Sfizi Cafe

This place has come a long way, since it’s beginning. The food has always been great, but the service used to be inconsistent and slow. The owner is friendly and knowledgable. If you don’t see it on the menu, simply ask, they might be able to pull it together for you. The wine selection is fabulous, as well as mamma’s cookies!
I have eaten most things on the menu,
Veal, chicken, steak, salmon, pasta, apps, desserts, and salads. We really enjoy the food and atmosphere.
If you have been here before and haven’t been in awhile, give it another shot… The food and service are great.

This is my family’s favorite local restaurant. My kids always order the tortellini with cheese sauce, and they never leave a bite on the plate. I tend to stick to pastas, but the pizza here is excellent too. Tagliatelle with shrimp is my favorite. My wife and I frequently end up eating half of each other’s entrée just because we can’t decide which one is better.
Sfizi features a great wine selection. You just pick a bottle and they charge a $ 10 corkage fee. It tends to be significantly cheaper than the markup at most restaurants.

When you walk into a restaurant at 12:45 PM on a Friday and it’s practically deserted, that should tell you something. After eating my lunch, I knew why. The food is perfectly fine; it’s the HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE that would prevent me from ever coming back. The first strange thing I noticed was on the menu– they charge you $ 1 extra if you want your panini heated. What??? I would have left at that point except that my friend and I were short on time.
I asked our waiter about the lunch special, where you get to pick two out of four items. One of the choices was a mini cold panini. I offered to pay extra to have the mini panini heated and the waiter refused. He pointed to the menu and said «The mini panini that comes with the lunch special is served cold. If you want a hot panini you have to order a regular size panini.» Okay, that’s just bizarre in my book.
The waiter was very brusque as he took our orders, walking away so quickly that my friend had to ask him to come back so she could order an iced tea. Despite the fact that there were only 4 other customers in the entire restaurant, the waiter failed to check on us after he brought our food and didn’t refill our water glasses. We had to chase him down to get the check.
The final straw was no hot water in the ladies’ room sink. I hope the men’s room has hot water at the sink otherwise the waiter and cook aren’t washing their hands properly.

Visited this restaurant the other night and had a wonderful meal. The staff was very friendly and provided great service. The food was very good with a nice selection of pasta, salads, seafood and Italian entrees. Our meals tasted very fresh and flavorful, especially the eggplant parm. Our dessert and coffee at the end was also great

Zero points for Attitude. Customer service. Civility.
The menu: «All panini are served on a sub roll. Cold panini are served with lettuce, tomato and our homemade dressing. OTHER BREAD CHOICES: ciabatta, focaccia or baguette.»
Nonetheless, a simple question about about bread substitution drew … attitude, and an impromptu lecture on Italian pronunciation.
Your experience may differ.

I love this place for many reasons. It’s authentic. The food is excellent. The staff is helpful and friendly. They have great wines and desserts that you can buy and take with you (it’s also an Italian market). I stay at a hotel right next door and visit Sfizi every time I come to town.

Always amazing! We love the food and the excellent service. These people really truly care about their customers.

Great local Italian place in falls church. We ordered the mushroom ravioli and spaghetti w/​meat balls. Both tasted good and satisfied our Italian craving for the night. Inside is very clean and cozy. Didn’t have room for dessert but they had some good looking pastries on display that I will have to come back and try

Food is great. Waited about 40 minutes to get our food ! Attentive friendly waiters. A little pricey or at least the antipasto (appetizer grilled calamari) was — $ 12 for about 100g (3.5oz). I personally prefer restaurants where they specify weight on the menu –just like steaks– because you can figure out sharing. Corking fee is a little high considering ur buying the wine from their in house shop in the restaurant. Definitely good place to eat if ur fine with the long wait.

Third time there. Was impressed with food quality and service. Not tonight, arrived on Saturday evening. Host noted long wait to sit inside so we offered to sit on patio.
From that moment on we were on a forgotten island. Had to tap on window to get service inside, despite seeing multiple open tables inside.
Food arrived, over cooked tortelini and undercooked scallops, not a good match.
You would think being the only customers sitting outside on a brisk evening that they would have offered coffee or amenities. Not a chance.

I love finding niche spots affordable enough to visit everyday if desired. With its calming Italian music, incredible wine selection, and delicious food — Sfizi is the best place to be for lunch, dinner, or both ;) So glad I found this place!

What a wonderful experience! Reminded us of the places we frequented when we were dating 40 years ago. Great food with wonderful service in a building with stucco flowers all over it. The owners are friendly and made sure we had I good time. Sat outside on a nice summer summer night. Couldn’t get any better!

