Trattoria Pommidoro

Bad pasta, combined with vinegar housewine, bad service and coperto… need to say more? We hoped to have some ok-​ish pasta in a residential neighborhood, far away from tourist traps… and ended up here, unfortunately. The italians who were having dinner there also didn’t seem all too convinced about the food quality. Service was bad, the main waiter swearing (the bad «c-​word»)… All in all we’re completely underwhelmed.

The place opens up around 8 and quickly starts to fill up! It was probably the best spaghetti alla carbonara I’ve had! The spaghetti was cooked just right without being overdone by eggs or by bacon! The bacon has just enough rawness that would melt in your mouth. I also had the lamb which was simple and flavourful, the meat was cooked just right, you could taste the lamb but without the rawness in it. My final course was unexpected but also brought end to a perfect meal. The tiramisu sweet enough to light up your tastebuds but not overly done. The cocoa sprinkles had a little bitterness to it so that it could balance off the sweetness of the creamè. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the dishes as that was the purest form of sophistication with which the food was cooked!

The pappardelle was decent but the grilled thing we ordered was burnt and bitter. Gross. They also brought us the wine after we’d gotten all our dishes and had only a few bites left. Best if you avoid this place.

I hope this is the right pommidoro. We wanted to get away from the tourists so settled into a restaurant with much less of them. Our tour guide recommended us to try the cabana since it is a more local pasta. It was so good! They even make their own olive oil which I think is super delicious. The staff knows very little english but its okay because we knew very little italian. Still, they were very friendly and even did their best to makr us feel the real italy. Instead of laying out the dishes, they served it to us on our platr one by one. The bathroom here is pretty clean too. I also believe its the squatting version which is better than nothing!

This was the best meal my wife and I had in Rome. This is the type of place the tourist guide tell you to try and find, and I would recommend being adventurous when going as the typical tourist dishes can be found anywhere. The wait staff knew as much English as we knew Italian, but they were very patient and very friendly.
The menu presented had all dishes detailed in 3 languages (Italian, German, and English). They have a chef recommendation section that you should really consider ordering from (if they took the time to select these dishes, they must be proud of them). They seem to specialize in meats and there are many classic roman dishes as well as local dishes most tourist places ignore. All the dishes we had were excellent and very reasonably priced for the portions.
We started with an appetizer of steamed clams that was very good, and had a nice seasoned flavor that I wouldn’t have thought to try with seafood. It was almost like a basil or oregano flavor. Very tasty and not too filling.
From the chef’s selection menu, I ordered the wild boar and I think it is one of the best prepared meats I have ever had. I am used to boar having a gamey flavor to it, but there was none of that in this dish. It had a very flavorful rosemary marinade that really made this dish. I would order it again in a heartbeat.
My wife ordered a spaghetti bolognese. The sauce was flavorful, but it is at almost any place you order it in Rome. I think she would have been more adventurous if she went back as she thought I was crazy for ordering the boar, but was really impressed when she tried it. She really enjoyed the dish though.
We had a desert but I don’t know what it was called. Due to the language barrier, we were shown the desert options and we picked the chocolate cake looking option that was highly recommended by our waitress. It was very tasty and highly recommended by both myself and my wife. Be aware that it is very dense and 1 piece should be more than enough to share.
For appetizer, dinner, desert and wine the cost averaged to 23 € per person.
This place is great as long as going into the experience:
1. You are willing to try something different
2. Are willing to try out your Italian speaking skills
One last thing to note, they do allow smoking in the restaurant itself. This does bother some people so be aware.