Gallery
Inside Café Fausse
The dining room, the kitchen’s work and the evenings our guests remember.
Recognition
Awards
2026
GuideThree Plates, sixth year runningThe Potomac Table Guide
The guide's top rating, held every year since 2021: its inspectors return unannounced and pay their own bill.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
Wine listGrand Award for an Italian cellarCellar & Vine Society
For a cellar of more than six hundred Italian labels, kept in depth from Piedmont and Tuscany to the south.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
2025
ChefChef of the Year — Antonio RossiMid-Atlantic Culinary Guild
The guild's members chose Antonio for his Sunday ragù and for training four of the city's young chefs.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
Best ofTop 25 Restaurants in WashingtonThe Capitol Table
The magazine's yearly list of the city's restaurants, chosen by its critics after a year of anonymous visits.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
2024
HospitalityOspitalità Award for serviceItalian Hospitality Circle of Washington
Given by the circle for service in the Italian manner: warm, unhurried and precise.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
Wine listBest wine-by-the-glass listCellar & Vine Society
Forty wines by the glass, every one opened and tasted by Maria before it reaches the list.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
2023
- HonourRestaurant of the Year
- HonourBest Fine Dining ExperienceFoodie Magazine
ChefGold Medal, regional Italian cookingAtlantic Seaboard Culinary Awards
For the Emilian dishes on the menu, judged blind against kitchens along the whole seaboard.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
2022
- HonourCulinary Excellence Award
HospitalityHost of the Year — Maria LopezHospitality Guild of the District
For Maria's dining room: the guild cited her habit of remembering every regular's name, table and wine.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
Wine listSommeliers' Choice: Italian listCellar & Vine Society
Voted by the region's working sommeliers as the Italian list they would most like to drink from.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
2021
GuideThree PlatesThe Potomac Table Guide
The year the house first reached the guide's top rating.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
Best ofBest Italian, readers' pollDistrict Eats Quarterly
Chosen by the magazine's readers, in a poll of more than four thousand votes.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
2020
ChefFresh Pasta of the YearMid-Atlantic Culinary Guild
For the tortellini in brodo Antonio learned at nine and still folds by hand.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
Best ofNeighbourhood Table of the YearCapitol Dining Circle
For being, in the circle's words, the dining room the neighbourhood is proud of.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
2019
GuideTwo PlatesThe Potomac Table Guide
The first time the guide rated the house: two plates, in its ninth year.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
Wine listAward of Merit for the wine listCellar & Vine Society
The society's first recognition of the wine list, then barely two hundred labels.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative.
Recognitions from fictional guides, societies and polls are illustrative. Disclaimers
In their words
Reviews
Exceptional ambiance and unforgettable flavors.
A must-visit restaurant for food enthusiasts.
The Daily BiteRestaurant review