Family-run, Trattoria Sorrento has been a beloved player in the downtown Bethesda Italian restaurant scene since 1991. There’s really no secret to this restaurant’s longevity. Trattoria Sorrento serves mid-priced, authentic Italian fare in a charming dining room that resembles an outdoor alley in Sorrento, Italy. Bellissima.
Sorrento’s is known mostly for their pastas, risottos, and hearty meat dishes. DishingPizza was surprised to learn that they also serve pizza. Always on the lookout for a diamond in the rough, DishingPizza eagerly anticipated a stealth-boffo pizza.
Alas, DishingPizza is no Shackleton, and the DMV pizza scene is no Antarctic. DishingPizza acknowledges that local pizza cognoscenti have searched every nook and cranny of the DMV landscape for pizza excellence. Sadly, perhaps there are no hidden gems to be mined.1
Trattoria Sorrento’s pizza is far from a hidden gem. That said, the pizza has its merits. The Sorrento crust is delicious and unusual, firm on the bottom and airily moist on the top. However, there’s a steep price to pay for the crust’s moisture — the pizza reheats terribly, becoming a soggy mess.
With decent tomato sauce sparingly applied on top, the most disappointing aspect of Trattoria Sorrento pizza is the cheese. Heavily applied, greasy, and salty, this cheese overpowers any nuance of the crust and tomato sauce.
Thankfully, Trattoria Sorrento doesn’t bill itself as a pizzeria, nor do they even bother to picture their pizza on the website. Pizza appears on the Sorrento menu as a mostly ignored afterthought. As it should.
Trattoria Sorrento
4930 Cordell Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814
Style: New York
Pizza Quality: 🍕🍕
Overall experience: ⭐⭐⭐
Pie (16″): $22.95
Price per square inch: $0.11
- DishingPizza is stubborn like this. Intellectually aware that there are probably no stones unturned, DishingPizza still doggedly seeks undiscovered greatness. ↩︎