Please check my list of eateries for next week's visit to Rome
We're going to be in Rome for 3 lunches and 3 dinners (Thursday- Saturday) and we have the following list. It has been a few years since we were in Rome, and we ate almost exclusively in Testaccio last time we were there. Luna Piena, Tutti Frutti, Checchino - we did make it to Tram Tram for an outstanding meal by the university.
We are looking for nice family run trattorias, nothing too showy or constructed (I think this is anathema to good Italian food) and we certainly want some classic wintry dishes. Last time we were in Rome it was late May/June.
Here is our unedited list - please advise.
la campana
ninco nanco
settembrini
fernanda
lo sgobbone
liberatrice
Ditirambo
Remo (non negotiable - we're going for lunch on Saturday - love this place)
crescenzi
le mani in pasta
By chemfemme
on Nov 23, 2009 10:28 AM
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As far as I know, very few of the places you name are family owned and operated. The only unreconstructed, old-style trattorie on your list are, I think, La Campana and Lo Sgobbone. Finally, I don't know any eating establishments called Liberatrice or Crescenzi; I know both as street names: Piazza Santa Maria Liberatrice (where Remo is) and Salita dei Crescenzi (where Da Armando, which *is* a family-owned trattoria, is).
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Zerlina: on a recent post, someone said le Mani in Pasta was not as good as it was. Do you have any opinion on its status now? We will be in Rome in 10 days and would like to put it on our list of places to go.
Also looking for info on Tempio di Iside. An Italian food article praised Tempio for its exceptionally fresh seafood and it appears they have a 55 Euro prix fixe seafood offering, but I have not been able to find any further info. Do you know of this place and whether it is worth a visit?
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I'm afraid I can't help from personal experience with either. I saw that about Le Mani in Pasta, but I haven't eaten there recently. I've never eaten at Il Tempio di Iside. For what it's worth, a food blogger in Rome with whom I find myself agreeing more often than not liked the food but not the antics of the owner or the less than transparent pricing (and it seems the prix fixe was 52.50 Euro in June):
http://puntarellarossa.blogspot.com/2...
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The puntarellarossa article is where I first heard of Tempio di Iside and its description of the seafood offering is appealing. Since I do not read Italian well enough to understand the rest of this article, I am not sure what the "antics of the owner" were, though I think it has something to do with his beating a drum and/or tambourine in the restaurant during meals. Is that what it says? If so, does your blogger think this is a normal thing one would encounter at the Tempio (was he the one to write the Puntarella article)? If so, it could be offputting to have one's dinner disrupted in this way.
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There's nothing there about drums or tambourines. The owner cracks jokes in dubious taste and blatantly pushes a Calabrian wine.
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Zerlina - you're right about the Liberatrice - but I have it as the street that Ditirambo is on. And Da Armando is on our list. In any case - do you have any other suggestions?
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Ditirambo is on Piazza della Cancelleria, just north of Campo dei Fiori. I really don't like to make suggestions, but Trattoria Monti (on Via di San Vito near Santa Maria Maggiore) is a family-run trattoria that almost always gets excellent reviews. It's not Roman cooking, though, but the cooking of Le Marche. Reservations necessary.
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When we were in Rome last month, we had our last meal of the trip at Trattoria Monti - the cuisine was very fine , the handsome young men in the front of the house pleasant but our meal left a bad taste despite some excellent dishes - we definitely felt the burden of being onetime visitors and non-Italian speakers, which manifested in not receiving the menu of the day (they gave us an english standard menu - I had to go out in front of the restaurant to see what the day's dishes were (I guess they may have thought we didnt care, or couldnt handle a recitation, since all of the printed menus were in English) - getting served LONG after everyone else, not getting all the dishes we had ordered (they didnt bring either the flan I had ordered as an appetizer or the puntarelle salad) and getting a reduced wine pour on by the glass wines. The crowd there was convivial and Im sure if we had made a repeat visit our treatment would have gotten much better, but it was our last day in rome and what I had hoped would be a peak experience turned out to be a bit of a depressing disappointment. It you do go their ravioli dish with the egg yolk is particularly delicious.
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