La Carbonara
The entrance to La Carbonara may be a loud, brash and heavily branded bar but behind it is a terrific restaurant selling home made pasta and traditional roman dishes.
Open since 1906, this “Osteria con cucina” is owned by the Rossi family; Teresa Rossi, the matriarch, is the chef in charge of Carbonara’s interesting new takes on traditional recipes.
We tried rigatoni with coda alla vaccinara, and two other pasta dishes including one made with a pistacchio sauce. With the exception of the rigatoni, the pasta was home made. All three dishes, along with a steak, were excellent. Also of note was the frittura “La Carbonara”; a generous portion of battered vegetables, including pumpkin, aubergine, and artichoke.
Prices are also terrific—dishes made with home made pasta start at €7, and the bottles on the wine list begin at €13. Four of us ate a couple of dishes each, and the bill left change from €80.
The brash decor and thumping music might not be to everybody’s taste, but if you can ignore that, lurking within the grafitti-covered walls of La Carbonara is a traditional, inventive, and good value Roman dining experience.
The name Carbonara, incidentally, doesn’t come from the classic Roman pasta dish made with egg (and as it’s been there since 1906, it almost certainly predates the dish). Instead, the original owners were carbonai—coal men.