NUMA al Circo — Restaurant in Rome

We stopped at Numo for lunch on a Tuesday afternoon. Just my wife and I. They first tried to squeeze us into a table with barely enough room to sit down. We asked for a different table and at first was told no, it’s reserved. However, we asked our waiter and told us we could choose another. We appreciated being able to be comfortable and grab a nibble. We ordered some water and a glass of Prosecco, as well as 2 suppli, an order of focaccia, and a cheese platter w/ mustard. The focaccia was decent, as was the mustard, the cheese was pretty standard, nothing particularly great. When the suppli came out, I took a bite of it and immediately realized the rice wasn’t cooked, it was hard. Suppli is a fried ball of rice, sauce, cheese, and meat. We tried to mention it to the waitress, and the owner/manger?? interrupted and asked if there was a problem. Before this, this owner/manager was strutting around staring at people, just looking rude and constantly saying something to his employees who are busy with a restaurant full of customers. When we mentioned that our Suppli had rice that was undercooked, he immediately took defense and said that it is the Italian way. We’ve been in Italy for over a week, and experienced amazing food and have had suppli literally everyday and never had some uncooked rice. There was no apology or an effort to offer something else. Then after that, a young man came to the table and explained he is half Italian, half American and that undercooked rice is how they do things. Not sure what the point of this was. Under cooked rice, is under cooked rice. My wife and I own a catering business and I can assure if we served crunchy rice, it would be a problem. Positives, the Prosecco was good. We won’t be coming back or recommending this restaurant to anyone. It left a sour taste in our mouth after we’ve had so many amazing restaurants and...

Good service, and portion sizing. Though watch out for their POS system not working, it was our last day in Rome so naturally we didn’t have a lot of cash on hand, and they alerted us it was cash only. Some difficulty with some of the waitstaff over this as we were marched over to a nearby ATM to pay.

Besides that moment of not so great customer service food is generally great, and portions are large for the price. We ordered Cacio E Pepe, Carbonara,, Entrecôte Di Manzo, and Roma gourmet pizza for mains.

Focaccia, Suppli Al Telefono, and Pizzotella for appetizers.

Food generally well done, pasta was all done amazingly, steak was cooked very well. Carbonara was a touch too over salted, though still good. The baked potatoes on the Entrecôte Di Manzo lacked seasoning, ketchup was offered as a dipping sauce though I’ve had compound butter in other restaurants with the dish to much better effect. The Pizza Roma was very cheese forward, and I couldn’t taste the meat or the sun dried tomatoes in it, I would’ve appreciated some more balance in the ingredient spread. All the appetizers were amazing, especially the Suppli Al telefono, I could eat a basket of those no problem! Though all in all we would definitely come back...

The hostess was so nice. Half of our group arrived early and were already seated. We asked the hostess if we could move tables to sit by them before ordering as a table next to them opened. We were able to move.

Our waiter, on the other hand, would make eye contact with our group and then decided to ignore us as we were signaling for the check. This is the first and only time in italy where it was difficult to get the check as the waiter refused to come to our table. I completely understand if it was difficult to get the check if the restaraunt was busy, but, there were a good amount of seats still open outside along with a good amount of wait staff taking their time moving. I didn't mind that as I believe people should enjoy their work and move as they can. I eventually had to yell "signore!" To get him to come over to us so we could pay and free up the two tables that seat 8 people.

As someone who has worked in the service industry for a long time, I personally don't understand why he was choosing to ignore us since I would imagine he would want us to leave if he didn't want to be near us. 🤔

If it weren't for the kind hostess and the great food, I would...