Dante's charm inspires poetic feast

A beautiful white house on the top of a hill in Great Falls houses a charming restaurant named after the thirteen-century Italian poet, Dante Alighieri. Two of the ground floor rooms have been turned into gracious dining rooms decorated in shades of soft green. Upon entering, you feel as if you're attending a friend's dinner party. This feeling is heightened by the greeting of a solicitous host, the bustle of waiters in black tie and tables dressed with white tablecloths and flowers.

You're only brought back to reality when you spot the small bottle of extra virgin olive oil on the table. It's a nice accompaniment to the crusty bread nibbled on while you peruse Dante's extensive menu.

The menu emphasizes pastas, seafood and meat entrees. A risotto dish with sausage, mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes is the addition here.

By Helen Westwood Dante Ristorante 1148 Walker Road Great Falls, VA 22068 Tel: 703 759 3131 Dinner appetizers range from $7.95 to $8.95; Entrees (including pasta) from $13.50 to $21.95. Rating System: One to five stars

Begin the meal with the sauteed portobello mushrooms. Portobello mushrooms are often grilled or sauteed with a little olive oil just like a steak and even resemble a small steak on the plate. This one, served with a white wine sauce, was fine eating. The half-order of spinach ravioli with cream tomato sauce and sage was very rich. The half-order allows you to tread lightly while enjoying this dish. The fried calamari were not as tender as expected but tasted very good and came simply presented with half of a fresh lemon. Lemon juice on this dish is all it requires. Other recommended openers include mussels marinara, smoked tuna and the classic Italian starter, buffalo mozzarella with tomato, olive oil and fresh basil. Dante also offers salmon, swordfish or beef carpaccio. There are probably thousands of recipes for pasta. Dante carries a half dozen or so, but the variety is perfect for this course in its own right. It includes fettucine with smoked salmon, linguine with mussels, shrimp, squid, sea scallops, tomato sauce and plump agnolotti filled with ricotta cheese and spinach. All pasta dishes are available in half-orders as appetizers.

The seafood dishes are mostly either grilled or sauteed, and several are done with a white wine sauce. Our tables' order of grilled Dover sole was only satisfactory. A whole red snapper baked with a lemon sauce was memorable. Both whole fish were brought to the table for inspection before being taken away to be filleted. The snapper fell apart and was not the prettiest dish when set before me but it was positively delicious. The accompanying broccoli and eggplant was barely warm. Other seafood temptations include grilled swordfish, sea scallops sauteed with balsamic vinegar and mushrooms and monkfish sauteed in white wine sauce with spring onions.

Veal scallopini is offered as variations on a theme - either with lemon and white wine sauce, prociutto, sage and white wine sauce, or with ham and mushrooms cooked in marsala wine. A couple of interesting offerings are braised quail in a chestnut wine sauce and a wild rabbit dish cooked with olives in a wine sauce. Dante offers a roast rack of lamp for two, a grilled New York steak and filet mignon. The breaded veal chop specialty topped with fontina cheese turned out to be tough.

We had to ask the waiter for the dessert menu. He came to our table promptly after our entrees were cleared and offered us coffee. Desserts are definitely work ordering, though. They include the familiar and popular Italian items such as tiramisu and cannoli and my own sweet indulgence, a very agreeable lemon tart.