Best of Rome Eats: Dinner at Dino and Toni's
Dinner at Dino and Toni's was so memorable, it deserves a post all on its own. My two traveling partners and I arrived right before the restaurant opened for the night, 7:30pm. It was a small dining room with no windows to the outside. I wouldn't have ever walked in on my own, but it was recommended by Lonely Planet (which isn't always super reliable), it was in the area of the Vatican, and we were really hungry not having had lunch while we were at the Vatican.
The dining room is sort of how you would imagine an Italian restaurant in America would be decorated, with lots of knick knacks, random drawings and paintings, and pictures of famous people who'd been to there before (e.g. White House catering director).
What really made the evening, besides the food, was that we were served by Dino himself! I didn't realize this until another waitstaff was calling for Dino and he responded! You can see that this restaurant is so casual, that in some places Toni is spelled with an "i" (see last picture), in other places it's spelled with a "y" (see below). Here is Dino himself.
What made Dino so memorable? He's exactly what you would think of if you pictured "Italian restaurant proprietor" in your head. Lots of gesticulating with the hands, loud voice ordering people around. When he'd roll a cart full of food out he'd yell, "attenzi-OH-ne! attenzi-OH-ne!" He really recommended the antipasti plate, saying it was "mia speci-AH-lita" and gesturing to himself. We wanted to just order one to start with, and he argued with us, "NO! Three people, TWO! TWO! oh-KAY! ONE!" getting mad at us when he caved in and let us order just one.
I can see why he suggested we get two plates. That's because a lot of stuff on his antipasti plate is "one of a kind." I tried the two things in the foreground - the one on the left was like a baked cheese, and the one on the right was a deep fried olive.
A surprise was when we got this plate, thinking that he mixed up an order. Turns out this is antipasti plate part 2! It was a super thin pizza crust, and part of it was rolled over, enclosing cheese and rucola. On top of the first part of the open section was tomato sauce and cheese, on the second part was blue cheese, and on top of the third part was roasted bell peppers. Really cool to get all of this variety!
The inside of the rucola and cheese stuffed pizza crust. A bit too salty.
I read that Romans love to eat tripe, and thankfully my friend is an adventurous eater, so we ordered tripe. (My friend's colleague was game enough to try a few bites!) This tripe had a stronger taste than I am used to eating in Chinese restaurants. But it was not bad, being covered in tomato sauce and shredded cheese.
We also ordered spaghetti alla amatriciana - with bacon (or dried pork cheek?), pecorino, a bit of tomato sauce and hot pepper. The spaghetti was very al dente, which I got used to, and the sauce was rich and porky. I heard this is also a favorite among Romans.
Dino had recommended the roast veal as a "second course" along with the tripe. The antipasti being antipasti, and the pasta dish being "first course. We ended up also getting the "roast piglet." These were both excellent. So simply prepared, sitting in a very thin gravy, with piles of roasted yellow potatoes on top.
We also got a pizza, since this restaurant did call itself a pizzeria. While we could only manage eating half of it by this point, I am so glad we got it. The night before we had gone to dinner at another pizzeria and ordered pizza. There, the crust was so thick and with so much cheese on top, it was quite heavy. This pizza, on the other hand, was so light and crispy. It was almost like a pastry crust, one that only had two flaky layers.
Through all of our dinner, Dino was rushing around, saying things we couldn't understand, generally being very busy. When we finally left the restaurant, we saw why - the whole sidewalk past his little storefront was lined with tables that he was serving. This was just such a beautiful image to end our dinner on.
