La Gondola — Restaurant in Rome

Visiting Rome for 7 days on a Road Scholar program, we have a chance to choose our own meal once a day, so two of us decided to try this place near our hotel. It was a Wednesday night about 8:00, which according to the posted hours was well ahead of closing time. However, upon entering, we had the sense that they were ready on close up, but the, shall I say, employee did invite us in, to sit in the section he hadn’t cleaned yet. My Italian is very poor but he was willing to speak with us in English. The menu board in the street was a subset of the full menu. I was hoping to have beef carpaccio, but as they were out, he offered salmon ‘carpaccio’. It was exactly like what I have called smoked salmon in the States, so anyway fully chilled and fresh out of the package, the whole package, served on a bed of chiffonade salad mix, with fat lemon wedges. My friend was offered bruschetta, which was 5 thick slices of fresh crusty bread: two with artichoke tapenade, two with diced tomato, one with melted cheese. We both had spaghetti ala garlic and oil, a huge portion. A glass of tasty Pinot Grigio suited the very casual meal. We watched the employee continue to clean, then stop by to offer some grated cheese. Kitchen-sized bottle of olive oil, a balsamic vinegar, a kitchen package of salt powder and bottled water were set on table as well. Paper napkins were of the kind one buys for home use. We tried hard to not need more napkins as by this time the employee was done sweeping and was cleaning up the bar area. We were not offered dessert or anything else, and hd to get attention to get a bill. Overall I would say this place is very casual, and perhaps not best...

I’m not going to lie, this place doesn’t look like much from the outside but it is a fairy good spot. By happenstance we found this place to simply get out of the rain; we were not really hungry just tired of being wet. After entering, however, we couldn’t restrain ourselves from getting something to share.

Like I said, we didn’t want food but decided to just taste test a few things. We opted to try the bruschetta and a margarita pizza.

First off, I’m not sure what they do to the bruschetta but it had a flavor that ensures you can’t eat just one. The tomatoes were fresh and sweet, and the bread was soft with an appropriate amount of firmness.

Second, the pizza was just all round so good. From the crust being not too crispy but not too doughy to the sauce being perfectly proportioned, we had to get another (remember, we weren’t hungry though). Needless to say, we left delightfully stuffed.

Overall, their pizza was delicious and the bruschetta was tasty. The service was fast and the atmosphere was relaxing and inviting (that’s probably why we were attracted to it on this rainy day). We would definitely return for more if we had the time in the...

This place is the pits, the worst eating establishment I have ever visited. Knew before visiting Rome to avoid these places trying to get you in but after a day in the colosseum in the rain we were cold and wet and just wanted a quick stop. Given the menus I asked for a bottle of the house wine listed at €14, the manager - a man without any people skills whatsoever grunted we do wine by glass or bottle €20. So why have a wine list then with wrong prices? I said we will leave it then. Water was quickly opened and poured and stale bread dumped down. We ordered a pizza each. At this point we should have cancelled and walked, atmosphere was colder than my wet feet. Pizzas came, were floppy sloppy and tasteless. Saw another customer complain about bill, I think for the stale bread they didn’t want or eat. Ours was taken away. We finished in record speed, asked for bill and the rudest man in the world the manager stood over me while I got the cash out rather than leave it and come back. Omg never go here, every...