Closed for lunch on weekends. At one time there were many Italian restaurants on the Best Bargain Restaurant list. Now, with rare exceptions, only pizza or pasta emporiums remain. One place that manages to fit into the Best Bargain budget with room to spare is Il Pinito, a cozy southern Italian restaurant in a strip mall a block east of Rockville Pike.
Nothing here is cutting-edge, but just about everything is very good.
White pizza, with cheese or without, can substitute for the antipasto or the bread. Pastas are cooked to order and rarely overcooked. Try the simple but good spaghetti with tomato sauce, linguine with clams in a white wine sauce, and king-size ravioli filled with meat or cheese. Marsala is well prepared with good veal. Simple roast chicken is good, as are the saltimbocca and the hearty sausage and eggplant.