Ristorante Romano La Lupa — Restaurant in Rome

This was our FIRST meal in Rome after getting off a trans-Atlantic flight and popping up out of the train station...

And let me tell you, it was a PERFECT way to start our trip to Rome and the Amalfi Coast.

We were all tired and hangry at 9PM at night after traveling for almost a full day from Louisville, Kentucky to Chicago to Dublin to Rome.

We stumbled across this place after we stowed our bags at our Airbnb a block from train station.

At first, I was unsure if we were sitting down to have a super turisty meal by the look of the patio and size and scale of the menu...

But quickly my family and girlfriend and I found, we had stumbled across a ROMAN gem (and there were in fact quite a few Italians dining on the patio too).

We drank a beautiful bottle of Ribolla Gialla that was stunning and cheap.

We ate a seafood salad, a caprese salad and a prosciutto and melon antipasti that were each fantastic.

THE HIGHLIGHT though was the Cacio e Pepe pasta that hands down was better than ANY we had in Rome (and we must have sampled the classic Roman dish five or six times at other great trattorias and osterias).

The pasta was cooked perfectly al dente and "the sauce" was prepared outside in a giant parmesan wheel - the flavors were incredible.

The owner/GM Andreas was so good to us. He helped guide the tired Americans like fish out of the water through the meal, and taught us new words in Italian and treated us with dignity and kindness and humor like we were family.

We all took photos together and they brought out complimentary limoncello and made us feel beyond welcome.

What a great first meal. What a restaurant. I suggest everyone who is traveling through Rome Termini to stop off at this eatery. You won't be disappointed.

Grazie Andreas!!!!!...

Run as fast you can from this place. We resolved to try the lunch there. We looked at the reviews, some were not so bad, some had complaints, but we thought maybe it was just a mixture of bad experience or personal taste... Big mistake. First of all we were ignored by the waiter, almost needing to scream for attention. When he finally positioned us it took ages for him to return to take our order. While doing so he lacked any patience when describing for dishes, his description of Roman style was "made in roman way". Than my boyfriend saw that the forks were dirty, like someone had used, so I asked for clean forks. The waiter gave me new forks but said "PREGO" (you're welcome) in very rude way. It took a long time for any food to arrive, despite the lack of customers. They give us bread that was so hard I don't believe that it was even from the day before. My boyfriend's pasta was quite hard and my pasta with beans had a weird taste but since I was new to the dish I thought it was normal. Anyway, we tried to ask for more drinks and the waiter took my plate even though I had not finished the meal. The next course arrived and I got the worst lamb ever and my boyfriend had no luck with his meal, the veal, as well. The food had no taste and was greasy. I suspect it was probably frozen and cooked in too much oil - very disgusting. Everything was horrible and...

La Lupa has one of the nicest outside areas among the restaurants nearby.

We rapidly got seated by a very kind waiter and it didn't take long for us to have the menu. He took us to the only available 2p table in the outside area I ordered a Lasagna and my wife ordered a Gnocchi. They gladly followed our instructions to not put grated cheese on top of the Gnocchi, since my wife is temporarely not eating most of the cheese used in grated cheeses. To wash it down I ordered a long neck Peroni.

The food came relatively fast and was delicious. The Lasagna was really nice (maybe not the best I've tasted in Rome but it was almost there) but my wife's Gnocchi was heavenly. The Gnocchi balls felt like they were artisanal and the pomodoro sauce was deliciously thick and generous. The best Gnocchi, for sure!

The only thing that prevents me from giving 5/5 is something that really bothers me in restaurant services: the couvert pushing. I really hate when restaurants try to push stuff that you didn't ask for. Even though you can simply refuse to take it, it's annoying the same. I really wish they...