Mezza luna — Restaurant in Orvieto

I've got to add to the praise here - If you want a straight up, no frills, honest and delicious spot in Orvieto, this place is incredible.

Their carbonara lived up to the hype. I'm not Italian, but have eaten it in many places, make it often, and am a fan of similar /adjacent pasta dishes (ex: alla gricia). This is the best I've had anywhere. Impressive richness and depth of flavour, amazing seasoning and peppery flavouring of the pork. This dish is one of the highlights of our 3 weeks in Italy.

Though the carbonara was the standout, we also enjoyed their other dishes, including grilled sausage, fried greens, and veal scallopini al limon - All honest and good food. The veal was as unfancy and straight-up as it gets, yet it reminded me of the way my grandmother made it when I was a kid. The last thing I expected was a wave of nostalgia, but there it was.

Their panna cotta for dessert was delicious. Good house wine, good espresso and caffe correto. It checks all the boxes.

As a tourist, don't expect much english or outwardly cheery service, and but it's worth putting in the effort even if it's out of your comfort zone. This is a popular place with very few tables, and when we went the first time, they were booked solid, and so we asked to reserve a table for the following night, and boy were we happy it worked out. On top of all this, the prices were incredibly reasonable for the quality. This...

I honestly do not understand the obsession and all the positive reviews about carbonara.

First of all - I expect a good carbonara to be super creamy. I assume that a good carbonara should have the egg/cheese rich sauce covering every piece of the pasta, with crunchy, juicy guanciale pieces.

Maybe this place serves a different kind of carbonara, but what we got (and you can also see it from the photos of other people) was basically dry pasta - I saw Barilla boxes if I'm not mistaken, so at most mediocre quality - with zero creamines. It felt like the only "sauce" was the grease from guanciale. Maybe there was egg in there, but I definitely couldn't taste it.

Was it tasty? Yes, it was - especially the guanciale. Was it a big portion? Yes, it's huge (but mostly just pasta). Was it life changing - definitely NOT. The place does not live up to its fame in my opinion.

On top of that, we also ordered gnocchi al ragu - again a complete disappointment. The "ragu" seemed to be just a bland tomato sauce with a few pieces of minced meat. Maybe it's just not their speciality so they don't care, but then why even offer it...

was doubtful if this was truly the "best carbonara" in italy. boy was i wrong. the carbonara took up 200% of the plate, and every bite of it was good. usually my palate gets bored after a few bites of carbonara but miraculously that never happened with this plate! there was in my opinion only one bad thing: there was a LOT of carbonara. but im not protesting here. 10 euros for this much carbonara is the most worth it meal ive had in italy so far. would definitely come here again!

we also ordered a meat platter to accompany the carbohydrate bomb that is the carbonara, and it was too very flavourful!

for those saying that they were disappointed it was closed, i agree that 1.5h of opening time from 7pm-8:30pm is not very long, but please try to make the effort to come to this place for your meal within this tight time slot!

service was not anything too special, but the owner was very friendly!

the wines also good btw

hands down the best...