I take it after my mum that I'm a big trip planner. Before I go anywhere I know exactly what I'm doing each day and especially, exactly where I'm going to eat.
After scouring Trip Advisor, my mum came across Osteria Barberini; a tiny little Italian restaurant only five minutes from our hotel. It had a five star rating and for good reason.
Truffles is one of them.
Set in a little back alley of Rome, this is the kind of place you would never find unless you knew where it was, and even if you did stumble across it, it's so tiny and strange that you'd probably give it a miss. But it's fully booked every night and we had to get our hotel on the case to find us a table.
Thankfully, we were able to get one on our last night.
The business is family run, so all the staff are really dedicated. The man who owns it is a pharmacist and he sits at the front desk to greet you as you walk in. He also came up to check on us several times throughout the night to make sure everything was ok.
For starters, we shared the 'Tris', consisting of three different dishes.
A whole buffalo mozzarella with sliced tomatoes up the top there.
Truffle toast with parmesan.
And the cheesy delight that was aubergine parmigiana.
All three were delicious and came out super quickly. If you like efficient service, then this place is for you.
Then came the mains.
I had spaghetti with sea bass (yes another spaghetti and fish combo!). It was delicious and light, not heavy at all like some pasta.
While my dad had something off the specials; sea bream with Porcini mushrooms and sliced black truffle.
Mum had the Bucatini with muscles.
One of the things that was fantastic was that they catered for my brother, who is a Coeliac, meaning he can't have wheat or gluten. The owner was so understanding and they all knew just what we meant when we described the allergy to them. He was able to have gluten-free spaghetti with mushrooms and truffles.
My brother now has a thing for truffles by the way; expensive taste alert.
And my boyfriend had a very similar dish to my brother's, except with fettuccine.
Only a couple of us had desserts, as we were all full. But that is by no means any excuse for a dessert warrior like myself.
The boyfriend had Tiramisu again. He said he liked it, but it wasn't as nice as the one from the previous night.
While I had what was described as a 'cherry cheesecake'. It really wasn't a cheescake at all, more like a cherry tart with ricotta in. However, I really enjoyed it as it wasn't something I was expecting. It was lovely and sweet and reminded me of a pie. And damn I love pie.
The food here was truly outstanding and what was better that it was incredibly cheap. Our entire bill came to less than the previous night, even though we had had more food and drink!
This place was so good that we actually went back for lunch the following day before we were to fly, where we sampled some of their pizza which was also amazing. We wolfed it all down so quickly that I was unable to take some snaps, but I'll let you take my word for it! My dad also asked for some truffles on his pizza, which he said he would pay for, but when we came to the final bill they hadn't even charged us for them, which was a lovely surprise.
It truly was a wonderful final evening in the City.
You can find Osteria Barberini on their website here.
0 comments