Admittedly, I may have caught them on an off night. This was recommended to me by some locals as a great place for a meal of typical Roman style cuisine. It was a 20 min walk from the Opera area and Google Maps had some difficulty in routing a correct walking route, so beware.
They don't have a true bar to sit at as a solo diner so they did not seem happy to take me as a walk-in since I was going to burn one of their coveted 2 tops for a single person. They did sit me at the door which did have a nice view of the action from the front of the house. Once I sat, I noticed that all the servers were stereotypical young Italian males that did a really nice job in taking care of the tables with ladies present. Unfortunately, my table was not in that demographic and despite me literally sitting in the runway of the main path to the kitchen, bar, and host stand, I seemed to languish as if I wasn't even there.
I eventually was able to flag someone down who took down my order. I ordered a cocktail that never arrived along with their Carbonara and some Roman Tripes as a main. After 20 min, I asked about my drink and the server did apologize and owned up to completely forgetting about it. The server felt bad and offered to get me a beverage immediately. Since food was coming out, I told him to forget the cocktail and he suggested a glass of wine. I took him up on the suggestion thinking he was doing so intending to comp it for his forgetfulness but that was not the case and I was charged for it. The Carbonara was tasty but I had better at several spots around Rome (this pasta was underdone, almost crunchy in some spots which made me stop and think that texturally it did not seem like house-made pasta). The Tripes were on par with where I had them at other places. Things then reverted back to my table being akin to the Isle of Lost and it took me another 25 min to get someone's attention to bring me the check. All told, dinner took me almost 100 minutes as a single diner with a forgotten drink, substandard pasta, and after-the-fact service.
The place was full of neighborhood people and not tourists so it simply might be that I was not entitled to as great an evening as the locals or I simply caught them at a time that really threw them off. I really couldn't tell and it really doesn't matter. Either way, in this town where there are so many great local spots to get a professionally served, deliciously authentic meal, I did not experience this to be one of them. While this may be one of them on a good night, I'm not inclined to come back to try to figure that out. read more