Helen! You’re a member of the clean plate club!” announced the man at the next table to his wife’s neatly turned-out grandmother.

To be fair, everyone at that table had eaten every last crumb of Carpaccio’s decadent chocolate ganache cake, but the lady in question had also made good work of her spaghetti and meatballs, no small feat for someone who had been in the hospital a few days earlier, her grandson-in-law explained to me. Carpaccio’s hearty offerings—and a night out with her family—was likely even better medicine than what her doctor had prescribed.

And there’s a lot at Carpaccio to make a body feel good, from the comfy, two-toned leather chairs in the autumnal-shaded dining room to the voluminous menu. Picky kids and less adventuresome eaters can munch on brick-oven pizza or classic standbys like Caesar salad and eggplant parmesan. Those with a broad range of tastes can revel in the restaurant’s namesake carpaccio (traditionally, thinly sliced raw beef, though the restaurant offers other options, like sushi-grade tuna and even sliced eggplant). Carpaccio prepares everything to order, and offers most antipasti in mezze (small) or grande (large) portions, further adding to the flexible dining experience.
The small order of belezza del mare, a plate of chilled, steamed seafood drizzled with lemon vinaigrette, overflowed with tender bites of octopus, calamari, and mussels. It could have easily served three rather than one, and a generous portion was packed up to take home.

Carpaccio is supposed to melt in your mouth, and the tenderloin prepared di Manzo Toscano did. I suppose it could be argued that white truffle oil and Parmesan cheese could make anything taste good, but these garnishes only enhanced, rather than hid, the high quality of the tissue- thin slices of beef.

Entrees were similarly rich and generous. Pappardelle bocelli was a silky amalgam of wide pasta ribbons and slow-cooked lamb ragu garnished with a sprinkle of tangy goat cheese, a slightly untraditional but nonetheless wise foil to the richness of the lamb. It, too, could have easily served two people. We couldn’t decide between the pesce spade, grilled swordfish atop crispy polenta, and branzino mediterraneo, grilled branzino “drizzled” with lemon-infused olive oil and served with escarole sautéed with walnuts and olives. The compromise turned out to be the branzino, plus a side order of polenta, the latter of which was a good match for the delicious bitter edge of the escarole. The branzino, on the other hand, would have benefited from the menu-described drizzle of oil rather than the full dousing it received.

People either love or hate the Italian cheesecake, our server told us. If you enjoy the slightly grainy texture of ricotta cheese (as I do) and the penetrating flavor of orange peel, you will love it, too. And judging from the reaction at the next table, the chocolate ganache cake is also a winner.

At the end of our evening, we left our table sated and with a shopping bag full of leftovers. We did not qualify for the clean plate club, but we had enough food to try again tomorrow.

Mary K. Zajac writes from Baltimore.