Da Cesare al Casaletto

I stopped by Cesare al Casaletto with my wife after hearing about it from seemingly everyone. The parking is a bit awkward, the entrance is right on the street, but whatever.

High expectations. Too high? No.

We started with fiori di zucca and supplì. The fried food is absolutely stellar: crispy on the outside, no grease, everything perfectly dry as it should be. The supplì are genuinely excellent, the kind made properly with that string of mozzarella that pulls through.

Then amatriciana for me, cacio e pepe for her. I have to say something? They're among the best I've eaten in Rome. And in Rome you don't mess around with amatriciana—either you know how to make it or you stay home. They know how to make it here. The cacio e pepe too, tossed just right, pepper you can actually taste.

The only letdown was the tiramisù. It's good, don't get me wrong. It's just that after everything else you're expecting a grand finale and instead it's... ordinary. Let's say that after those first courses any dessert would struggle to compete.

What struck me most though was the menu. There were about ten dishes I would have wanted to order all at once. We had to make painful choices to avoid rolling out of there. We'll definitely be back.

25 euros per person. In Rome, for the way you've eaten, that's more than fair.

I'm going back next week.