Right before spring break I met up with my friends Marla and Pander to go to dinner at Piero’s Corner. Piero’s Corner opened recently in The City of Fairfax where Carlos O’Kelly’s used to be. I love Italian food, however, I typically don’t venture out to new Italian restaurants and just stick to the ones I know well in the area like Villa Bella in Burke. You can tell it used to be a Mexican restaurant before transforming into an Italian restaurant, but the décor inside was nice and the service was good.
We started out with an order of calamari, which was prepared the common way: floured, deep-fried and served with lemon wedges and spicy marinara sauce for dipping. Pander does not care for seafood, but Marla and I enjoyed it. The waiters also brought out a basket of bread with olive oil and herbs for dipping, which was much better than what you normally get at a mid-range Italian restaurant.
For my entrée, I selected one of my all time favorites — eggplant parmesan. Piero’s Corner takes a different spin on this traditional dish by lightly breading thinly-sliced pieces of eggplant, flash frying them and rolling up a mixture of ricotta and other cheeses inside to make something comparable to a manicotti with eggplant rather than pasta. The eggplant parmesan was served alongside garlic linguine and homemade pomodoro sauce. The serving was perfect for someone who was pretty hungry but also big enough to pack up half and have leftovers for lunch the next window.
Marla also had a pasta dish as her entrée. She ordered the Maine lobster ravioli, which was a dish I had considered ordering but just tasted hers to see how it was. The ravioli is filled with fresh lobster, which was tasty on its own,
but then it is covered in a rich, yummy vodka sauce and is topped with arugula. Though it looked like a heavy dish to eat, it tasted great and I recommend it.
Pander ordered a brick oven pizzette (which I’m assuming is just a smaller version of their other pizzas). She chose the genove, which is a white pizza,topped with basil pesto and fresh mozzarella. It is also topped with fresh arugula, but against Marla’s and my suggestion, Pander asked for it without the arugula. I didn’t get a chance to try a bite, but it looked good. Their pizza and pizzette menu offers a wide variety of topping combinations for diners to choose from if they’re in the mood for a pie.
There were many other options on the menu, including entrées featuring fresh fish, sandwiches, calzones and a variety of meat dishes. They also offer a gluten-free menu and serve brunch on Sundays. As far as I know, they do not offer Mason students a discount, but they do send out coupons in the mail from time to time. and the full price of their entrées is fair.
I wish I had room for dessert because I’ve heard their cheesecake is good, but I couldn’t bring myself to eat another thing. Perhaps on my next visit, I will save room for a sweet treat after my meal.
I had a great time indulging in some classic Italian cuisine and catching up with my friends. Until next time, I’d rather be eating…
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