Al Grottino — Restaurant in Rome

My mom and I were visiting Rome this June. We came here to eat dinner. The staff were blatantly racist towards my mom and I, were very rude and impatient with us. The B&B we were staying at had highly recommended that we eat at this restaurant close by to celebrate my mom's birthday. When we got here, the restaurant was nearly empty and there were plenty of open patio tables available, so we asked to be seated. When we asked one of the restaurant staff if we could have a seat, he looked at the both of us and said that we could not eat there. When we asked why, he said "maybe you can eat inside, at the back" and mumbled to use that we would need to speak to the manager first before walking off. During all of this time, other people behind us were kindly being seated to eat. When we demanded to speak to someone in charge, we questioned why we could not have a seat at the restaurant and not until we mentioned that our B&B host (who they knew personally) told us to come here to eat, they decided to seat us. Our entire experience at this restaurant after we were seated was disturbing and completely disrespectful. They had us waiting for a long time to order and when we asked questions about the food, they would walk away. If you are a person of colour visiting Rome, I do not recommend...

My husband, two teenagers and I took Tony Vespa’s pizza making class. This was exactly the experience that I was hoping for!

Tony was gracious, friendly, knowledgeable and a natural teacher. He was prepared and well organized, yet ready to customize the pizzas to our tastes.

Tony gave us historical perspective on pizza and told us interesting food facts. The best part of class was the hands-on activities! We got to try every step of pizza making: creating our dough, preparing fresh toppings, stretching/tossing the dough and cooking the pizza. We all enjoyed learning the trick to properly use a peel and we even got to “man the pizza oven”.

All this takes place in Tony Vespa’s restaurant, Al Grottino, before business hours, so we had the whole restaurant to ourselves. Of course, at the end, we got to taste our own pizza creations.

I would highly recommend this class to anyone interested in a thorough behind-the-scenes look at...

No doubt they do pizza well. Locals eat here and it is not touristy. The area is quiet and far from tourist sites. An easy train ride and then walk will bring you here. The service is not bad, you will definitely need a reservation to sit outside. However they could be more friendly, they have a bit of an ego here. Don't be fooled by an expensive pizza making class here, there are plenty of other options. Just doesn't make sense to overcharge for a class. The restaurant is priced well. But they did not have the DOCG red wine bottle priced at 16.50 euro, they offered an IGT for 16.50 Euro which is obviously overpriced. It's just not the right thing to do but we politely just agreed to enjoy our meal. I would suggest you find another place unless you are in the area. There are plenty of solid options don't make a special trip...