Restaurants in Rome

M

Martin Langer

Martin Langer
Hello all,
I'll be in Rome for a few nights this April, and am looking for suggestions for some restaurants/wine bars to check out... Thanks in advance for your collective input!

-Martin Langer
 
originally posted by kirk wallace:
originally posted by Matteo Mollo:
such a fucking lurker....:)
Click to expand...

Martin, I found the search function on here to be very helpful for a very similar quest that I was on in November.
Click to expand...

hrmm. at the moment I am not finding the search function to be helpful.
 
originally posted by Martin Langer:
originally posted by kirk wallace:
originally posted by Matteo Mollo:
such a fucking lurker....:)
Click to expand...

Martin, I found the search function on here to be very helpful for a very similar quest that I was on in November.
Click to expand...

hrmm. at the moment I am not finding the search function to be helpful.
Click to expand...

Must be early onset senility on my part. I probably was searching some other site. This place is relatively famous and very much frequented by tourists and locals; we found with even broken italian and expressing an interest in their wines, the attitude and service improved dramatically. The kitchen is solid; the cantina is excellent.

Loading…

www.enotecaculdesac.com

much further afield, with a more limited, but high quality and offbeat, wine selection is Taberna Recina, on the via Recina; the food is excellent (very limited menu, but extremely high quality), only a few tables, a good handful of wines by the glass and you can drink anything the owner has on the shelves for almost no mark-up. http://www.tabernarecina.it/

If you are in the historic center -- or the fashion shopping center -- and need a refuge, Palatium is a nice place to get away from the crowds for a glass or 2 of Lazio wine and some snacks --or a full lunch upstairs.
 
Some suggestions:

Cul de Sac (already mentioned) is specially recommendable in good weather in order to sit in the terrace outside versus the tiny tables inside + you can smoke.... Near piazza Navona, in the Pasquino square. Good salumi and traditional dishes

Heinz Beck runs a true 3* in the Cavalieri Hilton. List is modern oriented but with some surprises

Checchino dal 1887 is one of the reat offal restaurants in the world. On one of the slopes of Monte Testaccio, just oppsite Rome's old slaughterhouse. Memorable wine list with old wines and real bargains

Colline Emiliane: true bolognesa and bollito mixto in this wonderful trattoria. So-so wine list

Some ups and many downs in starred Agata & Romeo (just 1 visit, though)
 
Roscioli. Nights only, solid list, great food. Cinta Senese salumi and lardo, Joselito Gran Riserva, etc. Sensitive types have complained about service, but I haven't found it to be an issue.
 
This is very good news:

Loading…

www.parlafood.com

The chef-owner here (Lucio Sforza) is an incredibly intense fellow with great skill and passion. I first had his food at his orignial resto in Orvieto --thanks the the Slowfood Osterie d'Iatlia -- and then again this past November at the place he opened in Rome (virtually the suburbs) after he closed the place in Orvieto. It was an odd location and an odd room whose decor turned off a lot of people -- I actually didn't mind it all becasue his food is so good. Now that he's in Monti, there is no reason not to eat here. (The wine list is likely to be very simple; probably only wines from Umbria -- and not the good ones, unfortunately.) Nonetheless, the cooking is so good, so honest and traditional (he's always tryign to discover and bring back recipes from the 15th and 16th century while updating them with the highest quality and freshest ingredients, but keeping as much integrity from the original as possible.

(Btw, FWIW, Agata e Romeo, mentioned above, with its 1 michelin star, was -- admittedly based on only 1 dinner there 4 or 5 years ago -- not only the worst meal I have ever had in Rome, it may have been the worst I have ever had in Italy since I was backpacking while in college. If you take price into account, it would win that prize hands down.)

By the way, do try to fit "Tradizione" in. http://www.latradizione.it/
 
originally posted by Joel Stewart:
trastevere...anyplace without a wine list will be memorable
Click to expand...

I'm staying in the trastevere... and I'm intrigued by your comment.. can you elaborate at all??

thanks to the rest of you for your input
 
originally posted by Martin Langer:
I'm staying in the trastevere... and I'm intrigued by your comment.. can you elaborate at all??
Click to expand...
I think he means that you should seek out an unpretentious little cucina, and that you will eat wonderfully there even though there are no big-name ingredients on the menu nor a thick cartes des vins.

Some years ago, my partner and I enjoyed such a place, Peccati di Gola, but it is definitely closed. Another place used the name, so maybe it was the same people? I don't know.
 
originally posted by Martin Langer:
originally posted by Joel Stewart:
trastevere...anyplace without a wine list will be memorable
Click to expand...

I'm staying in the trastevere... and I'm intrigued by your comment.. can you elaborate at all??

thanks to the rest of you for your input
Click to expand...

I'm sure plenty of places in Trastevere with great wine lists would/will be memorable too, but when I was there (several yrs ago, to be honest) Trastevere was just starting to get trendy, so the working class/day laborer type osterias were plentiful and a lot of fun. Carafes of red or white, or beer, hot food, fresh ingredients, inexpensive. You should be able to tell...if their real busy, it's probably pretty good. Of course, this sort of recommendation is nearly anti-gourmet, but if you hit the right place...
 
Others have mentioned Cul de Sac, a short distance from one corner of the Piazza Navona. We enjoyed the good, simple, well presented food with a wide selection of wine. The weather was good so we ate outside in the small area provided under parasols. We found it conveniently located for lunches when walking around some of the key sights in Rome.

We went to several restaurants for dinner within a short distance of our hotel on the edge of the Borghese Gardens but for a treat, the Mirabelle [1* Michelin in 2009] at the top of our hotel was worth the expense with great views from the restaurant, particularly the terrace which ran right along one side.

I tried to post photos to give some idea of the interior of Cul de Sac to show their extensive shelves of wine, and the terrace of the Mirabelle restaurant and its interior plus the view across part of the boundary of the Borghese Gardens to St. Peter's but I obviously haven't learned the
 
Inside Cul de Sac: a view of some of the extensive wines available

09theCuldeSacwinebarrestaurantPiazzaPasquinoatthebottomofthePiazzaNavonaRomeA-1.jpg
The following photos hopefully give some idea of the interior, the terrace and the view across part of the boundary of the Borghese Gardens to St. Peter's.

09TheMirabellerestaurantSplendideRoyal40thweddinganniversaryRome036.jpg
09TheterraceoftheMirabellerestaurantSplendideRoyal40thweddinganniversaryRome028.jpg
09ViewfromtheMirabelleRestaurantandourbalconyattheSplendideRoyalRomeB-1.jpg
 
Nigel, this forum uses real HTML (with pointy brackets) not the sanitized-for-mortals version (with square brackets).

So, each picture above is coded thusly:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top