Enoteca Corsi — Restaurant in Rome

This is not my first time in Rome and I plan to return, but I won't be returning to this restaurant.

It looks charming and has great reviews, and was featured in Rick Steves' guidebook. I tend not to follow guidebook recommendations and instead look for neighborhood restaurants, and this place reinforces that practice.

I knew things were not going well when the two Italian speaking tables received red tomatoes and ours were greener. I have never eaten a tomato I would describe as 'tough' before. The bread was dry but we were willing to ignore that, despite the euro charge without being asked.

Then we received our pastas. My all'Amatriciana stylistically included guanciale, but the chef must moonlight as a magician because he made it disappear. It was over salted in a way that I believe Chef Boyardee had a hand in its creation. My partner ordered the all'Astice con Pachino, and it required police level excessive force to remove the meat from the poor lobster that gave it's life far too cheaply for this fate.

We ordered salad to try and feign responsibility, but they never arrived and we were happy to skip them. We skipped dessert and asked for the bill far faster than the norm here just to leave.

The service was spotty but that usually doesn't bother me. It was very clear they favored locals to tourists, and your service improved the more Italian you could stumble through. It's important to make an effort, but it never feels good to be ignored like the table next to us regardless.

Before you think I'm a typical entitled tourist, one half of the couple next to us was Italian and spoke fluently, and I got to enjoy the free theater of her becoming more apoplectic as the night went on. She gave them a piece of her mind at the end of the night, and I spoke to her partner who reinforced that we were not crazy, and the quality of the meal was indeed "shocking".

Rick Steves promised free limoncello if you showed his book. That never happened, but maybe if it had, it would have been enough alcohol to blot out my memory and leave a more...

Updated Review (changing to 1 star):

I am updating my review from 3 stars to 1 star due to the owner's rude and insulting response below. Instead of acknowledging our experience, the owner accused me of lying and responded with an unnecessary insult. To clarify: the waitress did not inform us that the dishes we came for were only served at dinner; she simply said, “We don’t have it TODAY.”, and walked away. We asked for three dishes at three different times ( rabbit, a seafood dish, and tiramisu), each time she just responded “ we don’t have it today” and immediately left our table. If we had known the food we were asking for were for dinner menu, we would have returned in the evening and not wasting everyone’s time.

It’s unfortunate that instead of addressing this politely, the owner chose to respond with hostility. I share this so that future visitors are aware to call ahead to confirm availability if there are specific dishes they want to try…. Or simply, just choose another place with good food and good service.

Original review: We came in for the food that is supposed to be famous or most people ordered ( I.e rabbit, seafood, etc) but unfortunately they changed their menu to a mediocre selection of Roman food that you can find anywhere else, and didn’t serve anything we wanted based on what we read on their menu and photos posted online. A bit...

We loved this place. They treated us like relatives when we walked in and when we left. I had mistakenly emailed in a reservation for the previous night, so when we arrived, the owner Manuela said, "Are you David? We've been waiting for you since yesterday." She was so smiley and friendly, we figured we were in for a great night, and we were not disappointed. The atmosphere was bright and friendly, and we loved our waiter Alessandro, a very down-to-earth fellow. It seemed like there was some drama going on behind the scenes between Manuela, Alessandro and a cook named Angelo, but it just added to the hominess of the place, and eventually Manuela gave Angelo a big hug as they ironed out their differences right in the middle of the crowd. We loved our food. I ordered a veal covered in a tuna carpaccio mayo sauce, which was absolutely delicious. And our son thought his rabbit dish was amazing. When we paid, Manuela explained to us that despite the Spanish look of her name, she was absolutely Italian, and that her last name of Paiella was pronounced Pai-eLLa, not Pai-eYa. As we left, she blew us all a big kiss. It was our last meal in Rome before leaving the next morning, and Enoteca Corsi left us a great memory to bring...