Antico Forno Roscioli

We finally managed to visit Roscioli after booking online more than a month in advance. The restaurant is featured in multiple guides for both its Carbonara and Amatriciana, so expectations were decidedly high. Despite this, we were more than satisfied with both dishes, delighted to find plates that lived up to the hype. The real strength of both lies undoubtedly in the guanciale, cut into perfectly sized cubes and beautifully rendered, offering simultaneously a crisp bite and a soft, explosively savory follow-through. Excellently cooked pasta and top-quality ingredients across the board complete the symphony of each dish. The only aspects I'd personally improve—though these are merely personal preferences—would be a more generous hand with pepper in both dishes and greater silkiness in the cream of the Carbonara. We also tried some antipasti: mortadella and a Puglian stracciata with zucchini and bottarga, and being entirely in the realm of ingredient quality, you're in its Roman temple here, where there's absolutely nothing to fault. For dessert we had an excellent tiramisu, quite generous and exceptionally balanced between sweet and bitter, nearly perfect, and an amaretto cheesecake, which while good, didn't leave much of an impression. The restaurant is therefore highly recommended by us, but we'd point out a few things to keep in mind. 1) The place is small, with tables tucked into little rooms or along the passages of this food emporium, so the seating is somewhat cramped and a bit sacrificed for space. 2) The restaurant is on the radar of tourists from all over the world, so booking is essential, preferably well in advance, because showing up at the door hoping for a table is simply wasted time any day of the week and at any time of year.