Trippa Romana at Ai Villini in Rome
For some reason my friends already wanted to go for dinner. We just managed to get our Roma tourist passes at the Vatican City, maybe all those people sapped the energy out of my friends. Anyway, again we didn’t have any plans for dinner here, I’m sure we were would be able to find a place to eat if we just keep walking. We decided to keep walking back towards our apartment. Along the way, we found the grocery which was near our apartment and bought some supplies. We will be in Rome for a few days so we need to stock up on stuff. A lot of the stuff in the grocery weren’t new to me anymore. I have seen them in my local Tesco, prices weren’t that different either.
Lamb Chops at Ai Villini in Rome
Along the way, we noticed a restaurant which was still closed. Apparently, it was still too early. We went for groceries first before coming back to this place. The name of the place is Ai Villini. It had a Trip Advisor sticker on the door, I don’t know it is supposed to mean that it is good since a lot of the restaurants that I have been to seem to have this precious sticker. We actually waited outside the restaurant until they opened. There wasn’t anything interesting in the area so we didn’t mind waiting. Ai Villini is supposedly a good place for Roman cuisine. This is probably the first time I heard of Roman cuisine. Immediately images of emperors and gladiators came to mind when it said Roman. Is it ancient dishes eaten by those Romans?
Tiramisu at Ai Villini in Rome
I never really got my answer to that question. The food didn’t really seem very “ancient” to me. My guess is that the food is the regional food of the area of Rome. I wasn’t really sure how different is that from the rest of Italy. One this is for sure, I wasn’t having pasta. I had something called trippa romana. This is tripe or innards prepared in Roman style. When it came out it looked more like pasta. I know tripe isn’t really the healthiest stuff around but I like eating it when I get the chance once in a while. The rubbery texture isn’t too tough and it gives character to the food. The sauce was okay, it wasn’t exactly just tomato sauce either.
My friends had some pork chops and another dish which I can’t identify anymore. It was covered in some kind of orange sauce which was similar to mine. We also ordered a bottle of house wine. It is really strange for me to be having wine every night but it is not every day that I live in a place where wine is cheap, probably cheaper than water. There were people who ate at the restaurant as well, despite that it is not really in a busy area. I guess, it is a place worth eating at as well. I was just glad that I didn’t have any pasta or pizza this time around, I was hoping to keep it like that until the end of the trip.
Ai Villini
Via Marcantonio Colonna, 48, 00192 Roma
+39 06 3216766
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/AiVillini.kmz} zoom=19]