Stumbled upon this place by pure chance. Having been to Rome before and tired of trying to figure out what is tourist-oriented versus for the locals, we looked at areas outside of the central area and headed to San Lorenzo. After strolling from Piazza Barberini down to Basilica di San Giovanni (about 3 km), we headed west towards San Lorenzo. Admittedly along the way one could see why tourists are few and far between as it looked a bit sketchy compared to the sanitized center of the city. After heading under the train I stopped to check Google maps to see where we were relative to the restaurant we had targeted based on an article about getting away from tourists (even though we were contaminating it by bringing our tourist-itis with us). My wife's leg, still recovering from being broken, was hurting so we sat down for a rest and happen to sit down next to this restaurant. As we had another 10-15 minutes to walk we decided that this place looked good and we took the plunge. SO happy we did.
Although there were only 2 other tables occupied when we walked in, they asked if we had a reservation. We thought thought that a little odd, but no problem, they seated us. By the time we left the crowd outside waiting to get in only confirmed the experience we just had. First, the service was a blast. We had (how to say this...) a corpulent waiter who managed to move gracefully and with the most intoxicating laugh. When we asked if the lasagna was good, he said, "NO", laughed, and actually meant it directing us to the amatriciana pasta instead (which was amazing, and realized that what we think is al dente in the U.S. is nothing close to Rome). I wanted a bottle of wine, but had no idea what I was looking at on the list so I asked him for something 25 euros and let him choose. The Barossa he brought out was sublime. No way I am getting that bottle in the U.S. for $27. We ordered the white eggplant parma for an appetizer. I thought that it would be made of actual white eggplant, but the white simply meant no tomatoes. Again, being a deep lover of eggplant parma, this brought tears to my eyes...the waiter could see my reaction, and we had a moment...2 larger men connecting on the love of a great eggplant parma. Life does not get much better, until the pizza arrived. I had the sausage, porcini mushroom and truffle. Not sure what else to say, but soul-enriching. Cheesecake and cappuccino later, we were sated on our desire to have a local experience. All in 74 euros. read more