely slow service which didn't make the experience any better. We were there for over two hours and Ed had to get up eventually to just find our waiter. This was not our favorite Italian dining experience.