Taverna Trastevere

I ended up at Taverna Trastevere for an early evening in London. Small place, a few tables outside, nicely decorated. No kitschy Roman vibes with Colosseum photos plastered everywhere—there's actually a certain elegance to it.

Let's start with the supplì. Two arrive, classic Roman style. Except the breading and frying are pretty underwhelming, soft instead of crispy. Nothing special on the nose either. The filling saves the day, mozzarella stretching nicely and decent flavor, but the rice is quite overcooked. In short, acceptable but nothing more.

The carbonara also falls short. Good pasta, generous portion, cream beautifully thick as it should be. You can taste the pepper. The real problem: the guanciale. Good flavor but too dry, very lean. Not up to the standard of the rest of the dish, which is still decent for London.

Ah, the tiramisu. Here we're talking Roman-sized portion, so generous. Creamy, nice level of cocoa. It works.

38 pounds per person in London isn't terrible for this type of place. The carbonara is worth the price, the supplì are meh. If they sort out the frying and the guanciale, we're golden.