We were a little worried that the Taverna dei Fori Imperiali - “a restaurant serving traditional Roman food, managed by four generations of the same family” - would be packed with tourists, and give us the kind of deliberately bad food and service reserved for people who will never be coming back anyway; but we were pleasantly surprised. There were plenty of tourists, to be sure, but at least the same number of locals, which was immediately encouraging, and following advice we found on the forums (the internet ones, that is, not ancient graffiti on the nearby capital “F” Forum) got the best food by ordering from the specials list. Service was gratifyingly cheerful.
When in Rome…drink Roman wine? Not necessarily, but we thought we might as well; we had a half of Villa Simone 2007, made from the local Cesanese grape. It turned out to be a quite rustic, quite acidic, medium-bodied mix of black fruit and stewed plum with notes of tar and some fairly prominent wood influence. It did improve with decanting. The wood notes were heavy enough to suggest glue.
For starters, aubergines came alla parmigiana, in tomato sauce with basil; there was almost more cheese than aubergine. Gnocchi con Agnello also came in tomato sauce, with little bits of lamb – not a bad dish, but I think I prefer my gnocchi with sage butter instead of sauce.
Moving on, Ragú di Vitello con Tartufo was superb, veal on tagliatelle with a truffley, herby sauce. Polpettone was a splendid meat loaf containing pork, ground beef, pistachio and sesame, and was served with sauerkraut and a gravy with juniper. We had a side order of zucchini as well, cut so thinly it looked like more like shellfish than vegetable, absorbing the flavours of garlic, vinegar and mint.
Lulled into a false sense of security, since everything had been fine so far, we shared a zabaione for dessert; but rather than egg yolk with marsala, it turned out to be whipped cream and marsala; N1 was disappointed. Otherwise, a meal and an experience in a bustling, friendly restaurant that exceeded expectations.
Via Madonna dei Monti 9
www.latavernadeiforiimperiali.com
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