Gli Esploratori — Restaurant in Rome

🍝 - Food: 3/5 🛎️ - Service 4/5 📍 - Location & atmosphere 3/5

TLDR: Gli Esploratori is the type of “trattoria moderna” that leaves a mark. A meal surrounded by books and bottles of wine boosts the overall dining experience. Professional and accurate service combined with yummy food does the rest, adding this spot to my top three restaurants in this district of Rome.

Gli Esploratori is just a few steps from Vatican City in an area bustling with various dining options and tons of anonymous and tasteless takeaway places.

When my buddies and I walked into Gli Esploratori, we knew it was something special. The walls were lined with books and wine bottles, an unexpected setting that triggered cosy vibes. The great atmosphere was reinforced by the kindness and precision of the waitress who served us. The menu looked interesting, and my attention was grabbed by the fried polenta with cold cuts. It was a great choice. Even though Rome isn't known for polenta, it was delicious and cooked perfectly. I also tried the 60-degree cooked Carbonara, and man, it was so good to have it without that trendy "carbo-cream" all over Rome to make the lives of bad cooks very easy. The tiramisu "terramisu" was the least impressive part of the meal. We paired the food with a fantastic bottle of Arneis, a great white wine...

First, the appetizer came quickly, but the main order after the appetizer waited a long time. For about 30mins plus. The restaurant was not busy at all. The most people were drinking red wine, and those who came after us had already eaten main food while we were waiting. But until now there wasn't much to be upset about it. The point is that the Cannlloni that we ordered, it was completely undercooked, it was completely white in the middle, so the whole thing was very hard to chew. We asked the waitress, and she told us that it was a Roman tradition local making. and that cannelloni in Rome was like this. And then we ordered tiramisu. It doesn't use any coco powder at all, and I personally feel that the top powder Something like Oreo. I've tried tiramisu from others in Rome.and they all taste bittersweet, with coffee liquid or finger biscuits. But the Tiramisu in this restaurant doesn't have any, and indignantly the waitess tells me as she explains how to make the real Tiramisu(Coco powerbalabala)and then she told this is the real Tiramisu.... They have a beautiful setting, I can't deny that. But it was really bad, and based on what she said, I don't believe the Romans would...

Disappointed.

We came out of our way to come here.

One of our pasta dishes was cold, which we sent back and which they had to remake it, which was annoying as the other two guests had already finished their mains when the new pasta dish came back, to no much difference from the earlier version. No apology

The food was nice, maybe a bit salty.

Service wasn’t great either, one of the waiters was half asleep and the other waiter was having a glass of wine with the chef whilst we were waiting for somebody to take our dessert order.

Atmosphere wise we recommend turning the lights a bit down and setting some candles in each table to create a nice...