Cesare al Pellegrino

We ended up at Cesare al Pellegrino pretty much by chance. Small place, charming, no unnecessary frills.

We started with the totanetti alla diavola: absolutely brilliant. Truly exquisite, the kind that makes you say "okay, these people know how to cook". Then we asked for gricia and carbonara even though they weren't on the menu. No problem whatsoever, they made them for us.

The gricia deserves special mention. Finding one so perfectly balanced with pecorino in Rome is getting harder and harder, I swear. They nailed it here. The carbonara was excellent too, only the guanciale was a touch too dry. Nothing catastrophic, mind you, but you could tell.

Tiramisù was good, right in line with the standard of decent Roman tiramisù. In other words, it hits the mark.

Service was super friendly, genuinely pleasant. The setting is no-frills but welcoming.

The only thing that made me raise an eyebrow: 3€ per person for coperto. For Rome that's a bit above average, but okay.

28€ per person all in. Given the quality, I'd say we got our money's worth. We'll definitely be back to try the things we didn't get around to this time.