Tag: rooma 2016

 

Before we went to our guided tour of the Colosseum, we had a morning walk around the hotel area and then settled down for a nice little lunch. For the lunch we decided to go to the Osteria Gran Sasso, which I picked up from Google as an authentic neighbourhood restaurant in the vicinity.

To start with, we had plates from the antipasto buffet (the prices for the dishes were around 10-12e and the antipasto buffet was per person, but we got some plates instead for five persons for around 25e). There was a salad of beans and carrots, some mushrooms, dry-cured ham (crudo), grilled zucchini, olives, bread, cheese and such.

For the main dishes, I had the pasta all’arrabiata. The dish was quite good, the penne was cooked perfectly and the sauce had a bit of a kick to it, although I do like it slightly more fiery (but not too much).

My wife had a risotto with shrimps and she liked it, although I did have to shell the shrimp for here.

Our older girl had fish (of course) and it came with potatoes and cherry tomatoes. She nibbled at it, but the antipasto in the beginning had taken the edge off of our hunger.

Our eldest had the pasta ragú (‘natch) and enjoyed it. All in all, the restaurant served very authentic food in a authentic setting. This is a good place to go if you want a feel for a nice Roman neighbourhood restaurant.

The restaurant is clean, but also rather old and you can sense the time that has passed in the decor. The service was friendly, but don’t expect to get by with just English.

URL	Osteria Gran Sasso
Phone	+39-064403901
Address	Via Como 10, 00161 Rome, Italy

This restaurant was a part of a longer walk that we took around Rome, going from our hotel towards the central railway station and onwards to the beautiful Palazzo Delle Esposizioni. But before we went to see the wonderful photography of Gianni Berengo Gardin, we stopped over for lunch at the Tomoko Tudini restaurant. This place had a cozy terrace on the street with fans blowing for some relief in the high noon sun.

My wife had the Insalata Nizzarda (i.e. Salade niçoise, 11e) with fresh tuna, salad, olives and hard boiled eggs. The salad was lovely and the tuna was fresh and tasty with a nice char.

We also got some olive oil and balsamic for the bread. The bread was fresh and we went through the lot quite quickly while dipping it in the oil.

My son went for the pasta with ragú (10e). This was a very good version of it, with fresh pasta and a deeply delicious meat sauce.

Our older girl had the fish (close to 20e, I think), which was grilled whole and came like that to the table. The dish was quite spectacular, with the oven fried potatoes (in essence these were crisps/chips), but the whole fish did look a bit daunting to our girl.

Luckily the waiter asked if we wanted him to clean the fish and as we said yes, he took it apart in a quick manner and our daughter made a lovely feast of it. The fish was excellent and the chips were crispy.

I had a pizza (diavolo, if I recall correctly, approx. 10e) and I have to say that of all the pizza’s eaten while in Rome, this was clearly the best one I had. The crust was top notch and the tomato sauce tasted just wonderful. The oozing cheese and the slightly hot salami closed the deal for me, this was a very good and filling lunch.

The terrace was surprisingly nice and we had a great time just sitting here and relaxing after a long walk on the streets of Rome. The service was excellent and our waiter took care of everything with ease. The kids were also treated with care and all of us left the restaurant happy.

URL	www.tomoko-tudini.com
Phone	+39-064817586
Address	Via Principe Amedeo 27, 00185 Roma, Italy