Rome Dining Report, Oct. 2012
May 8th, 2013, 01:27 PM
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Rome Dining Report, Oct. 2012
Since I didn't get much in the way of recs for Rome here, I thought I would post this in the hope that others can use the information.
Using mostly Chowhound, and the excellent Rome dining bloggers there, we planned our meals in Rome for the third week of October 2012. I say “planned” but the planning mostly consisted of making a list of restaurants that seemed to suit our tastes and budget, and then making some rather late reservations.
The Rome bloggers on Chowhound.com had a big influence on our choices, as did a few Italy travellers whom I’ve been following on CH for a long time.
Being a bit late at making reservations, none more than 5 or 6 days in advance, we didn’t get a few of our choices, but we did enjoy every meal we had and would go back to each restaurant.
At each place, except for L’Arcangelo, were we ate the first night, a Wednesday, we saw numerous people turned away. I do mean numerous; some of these had a steady flow of potential diners turned away while we ate. I was happy to have reserved and would totally recommend doing so in Rome.
This was one of our best eating trips to Rome and I thank those helpers for all the tips and recommendations.
L’arcangelo: this was the most refined of the places where we dined but because we were tired, didn’t drink wine, and didn’t order dessert (although I wish I had) the bill was about 56 euro for two. We got an amuse of a fried spinach and eggplant meatball which was delicious. My husband ordered the fried appetisers and I had the foie gras served with some fig jam and a touch of balsamic vinegar. The foie was served stacked on some odd biscuits that I didn’t like, sort of reminded me of teething biscuits, but otherwise it was delicious and what I wanted. Both of us followed our appetisers with Amatriciana, and it was very good.
The next night, we had dinner at Armando al Pantheon. We both had Carciofi a la Romana, followed by gnocchi. My gnocchi were in a tomato sauce and my husband’s were in gorgonzola sauce. We split an order of grilled lamb chops and a piece of their torta. This was a great dinner. We enjoyed it so much that we reserved for our final lunch while we were there. The bill was about 70 euro without wine. We did order one or two bottles of bubbling mineral water at each meal.
On Friday, we ate at La Gensola
Some time has now gone by, and illness has interrupted my reporting and my memory, but this meal was very good. However, service was hideous. We received the wrong dishes for both primi and secondi and had to beg twice for our dessert. This was also our most expensive meal; with no wine or alcohol, three courses for two was 111 euro.
La Campana: we ate here on the Friday night. We each had a Carciofi Giudia, which is one of our favorite dishes. Very delicious. I had rigatoni with a coda vaccinara sauce, and it was excellent.
Perilli: one more very good meal. My husband had the coda and I think I had ravioli. Sadly, I cant remember, but I do recommend.
Our final lunch was at Armando al Pantheon. We had an evening flight, and we were very happy to have a nice lunch before a tedious night of airports.
Even though a few months have gone by, I did want to post this because each place was very very good and I don’t always find such consistency in Rome.
Finally, our apartment was across from Gusto, and we went in one afternoon for a cheese plate. The cheese was nice, price was OK, and staff were very friendly to us. We are geeky and old, and don’t drink, but we were treated as well as were the many chic, young, wine drinkers there.
Using mostly Chowhound, and the excellent Rome dining bloggers there, we planned our meals in Rome for the third week of October 2012. I say “planned” but the planning mostly consisted of making a list of restaurants that seemed to suit our tastes and budget, and then making some rather late reservations.
The Rome bloggers on Chowhound.com had a big influence on our choices, as did a few Italy travellers whom I’ve been following on CH for a long time.
Being a bit late at making reservations, none more than 5 or 6 days in advance, we didn’t get a few of our choices, but we did enjoy every meal we had and would go back to each restaurant.
At each place, except for L’Arcangelo, were we ate the first night, a Wednesday, we saw numerous people turned away. I do mean numerous; some of these had a steady flow of potential diners turned away while we ate. I was happy to have reserved and would totally recommend doing so in Rome.
This was one of our best eating trips to Rome and I thank those helpers for all the tips and recommendations.
L’arcangelo: this was the most refined of the places where we dined but because we were tired, didn’t drink wine, and didn’t order dessert (although I wish I had) the bill was about 56 euro for two. We got an amuse of a fried spinach and eggplant meatball which was delicious. My husband ordered the fried appetisers and I had the foie gras served with some fig jam and a touch of balsamic vinegar. The foie was served stacked on some odd biscuits that I didn’t like, sort of reminded me of teething biscuits, but otherwise it was delicious and what I wanted. Both of us followed our appetisers with Amatriciana, and it was very good.
The next night, we had dinner at Armando al Pantheon. We both had Carciofi a la Romana, followed by gnocchi. My gnocchi were in a tomato sauce and my husband’s were in gorgonzola sauce. We split an order of grilled lamb chops and a piece of their torta. This was a great dinner. We enjoyed it so much that we reserved for our final lunch while we were there. The bill was about 70 euro without wine. We did order one or two bottles of bubbling mineral water at each meal.
On Friday, we ate at La Gensola
Some time has now gone by, and illness has interrupted my reporting and my memory, but this meal was very good. However, service was hideous. We received the wrong dishes for both primi and secondi and had to beg twice for our dessert. This was also our most expensive meal; with no wine or alcohol, three courses for two was 111 euro.
La Campana: we ate here on the Friday night. We each had a Carciofi Giudia, which is one of our favorite dishes. Very delicious. I had rigatoni with a coda vaccinara sauce, and it was excellent.
Perilli: one more very good meal. My husband had the coda and I think I had ravioli. Sadly, I cant remember, but I do recommend.
Our final lunch was at Armando al Pantheon. We had an evening flight, and we were very happy to have a nice lunch before a tedious night of airports.
Even though a few months have gone by, I did want to post this because each place was very very good and I don’t always find such consistency in Rome.
Finally, our apartment was across from Gusto, and we went in one afternoon for a cheese plate. The cheese was nice, price was OK, and staff were very friendly to us. We are geeky and old, and don’t drink, but we were treated as well as were the many chic, young, wine drinkers there.
May 8th, 2013, 03:16 PM
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Thanks for the wonderful report! I am obsessed with Armando Al Pantheon since our visit to Rome in July. Loved the simple, uncomplicated food. And the fact that it seemed popular with lots of Italian families/politicians.
