Last night went to a restaurant in the Trastavere region of Rome called Spirito DiVino which was recommended by Gavin’s friend Bessy. When you sit down the owner comes by and tells you the history of the building. He says the building is 180 years older than the coliseum. Impressive if true. They have an original well they you can look down and the original cellar which they use for wine.
When we arrived there was only one couple there, but when we left it was a full house. Impressive for a Monday. It is definitely a family run business, the owner was our host, the cook was the mother, and the son was our waiter. The son was fun with a carefree attitude that was quite entertaining.
The benefit of getting there first is that we were served our food promptly. By the time we left, the service was a little slow, okay a lot slow. They won the Slow Food award in 2004 which I guess is a big thing here in Italy. The slow service was more of a pain at the end because the place was 26 degrees… So we were sweating.
Now the food. Very tasty.
We split three appetizers to get it going. Chicken pate: devine, vegetable crepe: delicious yet underwhelming, and veal meatballs with mint: flavourful. For our seconds we ordered pasta, I had farfelle with pumpkin and gargonzola, incredibly rich and tasty. For my main I had the famous pulled pork which contained 13 herbs and spices. Apparently it is an old recipe from Julias Caesar’s chef. It was really good, the side was cabbage which I could have done without.
Last course was of course dessert. I had an apple and something dessert. I don’t remember the something. But it was apple ice cream with a sugar brandy sauce and a warm apple sauce.
The dinner was great and we would definitely recommend. Thanks to Bessy for the recommendation!
