Caffé Castroni In Roma

08/09/2025: It was ok, the spaghetti carbonara was scrambled. However, the prosciutto and rockmelon was delicious. If I returned I would try the cacio e pepe.

08/09/2025: I had high hopes as I had heard many great things and read plenty of stellar reviews. Maybe we got them on a bad day, I can’t be sure. One thing to note is that not a single customer that night was Italian. There was a buzz of American and English conversation. We got off on the wrong foot as two of us arrived promptly ahead of the rest of our party of 5, at which point we discovered we could not sit at the table and wait, we needed the full party present. This is understandable as a busy establishment. I have not included this as part of my rating. After being seated, it took 20 minutes for our orders to be taken even for just drinks. The thing I tend to judge a Roman restaurant on is its ability to cook the basic classic dishes. Their cacio e pepe was decent - a nicely emulsified sauce, adherence to the recipe. However, their carbonara was a massive let-down after all I’d heard about it. Three of us ordered it, and three of us received scrambled eggs. They cooked it far too hot. You could tell by the colour of the sauce that the yolks were not best quality. There was no sauce, just clumps. The photos do not demonstrate this well, however once the spaghetti was separated, you could see how hot it was on the interior. They however were friendly, and once the orders were taken the service was quite quick after that.