Rome Dining Report, Oct. 2012
 

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.

Thanks for the recommendations - we will make use of them!

Thanks for your report. We are planning our trip to and I am saving your remarks.

Thanks for the useful 411

Great report - thank you. We love Armando & hope to try L'Arcangelo on our next visit.

yes thanks, tuscanfeedlit.

it amazes me that it is possible to eat so well in Rome so relatively cheaply.

Oh, of course you're welcome.

annhig: the no booze thing helps keep the price down. We are sort of big eaters but without wine or coffee the bills seems to stay low.

(We don't have coffee at dinner because we are both old and sensitive to caffeine and are afraid of decaf.)

annhig: the no booze thing helps keep the price down. We are sort of big eaters but without wine or coffee the bills seems to stay low.>>

tfl - I can see that. from my point of view though, a moderate amount [interpret that how you will!] enhances the experience, but I agree that it does add to the cost.

a standard espresso doesn't though. and I gather that freshly brewed, in such small quantities, it doesn't have as much caffeine as you'd think either. it is the coffee in a pot that is kept warm which apparently delivers the largest caffeine hit.

I appreciate the recommendations. We have a reservation at Armando al Pantheon one evening and may try La Campana. Where is that exactly? We are trying to eat in whatever area we are exploring.

thanks for the dining tips!!! now if I could just figure out a way to organize ALL these great tips I have collected....have been saving to a pages document, which I now see is over 200 pages!!!

Good to hear Armando is still that good! I had gorgonzola gnocchi there in 2007 which was to die for. I'll be going back in May, it looks like!

mmmooommm - I have a similar document! So many places - so little time

Thanks for the recommendations.