Do NOT Eat at Flavio al Velavevodetto

This past week, my little blog celebrated its 50,000th page view within about a year and a few weeks from my original start date. Because there's a chance you have stumbled on my site as a tourist looking for great places to eat in Rome, I recommend that you do NOT eat at Flavio al Velavevodetto! 

This place has received too much attention from the foodie blogs of Rome and perhaps they've become too popular for the staff to handle a heavy workload.  My wife and I used to go there because it had a good name for the food, and because it used to be a Best Budget Eat in Rome with surprisingly good and affordable dishes. But things have changed. We are locals in Rome and we will never go back and neither should you.  There are much better restaurants in Rome that will be more attentive and serve better food than Flavio al Velavevodetto.

My wife and I brought our two friends there a week ago because this had always been our go-to place for great Cucina Romana, the authentic Roman pasta dishes. We honestly went about once a month for the past nine months. The past few times before, especially in August, we noticed the food was becoming less satisfactory than the beginning experiences. Portion sizes were dramatically smaller than usual, taste of food was just ok, pasta wasn't as al dente as usual, in our eyes, it began to fail in general. We remembered the food tasting much better.

The Amatriciana at Flavio al Velavevodetto used to be so good... used to be.

Every Italian takes holiday in August so I looked over the most recent negative experience thinking the usual chefs were on vacation, that the next time would be better. September rolled around, it was a Friday night so you know the normal chefs were there and we had our worst experience yet, so bad in fact that we will never again patron this restaurant while we live in Rome and will forever recommend that people skip it if they are considering it.

It was a mix of the service and food this night. Our server forgot to bring us menus. After 10 minutes of waiting, we asked him for menus. After 10 more minutes, we asked him again. Keep in mind, he saw us often as he ran past serving food or taking other orders. Eventually, we gave up and just took them from a nearby empty table.

Next came the water and wine request. We ordered white for our friends, red for us and a bottle of water while we looked over the menu. The water came out in 5 minutes, not bad. The white wine took an additional 10 or 15 minutes and he completely forgot to bring the other carafe of red wine that we requested. And don't worry, we definitely asked at least twice for our red wine. So, more waiting and more asking where it was, and more of his saying "just a moment" in italian. 

Then the food came out.  The fried food antipasti tasted good.  That much, I was at least pleased with. Once we finished, we waited about 30 minutes for the next part of our meal which was much too long. When the primi arrived, the pasta plates, it continued going down hill. Portions were average to small, the taste was just average bordering too salty, overcooked pasta instead of al dente, nothing too pleasing.  Then the secondi came out, well, one of them, because he said he only heard us order the one meatball plate. So ten more minutes wait while we watched our friend eat her secondi, then ours came out and it was another slap in the face: a severely reduced portion of potatoes than what our friend received.  Why serve six total pieces at all when most plates serve a pile of at least twenty. The person opposite with the same plate just laughed. We ordered this dish every time we went there and knew what it usually looked like and this was not up to their standard. So we decided to talk to the staff about the terrible service that night.

Eventually we voiced all of our complaints, told them we were frequent visitors of the restaurant and he added an extra half liter of wine which when he asked if we wanted it, we said no. But he didn't comp the first half-liter, he just went and refilled it even though we didn't want it.

Then we asked for the bill. By this time, we assumed he would want us out of there too, but no, he wanted us to sit there for another 15 or 20 minutes. Awful.  So he brought out the bill and he noted that  he gave our secondi as free. We thanked him and waited for him to come back several minutes later to pick up our money. 

But when we paid the bill and he came back with our change, which was supposed to be 2 euro, he brought back only a 1 euro coin, set it on the table and walked away immediately. We looked down at it trying to remember if we read the bill incorrectly. Nope, the whole table agreed we were owed 2 euro. All we could do was laugh at the terrible experience and how spiteful the server was for questioning his terrible service and the kitchen's issues. By that time, though, we'd had enough of the battle and left without asking for our extra euro back. Enjoy the tip, pal.

I hope Flavio al Velovevodetto does something to change its ways because it has supremely become worse over the last few months. HEED MY WORDS, visitors of Rome, go someplace else if want a good Roman food experience.

Rome's Bulk Wine Vendors

Another good reason to come to Italy is for the wine.

Whether or not the ancient inhabitants were first in the world to make it, Italy has been making excellent quality wine for centuries. Its volcanic soil, combined with regional mountainous slopes or rolling hills and surprising abundance of daily sunlight, work wonders for the growing grape vines.

One of the wonderful things I learned while living in Rome is that the cheap wine here is like the average price wine in the United States. Early on, I started purchasing the various bottles of red wine that cost 1 Euro.  Typically, they were wines from the region closest to Rome. And they were just alright. It reminded me of the cheap box-wine back in the States.  Drinkable to the unknowing palate. The experienced wine taster, however, pushes themselves through it.

After realizing that all the 1 Euro options were pretty much unappealing to me, for example, too sharp, too bright, whatever the reason, I moved up to the 2 Euro bottles. The cheapest Italian wine was all too similar to buying those $3 or $4 bottles at the bottom of the shelves. Not good.

