Ristorante Trattoria Antonio al Pantheon — Restaurant in Rome

An amusing story about this tiramisu...

My husband and I stopped by a restaurant for (initially) just some wine. However, we stayed to share a pasta. The pasta was substandard (tourist trap in front of the Pantheon), so we looked at the reviews and..... 2.5. 'nuff said there.

Anyway, we started looking for good tiramisu and Google told us of a 4.7 about a block away. All the reviews for the tiramisu were phenomenal - so as connoisseurs, we had to try this one.

We arrive here and the waiter says they are out of to-go boxes and they are full with reservations for the night. Disappointed, we leave. We get about 2 doors down and my husband sees a souvenir shop and mentions that we could buy a plate and go back.

Instantly, I'm about it. "Let's try to find a bowl!"

No bowls.

Not to be deterred, we go to two other places (the last being the original, bad restaurant) before finally getting an empty box. We head back towards here.

We wait outside until the confused waiter returns. My husband presents the to-go box and the look on the the waiter's face was priceless as he says something to the effect of, "oh my goodness". 😂 The incredulous man was so shocked by our determination that, after his initial shock wore off, he agreed.

The owner (or manager, not sure tbh) was very nice and chatted while he got us (what we thought) was a slice. She tells us about how they make it there and that the cream is her favorite part and she was very happy and flattered to have persistent customers like us.

Fast forward a few hours, after real dinner, back at the apartment

We open the box and see not just a simple slice, but THIS beauty, neatly piped in our container!

And... Just wow. Absolutely excellent! Super thick and creamy, and the lady fingers wonderfully sopping with coffee. Easily the best tiramisu I've eaten. Food for the gods, no regrets, 10/10 would fight for...

Alright, this one was a rollercoaster. I walked in. The building is beautiful. There is so much art on the ceiling that I never ran out of things to look at - if you bring a child, I recommend playing spot the difference between the two sides! We ordered two appetizers and two pasta dishes. While expensive (around 40 euro for 2) the appetizers were divine, comparable to what I had at a Michelin star restaurant. And then, my friend, the pasta arrived. While the lobster pasta was utterly delicious, the carbonara was... Not. I watched in excitement as the server grated the truffle I had paid eight extra euro for onto the plate. I dove in with excitement. Dear reader, it was like licking a salt lamp. They had managed to use, somehow, both too much salt AND too much pepper. They had added no other flavor. The ham, usually a tempering agent for this much salt, was equally if not more salty than the rest of the dish. A feat for the ages, any possible flavor (including that of the truffle I was so excited for) was lost amidst the dump truck of salt they had poured into this dish. Perhaps this is because I am American. I am used to spaghetti carbonara being well-balanced, with sweet notes from ham and, upon occasion, peas, as well as complex umami notes, served utop a bed of fresh, soft pasta. I had expected to be utterly blown away by superior Italian cuisine, and so being hit with a sledgehammer made of salt (and paying 24 euro for the experience) was unwelcome. Due to my nationality, please feel free to take this review with a pinch of salt, or a sledgehammer if you prefer, but I found it incredibly disappointing that the same chef who created multiple delicate, well-balanced, delicious appetizers...

We were looking for a place to eat after visiting the pantheon and this came up as one of the top reviewed restaurants. One of the hosts, Alice, noticed we were looking for food and told us about the restaurant as well as the popular dishes.

We ended up deciding to dine here and we were sat right away. Alice was our waitress and she was very friendly and considerate. We had a 22 month old child in our party and they were more than happy to accommodate.

We ordered the frutti di mare, the carbonara, the ravioli, the spaghetti with clams, and the pesto for pasta. We also ordered the zucchini flowers and the mixed salad. The pasta dishes were all excellent and some of the best pasta we've had. The flavors were great and the texture was perfect: slightly toothsome but still delicate. The carbonara was very rich and very flavorful. They were very generous with the shaved truffles as well. The ravioli had a very well balanced cream sauce to go along with the rich cheese filling. The skin of the ravioli was also the perfect texture, slightly chewy yet delicate. The frutti di mare had the perfect noodle to carry the tomato based seafood sauce and all of the seafood in the dish were cooked to perfection. The spaghetti and clams was simple yet flavorful. The zucchini flowers were a little bit too fried for our taste and the mixed salad was just a simple mix of vegetables. We enjoyed the fresh vegetables to go with the flavorful pasta sauces though.

Overall, I'd highly recommend a visit if you're...