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER! This review is specifically based off of the absolutely horrible service my mother and I had there tonight. We didn’t even get to the food.
When we were sat down we were handed food menus but did not receive a wine list. I had to wait about 5 min before I could catch a busboy and asked for the wine menu. Word to the wine snobs: they only have a list of wines by the glasses, not a list of all of the bottles in the restaurant. I was instructed to walk around the restaurant to view the different wines if I wanted a bottle. Now this could be a charming aspect of the restaurant except their bottles are so low to the ground that I basically had to kneel on the ground to see all of my options. I’m 5’11 so you can imagine that is not a simple task. Also, it would be great to just see a list of bottles and not have to work for my wine. Plus if I had wanted to walk around a wine shop I would have gone to the Swirl&Sip or any other wine shop in the area.
Before I could decide on a bottle the waiter kept telling me the prices of the wine I was looking at insinuating that I would not be able to afford a nice bottle of wine. I was insulted at how I was treated by the waiter. Little did he know that I was trying to take my mother out to a nice dinner and treat her to a great experience. She works hard and deserves to be treated well. Unfortunately, I wasn’t treated like I could even afford a glass of water.
Once I chose a bottle of wine and finally had the opportunity to review the food menu (almost 20 min later) he tells me there is a $ 10 corking fee. If I had brought my own wine I would have been fine paying it. No big deal. HOWEVER, I basically had to work to pick out my own bottle of wine, get down on the floor to even see the descriptions, was treated like I couldn’t even afford air and then he tells me in order to open the bottle of wine in front of me it was going to cost ten extra dollars. I would have rather had the restaurant incorporate all of the fees in one price so I didn’t have to deal with a corking fee. It would also be nice if the waiter wasn’t extremely rude and condescending in the process.
After being treated horribly, my mother and I decided to leave the restaurant without even eating. I had read all of the amazing reviews on Unilocal about their food (which I didn’t even get to try) and was thoroughly disappointed by the service. We ended up going to Pizzeria Orso that had half off bottles and delicious food!
As a long time Falls Church resident (going on 30 years now), I have never had an experience in one of our restaurants like I did tonight. This place needs to do better if it is going to survive the tough restaurant market in this area. Also, treating people like people wouldn’t hurt either.

SIMPLY AMAZING!!! I am here from California on business and SFIZI Café is two doors down from the Hilton Garden Inn. Everything we tried, from the starter salad to the main course pastas had a truly fresh taste. We dined outside on the patio and Giuseppe was our waiter. Excellent service!!! Thank you. The owner, Lino Ricciardi, came out to greet us and explained that all of the Chefs were trained by his 88 year old mother in Italy. That explained A LOT as to why everything was so delicious. They have their own herb garden growing outside and it’s not just for looks… its yet another reason for the high quality of food that is flavored just right. Can’t wait for my next trip to the area to visit again. Try it out locals. You won’t be sorry!

Nice little neighborhood Italian joint, understaffed but the gentleman that served us was nice with his genuine Italian accent.
We ordered the pizza which was really good, the soup of the day was a lentil soup which was also savory.
Would love to come again for their wines and maybe a pasta trial.

So this was the second time we’d tried the food. First time was takeout. I was cautiously optimistic the first time but waited till we went in person to review. We were not disappointed! I am so happy to have discovered this local neighborhood gem. I grew up near Buffalo in an Italian American family and am always disappointed when I go out for rustic Italian food anywhere else. Finally a place with good sauce! Finally! I could kiss the cook. Everywhere else I try seems like they add sugar to the sauce. This place had great food and reasonable prices.
We had the grilled calamari appetizer which was delightful, not chewy at all, caprese salad (wife is picky about caprese and loved this version), the homemade gnocchi in meat sauce (incredible!), the eggplant rolatini (stuffed with ricotta and baked to yummy goodness), and tried the grandmother cake and a gelato for dessert. Not disappointed. Even our 3 yr old, who never eats, ate the bread in the dipping oil, ate some of my appetizer salad, ate the calamari (yes, you heard that right), and a bunch of the gnocchi.
We were there on a light Thursday night with maybe four other tables, but our service was excellent, and never had to wait for a thing. Wines by the glass had a marvelous selection. And the little store had a nice selection of Italian wines and dry goods. We will most definitely be back. I look forward to sitting at the patio!

This local family run Italian restaurant is one of my husband’s and my favorite places for dinner in Falls Church. The food is nothing that you wouldn’t expect from a decently authentic Italian restaurant, and portions are generous, which suits us well! What really sets this place apart for us is the welcoming atmosphere. The staff always seems genuinely happy to see you, and it seems that Sfizi has built a following for convivial family gatherings, parties of eight or more, because of their family style options and air of celebration no matter the occasion.
Their outdoor patio is cozy, and you may not even need to wait to be seated there on a Friday or Saturday evening. The restaurant happily welcomes pooch companions to join you on the patio. One word of note, they are not open on Sundays! Plan ahead so you won’t be disappointed.

I’ll give this place one thing — they are consistent
Food is decent, service is horrible. Waiter never grunted more than one word to us the entire visit, and then gave us the wrong bill. When we tried to get it corrected, we had to push back with a manager.
I keep hoping they’ll improve the service, because it’s one of the better Italian places in Falls Church.

I initially went in to check out the Italian grocery, and ended up staying for dinner. The atmosphere is pretty casual (you’re basically dining in a gourmet wine shop). They have an awesome wine selection, and all of the wines are from Italy. Their pasta is made in house, they have fresh baked Italian cakes and cookies, buffalo mozzarella, and the menu all seemed pretty authentic. The avvoltini di melazane (rolled baked eggplant) was very good, rich, cheesy, and seasoned with italian herbs, and I loved the grilled calamari with a light lemon flavor and just enough charcoal grill without being overcooked or rubbery. I had no issues with the service at all, as others described. The waiter was great at recommending what to order, and was very friendly and helpful. The grocery area isn’t that large, but they have a lot of difficult to find Italian imported ingredients, including deli meats, olives, and cheeses.

So I LOVED this restaurant until I went there to celebrate New Year’s Eve with a group of friends. The food is amazing and the wine selection is some of the best you’ll find in the Washington D.C.-area. However, our experience (this time) was awful. One of our friends leaned back in the chair and the broke it. Our group laughed about it and proceeded to enjoy our meal… until the owner came over and asked «How would we like to settle up on the chair?» We thought he was kidding! (Seriously, if that had happened at any other restaurant, our meal would have been free!) Needless to say, our waiter and manager talked the owner out of charging us, but we’ll never go back – which is unfortunate because half of the group that went live in Falls Church and love that restaurant!
It was one of the more interesting New Years Eve I’ve had in a long time…