2 Euro wine is slightly better than 1 Euro wine, but not good enough for me. It still seemed like the quality was that of a $6 to $8 bottle. Some bordered on decent but most didn't.

On to the 3 Euro bottles. Now that took a leap in quality! Much better.  Much more palatable to the highly discerning tongue. Smoother, more flavor, and thankfully, more options! Many of the 3 Euro bottles taste closer to a $10 bottle purchased in the States.  Most times while I lived in the U.S., I would try to find a bottle between $9-$12 for any red wine whether it be from Spain, Argentina, the U.S., Italy, etc. I'd happily drink better wines but the budget usually wins over my desires.

And that's where Italy has an outstanding solution to my budget friendly/good quality wine desires.

The answer: SFUSO.
In English, you would call that draft wine.

My sfuso vendor at Testaccio's covered market.

After visiting this vendor once a week for the last, say 12 weeks in a row, this man's coworker who I assume is his wife finally said to me in Italian, "I see you all the time.  Why are you here? To study?"

"No, signora.  La mia moglie studia storia del arte. Sono una casalingo."

And then she breaks out in laughter. Why? Because I said, "No, ma'am. My wife studies art history. I am a house wife." And it's even more funny to Italians because ending the word, casalinga, with an -o- suggests that I am a male house wife. And that word doesn't exist in the Italian dictionary. So it's funny to them. Everyone loves a good play on words, right?

The laughter tells me we are now friends, and hopefully she will continue to remember me in the future as a good customer.  Because as you continue to get to know your vendors, randomly, you start getting more product for the usual amount spent. It pays to be friendly.

For 3.20 Euro, I get a 1.5 Liter plastic bottle filled with rather good Montepulciano red wine. Many restaurants you go to in Italy offer this same type of good enough but still inexpensive "house wine", vino rosso della casa.

The best news is that the vendors offer a number of different varietals. A couple reds, a couple whites, some dry, some sweet, some cheaper than others. Sfuso vendors typically are located at the major outdoor Italian Markets. I have occasionally found the set-up in random neighborhood supermarkets as well. You just have to look for them.

And make sure to ask what kinds they have. Samples are quite common.  After all, its not like they have to open a bottle for you!

As for the bottles in the Italian supermarkets, I'd say the average wine consumer will be quite pleased with any bottle 4 Euro and higher.  Almost every one I have tried reminds me of the quality of a $12-$15 bottle.

Restaurant Review: Pastificio

For those who are familiar with the Spanish Steps, you very likely know already that the area is easily one of the most expensive parts of Rome. Adjacent to the steps is a tea room where it costs 10 Euro for tea ($13.00!). Going there for high tea to get the extra sandwiches, fruit salad and pastries that come with your afternoon tea? That will knock you back 31 Euro. Some of the biggest names in the clothing industry have their own stores located right next to this touristy Spanish square known as Piazza di Spagna. Prada, Bulgari, Gucci. They are just a few examples setting expectations of real estate value and consumer price points.

Thankfully, a couple streets down towards Piazza del Popolo (the one with the huge obelisk north of the Spanish square), people looking for a high quality lunch at extremely affordable rates need look no further.

Pastificio is a fresh pasta maker. It's actually the generic name for a pasta shop, the same way forno is the generic name for a bread bakery. How you know they make pasta is because their neon sign above the serving counter says Pasta Fresca,  Fresh Pasta. Can't miss it. From what I know, every week day starting at 1:00pm, they offer the area's best budget eats for lunch.

4 Euro for a plate of their fresh made pasta and a plastic cup for Chianti wine and/or water at the counters.

Pastificio lines their small establishment with bottles of cold water. The wine bottle is up near the register where you purchase the lunch. If you are lucky enough to find a seat, cram yourself in, make friends with your neighbor and don't bother stopping yourself from raving about how good the fresh pasta is.  It's likely your new friend will gladly agree with you.

Or take it to go and eat it on the Spanish Steps. But guard yourself well! Those other tourists hanging out in the Roman sun will spot your doughy treasure and likely trick you into looking the other way as they sneak a hand into your dish as if it were the classic french fry steal.

It's worth mentioning that I had already eaten at least half of my portion before I took the picture... Indeed the quantity/price/quality ratios are through the roof at Pastificio!

It seems each week day they offer this lunch special. So far, I have found that they make two varieties of pasta that day. For example, I went yesterday which was a Thursday. In Italy, Thursdays are traditionally gnocchi days so you would find many restaurants offering that product that day. The same holds for Monday through Wednesday, each having a traditional pasta made that particular day.

Pastificio offered the traditional Thursday Roman pasta, gnocchi in tomato sauce with a meatball, and then they offered their version of Gricia using their fresh slightly-thicker-than-spaghetti pasta combined with olive oil, pepper, and pecorino romano cheese. Simple but delicious.

Pastificio is located in the first block of Via della Croce, a bordering street of Piazza di Spagna. Lunch only is served at 13:00/1:00pm. If you want to buy their fresh pasta, they are also open Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays.

Pastificio
Via della Croce, number 8
Roma, Italia, 00187
Near the Spanish Steps, take the metro A line to the stop: Spagna