Corte del Grillo

When one thinks of Roman food, one immediately thinks of pizza and pasta (ok, well maybe not you, but the pleb in me does).  Yet Rome is also very famous for its seafood.  It’s known for being fresh and simply prepared – my favourite – so we were determined to get to a seafood restaurant one evening.

What excited me about Corte del Grillo was that the chefs were happy to prepare dishes based on the catch(es) of the day – I.e. meals that weren’t on the menu.  As anyone who knows me will tell you, I have a particular weakness for lobster and prawns (in fact, my mum says that I will end up looking like a prawn: attractive, I know) so we went for these.

As you can see, choosing our dinner wasn't easy!

We started with the prawns.  These were simply steamed and seasoned, but they were glorious – so succulent and juicy.  We then had the lobster.  It had been de-shelled and cut into smaller pieces (hence easier to eat) and boiled with potatoes, cherry tomatoes, herbs and spices.  I know this doesn’t sound particularly exciting, but truly it was.  The lobster was incredibly sweet and went perfectly with the slight saltiness of the potatoes and the creaminess of the olive oil – honestly, it was probably my favourite preparation of lobster ever!

The Prawns

The Lobster

Our final dish was the seabass baked in salt.  As usual, we had over-ordered so by this time we were really too full to eat anything else, but we had to give it a try.  After all, it was one of their specialties.  The dish did not disappoint: the fish was perfectly cooked and tender and the salt did not intrude too much.  (Oh, sorry I didn’t get a photo of the fish; I was too busy rolling around holding my stomach by this stage.)

So far I have been totally complimentary of Corte del Grillo and rightly so, given the quality of the food.  However, I was somewhat displeased when the bill arrived – it was VERY expensive.  Now, I must admit this was probably our fault, since at the start of our meal the waiter enquired if we would like to know the prices of our ‘special’ dishes, and we declined, being the (silly) carefree tourists that we were.  It should also be admitted that the seafood we ordered isn’t known to be cheap, and that we did have a bottle of wine.  That said, I don’t think a meal for 2 at a casual family-style restaurant should go into the hundreds of Euros.

Now, please don’t let that put you off going to Corte del Grillo.  I believe that the dishes on the standard menu are reasonably priced and pretty delicious (if the conversations at the tables near us were anything to go by!) and if you do want to go for the specials like we did, make sure ask for the prices at the beginning.  That way, you won’t be given a shock!

Salita del Grillo

Ristorante Roma da Osteria Corte del Grillo - +39 06 6992 2183 - www.cortedelgrillo.it

Salita del Grillo, 6, 00184 Roma, Italy