Editor Pick
Il Convivio
- May 22, 2007
- Rated 5 of 5 by
artslover from Calgary, Alberta
This was our one evening of rain the entire trip so we took a taxi. Instead of dropping us at the restaurant, the driver stopped on a major road and pointed us to a small parallel street barely wide enough for a scooter. That wasn’t even the street, the restaurant is on an equally narrow alley which isn’t even named on the huge map of Rome I had.
We had made reservations through the restaurants website at: www.ilconviviotroiani.com because it receives very high ratings for its food.
This was described as having typical Roman recipes reinvented in a contemporary style and presented in an elegant setting. The more modern but formal decor is matched by impeccable, equally formal service. There are three vaulted dining rooms filled with a large number of older men in suits. The wine list, with bottles from all over the world, is a pleasure.
We were brought an amuse of a mozzarella stuffed mussel. It was amazing. We had sole and crispy artichoke with a curry spice in the sauce, rigatoni with quail meatballs, roast pigeon with fried noodles and tangerines; duck carpaccio with rucola and pineapple foam, baccala with artichokes; bufalo mozzarella wrapped in strings of potato and deep fried accompanied with anchovy and a sweet and sour red pepper sorbet; lamb four ways – a chop, stuffed outside of a chop, tripe and sweetbreads.
We manage two bottles of Brunello da Montalcino that evening and saw for the first time, the sommelier "curing" the wine glasses. He took the small amount of wine after the initial tasting, swirled it over the inside of the glass, then transfered the wine to each of the other glasses and swirled it in those glasses, then he served the wine from the decanter.
We also managed dolci: cake with apple, raspberry coulis and champagne sorbet; fresh fruit with pineapple, lemon, and strawberry sorbet and bucccello, a traditional Tuscan cake.
An incredible meal. So delicious and inventive. As to be expected, it was expensive, €286 (about C$450) not including the wine, but for three courses of food for three of us, that is less than we’ve paid at many restaurants in Canada and the United States, particularly Manhattan. And vastly unlike our usual experiences in North America, the bar bill was less than the food despite having two bottles of Brunello and post-prandial drinks.
From journal A Week in Rome to Wine, Dine, and Tour