Marzapane — Restaurant in Rome

Was just re-reading old reviews and this had been reported for hate speech! Republishing

We chose to visit Marzapane after seeing it on Eater's Essential Restaurants, as well as a write up in Michelin, coupled with the fact they promised vegetarian food.

The location is nice, while very close to central touristy spots, it felt that little bit more neighbourhood. We were sat on the terrace, which was a nice touch and were glad to be there.

We discovered that we couldn't split the tasting menus (one vegetarian, one regular), so both went ala carte.

My partner – vegetarian – had the only things available, a tomato tartare, which was very nice to start. And then a tomato sauce pasta for main. The pasta was tasty, but both dishes felt like an after thought. For a michelin-aspiring & creative-focused restaurant, for your vegetarian main to be pasta & tomato sauce, it's pretty poor form.

I had crispy rabbit dumplings (€18) to start. The rabbit was dry, overcooked, and underseasoned. For my main, I ordered sheep sausage. The waiter said something to the effect of "that's a adventurous dish" – I was hoping for something on apar with andouillete, or other strong tasting sausages. This was literally one sausage on the plate (€22) and lacked much flavour at all. I'm all for subtlety when done well.

The bread was very very good, and a food highlight there.

As for wine, the wine list is quite interesting. There's good natural French winemakers who I love on there (Nicolas Carmans, Bourde, etc), so put choices in hands of waiter. I asked for something like a pet nat / something ancestral to begin, was given a zero dosage classic method instead. Nice enough. After I asked if they had any chillable/chilled reds. Expecting something akin to a gamay, barbera, or perhaps some higher altitude Etna wine. I was offered a high altitude syrah, again reasonable but nothing worth snapping for Vivino.

The staff were friendly throughout, and while I did have to remind them at one point for another glass of wine, for the most part the service was decent.

Overall a mixed bag. The vegetarian food, while uninspiring, ended up being far tastier than the meat dishes. The wine reasonable, but unadventurous. These things are all fine – you don't need to be adventurous or creative, except that very much feels like what Marzapane are going after.

They are known for their tasting menu, so can only assume that was where...

After over 3 weeks in Italy and not always having the opportunity to eat at a Michelin star restaurant due to availability, I have been disappointed with the cuisine in Italy, haven been all over the world and eaten at amazing restaurants I been waiting to try some incredible and daring dishes, unique and creative, bold and infused with some degree of risk. After eating at Open Collona which is a Michelin star restaurant, and having great food their and I was hoping to get my last day in Roma to be fantastic food adventure. Before booking a restaurant I look at the menu and unless you are going to Napa Valley French Laundry the menu is usually fixed. I looked at Marzapane’s menu and also the background on the chef and saw she was coming from Spain. I had some amazing cuisine in Spain and especially in Girona, there stands a 3 Michelin star restaurant El Celler de Can Roca. Knowing the chef was from Spain I really wanted to taste the food. I can live without Michelin Star service but give me some daring dishes, some unique flavors, things I can’t create at home in my own kitchen. And, marzapane roma delivered on all levels, I came into have a late lunch at 2:15pm, and by the graciousness of the Host Michele (I hope I spelled that correctly), He allowed us to have the tasting menu ”La Storia di Alba" which was a journey throughout the travels and voyage of the chef de cuisine.

Every dish was different, unique and was a surprise at every turn, I don’t eat shellfish so that sometimes limits my options of food but they have such a great variety and differentiations of amazing creations that they substituted everything that was shellfish.

The starting dishes were amazing so different and flavorful.

I loved them all the gazpacho and pulpo a la gallega,

The Fan blade pasta, lamb, lupini beans and yogurt were just incredible the different flavors of this dish.

With our tasting menu we had the lamb on a small skewer which was some of the best lamb I have had in my life.

The Bonito fish with tomatoes and almondshad probably the most amazing sauce ever! Best part it’s all simple there aren’t one million different ingredients but simple 4-6 ingredients on the plate that taste amazing!

They also put cinnamon into the cannoli and a different creme which was fantastic.

I can’t say enough about how amazing this place was. When I come back to Rome I will def visit this place again!

Thank you...

We went to Marzapane on a personal recommendation and after reading the mostly positive reviews, we knew we had to visit during our trip to Rome. Keep in mind that this was at 21:00 on a slower night.

The service was friendly, but not very attentive. The first thing we were asked is whether we wanted still or sparkling water, and we did get a refill we didn’t ask for once after we ran out the first time but were never offered another refill after that. Service was so short-handed that we never had a chance to ask (no „how was it?“/„do you need anything else?“). We were ultimately charged for both jugs of water, which was unexpected with automatic refills although not uncommon in Italy. The website explicitly states that a vegetarian option is available for the 5 course menu, but upon arrival we were informed that this wouldn‘t be possible, no explanation given.

Food was only okay at best, we‘ve had much more exciting things to eat in Rome. The risotto was extremely bland, it was like eating unseasoned, flavorless rice soup. The galette was good, but nothing special whatsoever. More like an okay breakfast food, very odd. The dessert (cannolo) was our favorite out of the bunch, not too sweet.

I was very cold throughout the entire night (AC blasting on full in a mostly empty restaurant) and when I finally got the chance to tell staff, they were friendly but nothing seemed to change. I would‘ve appreciated being offered a different table as I didn‘t have a jacket with me and was obviously very uncomfortable. I can appreciate that our experience seems to be different from other guests‘ at Marzapane and we might‘ve just caught a bad night/the vegetarian options might be coming up short, but I certainly wouldn‘t...