Dinner in Rome

I was lucky enough to meet a travelling foodie on my flight from Sydney to Rome. She is a well travelled lady and we connected while waiting to board our flight on Sydney. The strange coincidence being that on the Singapore to Rome sector, we had seats in the same row and were lucky enough to have an empty seat between us. Fate does work in mysterious ways!

My newfound travelling buddy is NR and she is from Newcastle. We had our own plans for the first day in Rome but we decided to meet up for dinner near the Pantheon. NR was in Italy last year and did spend quite a few days walking around Rome and she was told of this restaurant to try out and she did. She enjoyed the food then so she recommended we try this restaurant out for dinner.

I was only too happy to take up suggestions, especially since she had dined there previously. But the dinner session only started from 8.00 pm so we walked around the Pantheon, walked around Piazza Navona and browsed through some of the shops.

Piazza Navona

The famous fountain at the Piazza

It felt good to be back in Rome, the summer evening was balmy, everyone looked so chilled out hanging around Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. I have been to these 2 iconic places before but it never fails to delight me being there. The Pantheon is such a unique church, it felt spiritual being there. There was a church service going on while the tourists milled around looking at the various tombs plus marvelling at the architecture of the hole in the roof. I loved seeing the sun light come through the roof. It felt like God was smiling down on us. Quite surreal, really!

The exterior of the Pantheon plus the hordes of people

The roof of the Pantheon

The tourists taking photos while a service is going on in the background!

The restaurant is located not too far way from the Pantheon. It is, however, off the beaten track and if you didn't know about it, you wouldn't have realised there was restaurant located in this little lane. The weather was lovely enough for us to sit outside. The restaurant is called Il Desiderio Preso Per la Coda. It is located on Vicolo Della Palomba. We each had an entree and a main. We skipped dessert because we were both so jet lagged and could barely keep our eyes open after we finished the second course.

I did enjoy the meal, so did NR. For entree, I chose the Ravioli of sea bream with basil pesto and NR chose the Braised aubergine with capers, sun dried tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and served with bread (this dish was on the specials of the day). We both enjoyed our dishes, my ravioli was perfectly al dente, the sea bream was nicely minced and did not have the fishy taste that can sometimes overpower a meal. The basil pesto worked perfectly with the fish ravioli. Delicious!

Ravioli of sea bream

Braised aubergine with buffalo mozzarella

For our second dish, we both chose the same option. It was Roasted veal with chianti, brandy, speck and ginger sauce, served with mash potatoes. The mash potatoes looked slightly incongruous as it is so not an Italian dish but boy did it go well with the veal! The veal was thinly sliced and so tender. I could taste the chianti and ginger in the sauce. A beautifully balanced dish..what more can I say except that I finished it
all.

Not an attractive looking veal with chianti dish but trust me, it was delicious!

Il Desiderio Preso Per La Coda
Vicolo Della Palomba, 23
Rome
Italy

Website: www.ildesideriopresoperlacoda.com