ROME – ANGELINO AI FORI

After a morning of exploring The Colosseum, Stephen and I were ready for lunch. I’m usually weary of eating near tourist attractions as the restaurants tend to be overpriced and mediocre in quality but my stomach growls were growing louder. We walked by Angelino ai Fori, located right across the street from The Forum and stopped to glance at their menu. The dishes were priced fairly and the large outdoor patio convinced us to give Angelino ai Fori a shot.

Atmosphere: Stephen and I settled in at a table on the covered patio, which spanned the entire street corner. White tables cloths covered the tables and the cover was a combination of umbrellas and foliage. The majority of diners were seated outside enjoying the warm weather and summer breeze. They were also mainly tourists.

Service: Menus were available in English and we had no issues ordering. The servers didn’t check in on us but were attentive when we needed anything. Our dishes arrived at a good pace and I felt like we could linger for us long as we wanted.

Food: To start, we ordered a classic tomato bruschetta with olive oil and garlic. The toasted bread was crunchy, the tomato sweet and ripe, and the olive oil fragrant. For mains, we opted to share a Smoked Salmon Salad and Spaghetti Carbonara. At this point we were a week into our vacation and I was sorely missing vegetables in my diet. The big bowl of fresh greens were lightly dressed with a good variety of textures and flavours. There were pine nuts, raisins, sesame seeds and fennel.

Our plate of pasta was creamy with a generous amount of bacon and parmesan cheese. The pasta itself was cooked al dente with a great chew. Stephen and I were both actually surprised with how much we liked the pasta. Lunch ended with a serving of Tiramisu that was creamy, full of coffee flavour and topped with cocoa powder. I enjoyed every bite and the sweet treat was just what I needed to fuel for the afternoon (plus another gelato stop of course).

Overall, lunch at Angelino was a pleasant surprise. Nothing was extraordinary but definitely exceeded our expectations. For a quick bite near The Colosseum and Forum, it was a pretty good meal.