Armando al Pantheon

I arrived with high expectations, I'll admit it. When every ranking lists a place among Rome's best carbonaras, sooner or later you end up going. Online booking mandatory, they even took your card details as a deposit with a penalty for no-shows. Fair enough, I get it.

The restaurant is just steps from the Pantheon, small, a bit dated, a few tables outside. The little piazza does its job: lovely as always.

Let's start with what goes right. The gricia was excellent — and I mean excellent, knowing that in Rome it's a rare thing. Flavorful, with real guanciale, none of that clever cream trick with pecorino that's become the norm everywhere. The buffalo mozzarella and carciofo alla romana were good too, no complaints there.

Then the carbonara arrived. I sent the first one back. Egg scrambled, pasta slightly overcooked, guanciale almost invisible. I didn't do it for snobbiness, I wanted to judge them fairly, not unfairly. The second: improved pasta, more guanciale, but the egg looked like foam. Too emulsified, maybe with too much egg white. Not silky as it should be. Disappointing on the second try too.

The tiramisu? Standard.

They applied a spontaneous discount on the bill for the pasta mess. Nice touch, unrequested. The service was attentive throughout the evening though.

In short, 25 euros a head for a decent place with quality ingredients and professional staff. But if you came specifically for the carbonara, you've picked the wrong restaurant. In Rome there are thousands of better carbonaras, and I'm still left wondering who votes for these rankings.