Cucchiarella — Restaurant in Rome

Cucchiarella is a charming gem of a small neighborhood restaurant with wooden beams and forest-green table dressings. The co-owners, Simone and Domenico, who seem to share all hosting and waiting duties, are friendly and accommodating. The menu apparently changes regularly. The wine list is extensive, if somewhat overpriced (we enjoyed the lowest-priced prosecco).

I would give this a 9.5 out of 10 if that were possible because it is completely without vegan items and light on vegetarian items. A couple of raw (salads) or cooked vegetable dishes other than the omnipresent-in-Italy eggplant-cheese-tomato combination would be welcome.

Despite that, the presentation and taste of the dishes we chose were stellar. The scrumptious (meat) lasagna had been baked as an individual portion, as it was round; it was a good size, as well. The Calabrian spaghetti dish with sheep’s milk cheese was very good and seemed to be a favorite among visitors when we were there.

Topping off our meal were two divine desserts: a sharp, refreshing lemon tart with feather-light baked meringue topping and a gorgeous tiramisu (photo), the absolute best we’ve ever had.

Kudos and grazie mille to Simone and Domenico. (Tell them a guy from...

Nice looking place. Unfortunately most good stops there. I realize that visiting a foreign country you should expect to know a small amount of the native language, but up until this restaurant, EVERY other place has had at least one employee or two that could at worst translate through what we wanted. But that's ok, that's not fair to them.

What does bother me is we were treated with annoyance. EVERY other restaurant we were greeted with a very excited and happy fanfare that tourists were visiting their place! Here, we were treated with disdain and annoyance. The hostess was very happy and friendly with everyone else, but with our table she actively avoided us.

No problem, maybe the food is stellar? Well. No. We managed to order spaghetti with basil and odd crispy bacon in it. The noodles were like chewing rubber hoses. The sauce? It was decent! Still think that a store bought brand would be better.

The water was good.

I can't suggest this place to tourists. There are so many other places that wanted our business and were willing to show enthusiasm and great food to go to. Been in Italy a week, this is the worst place we've been to by MILES.

And I hate...

Ripped us off. Friend and I went in yesterday to share a meal. Their menu had a danish steak priced at 25€ so we ordered that. When we paid, the server charged us 44€ for the steak (total over 65€, which included one appetizer and water). When we mentioned that it’s supposed to be 25€, he said that was for a 250g steak and we had gotten 400g. The menu had 450g in parentheses next to the steak. He then said he brought us a different cut, which was more expensive. To avoid any confrontation, we paid and left. The steak was good, but if he was going to bring us a different, more expensive cut, he should make us aware of the...