The first course consist of an delicious, warm lentil dish, a bowl of olives, great selection of antipasta (assorted meats), fried potato balls that were nice and crispy on the outside but nice and soft on the inside and a fried cod dish as well. Another great surprise of the first course was a fragrant dish of sliced fennel cooked in lots of olive oil and vinegar. I usually am not a huge fan of fennel but this was cooked in such a way that was fantastically delicious. It's crazy to think that 6 dishes was just the 1st course. I want to add that they weren't small dishes either. They kindly offered 2 dishes of everything so that everyone was able to have their fair share.
The 2nd course was the best part of the lunch. It was the pasta section! And even better is that they give you two kinds of pasta. Oh my. It was perfectly cooked rigatoni in a rich and creamy carbonara sauce and another one with a red spicy sauce. This was what dreams are made of: homemade pasta.
I would have been perfectly happy to have ended my meal here. I was beyond stuffed and in most instances a heavy round of appetizers and pasta would have been more than enough food. But not in Italy. The 3rd course was the meat course. Good lord. We had veal cooked 2 ways. One was cooked in the oven and sliced thinly and the other was veal cooked cacciatore style. It was a more hearty, chunkier style of veal but I actually really liked both dishes. They were both tender and juicy and they were pushing me past my fullness level. But of course the course came with 2 sides as well. We had hand cut fresh potato chips which were wonderful. You could definitely tell that they were made seconds before serving (as indicated by the waiter literally picking up my hand and shoving it into the bowl and saying "Fresh! Just made for you!"). Since they just came out of the fryer, they weren't as crispy as I would have liked but they were still good. But the best part of this course was this amazing puree of zucchini. I mean this dish was the f'ing bomb. While the majority of the zucchini was pureed, it still had some nice sweet chunks to give it some texture but it was just a fantastic dish. You could just taste the love made with all the dishes. There's something about the food here that just tasted so fresh, more so than most places in the States.
After the meat course, I was seriously at a point where it was painful to keep eating. Luckily, the last dish came out and while it was a good dessert, it wasn't that good that I felt like I had to finish the whole thing. It was a flakey coconut cake that I barely finished and frankly I can barely remember what it was at this point. The meal was capped off with a glass of freshly squeezed mandarin orange juice. It amazing how different mandarin orange juice tastes from the regular orange juice you get here. It literally tastes exactly like a mandarin orange that you get at a supermarket.
At the end of the meal, the cook came out and it was too much to handle. It was almost like an Italian stereotype of an adorable old lady who reminded me of a typical grandma: cute and loving. She only spoke Italian and thought that we were Argentinian (because of the latest pope) which I thought was kind of cute. The total cost for everything was 25 euros per person. Unbelievable. But one of the girls who was with us was a local and she thought that we were being overcharged and that it was too expensive. Of course we were all shocked that this would be considered expensive but she mentioned that you can get fantastic meals in Rome for 15 euros. I need to travel with her! But seriously, the experience here was everything you think of when you think of Rome: lovingly homemade food that makes your tongue dance with happiness.
Ristorante Aroma at Palazzo Manfredi Via Labicana, 125, 00184 Rome, Italy - 4 Forks
If where we had lunch was the quintessential adorable mom and pop Italian restaurant, Aroma is what you think of in terms of super romantic fancy pants restaurant. While I wasn't there with a special someone, I was in great company and had a lovely time none the less. And yes, this is a real picture from the view of the restaurant. Aroma came highly recommended by Kissy, our new local bestie while we were in Rome. She said that there's no place in Rome that has a view like this (and boy was she right). It's on the rooftop of the Palazzo Mandfredi hotel and the views are just stunning. Floor to ceiling windows of the Colosseum. Of course, when you get views like this you are going to pay dearly for it. Not to mention that the Palazzo is a Relais & Chateaux property, so you already know that the prices are going to be high.
In fact, one antipasti dish was the price of our entire 4 course lunch. Ouch. We all decided to split the veal croquettes with artichokes (28 euros) and the lobster medallions with sweetbreads (32 euros). For my entree, I had to go with pasta. I mean I'm in Italy for christ sakes! I opted for the rigatoni (I fell in love with this pasta here) with crispy bacon, confit tomatoes, and smoked ricotta cheese (32 euros).
I was a bit disappointed that the veal croquettes were a bit on the small side but I guess that's how croquettes are. The veal filling was flavorful and the outside was nice and crunchy. I also loved the Roman style artichokes that came with it. I have never loved artichokes more than on this trip. There's just something about the way they cook them in Italy that's amazing and delicious. For some reason, most of the time that I get it in the States, it's hard, too stem-y and difficult to eat. But not here. They were soft and have no stem issues. Next came the lobster medallions and sweetbreads. Now I've never had sweetbreads before and you know what? They were pretty damn good. They didn't taste anything like I expected. For some reason I thought they would just taste grey (if that's even possible) and gross simply because it's a gland. But they were quite tender and soft with a mild meat-y taste to it. I wouldn't say that I'm now a lover of sweatbreads but I certainly wouldn't shy away from in the future.
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