The Village of Shirlington has many fine restaurants, and the Curious Grape fits right in. Any restaurant that can get me to eat Brussels sprouts has something going for it. Being able to scale food and wine portions is quite helpful and economical. The kitchen is maturing, the wait staff is helpful and well trained, wine offerings are extensive, and the atmosphere is welcoming. Nice combination. The owners will probably stop by your table to check on things and are quite receptive to any comments/questions you offer. The Curious Grape has serious competition from its neighboring venues, but seems to be settling in to its own personality.

We live up the hill and go to this place pretty regularly. The wine list is rotating and has wines by the half and full glass in case you don't want to commit. They also have a pretty good selection of beers on tap, so they cater to all tastes. The food here is fantastic and seasonal. We've had dinner and brunch, as well as many snacks. Great cheeses too. My only complaint is that it's a little expensive. We tend to stop by for a wine and cheese because it's a bit pricey to eat there all the time. They have been getting packed lately, so reservations might be worth it on the weekend evenings.

We dined here on Saturday night, party of 4. We had a reservation for 7:00pm and arrived about 7 minutes early. Although there were plenty of tables available, we were told that we could not be seated until exactly 7:00pm, which was very strange and no one seemed to be able explain why this was so. After we were seated, it was explained that this place used to be a wine store only, but that it was converted to a restaurant so that they could pair good food with good wine. Nice concept, but it was ill-conceived. The problem is that, because the kitchen was an afterthought, it is EXTREMELY SMALL for the number of tables in the restaurant. This is a major problem because the kitchen absolutely can not keep up with the number of tables on a busy Saturday night. For example, it took nearly 45 minutes to get our appetizers. Then, it took an additional 1.5 hours to get our entrees. 1.5 hours!!!!!!!!! This is not an exaggeration. The kitchen was completely overwhelmed and when we glanced around the restaurant absolutely no one had food on their tables and everyone looked starved. I can't stress how TERRIBLY SLOW the kitchen is. That said, the food is quite good and our server was very nice and knowledgeable and apologized profusely for the slow service. It wasn't his fault - we realized that. We will NOT go back here until they improve their kitchen. We have NEVER experienced wait times like this after patronizing restaurants in the DC area for over 13 years. Will not return.

Decent food in a wine shop. Carlyle Grand down the block is far superior. Average. Currently overrated.