Ristorante il Bavaglino

Cart and I were invited for the opening of a restaurant called “Il Bavaglino” last weekend.

Located in Via Ruggero di Lauria, it is within walking distance to the Vatican museum and also the Cipro metro station which is on my way home from work. So I could have this while driving home at the end of the day! Hehehe.

By the way, the name bavaglino means bib, like what kids use on their chest while eating. It sounds very cute. Nevertheless, its a classy and cosy looking restaurant. I really liked the beautiful tableware, and how every drinking glass was etched with the logo.

While I have to admit that while I do not have a very sophisticated palate, but my unrefined mouth could tell that food that we had was lovely. And here are what we had :

Antipasti :

Tonno scottato al finocchietto con riduzione di balsamico, fiore di zucca grigliato ripieno di spigola e zucchina romana con coulis di pomodoro

This is my tuna, lightly seared and it was so good paired up with the fennel and balsamic reduction. I would have never thought that the fresh fish and the cream would be so exquisite together.

There is also grilled zucchini flower stuffed with sea bass, which was a classy and upscale (and also healthier) version of my favourite “fior di zucca”

Cart, who is vegetarian, had cheese with vegetables inside, instead of tuna and there was ricotta cheese for the zucchini flower.

Primi :

Paccheri con seppie, fave e pecorino romano con mentuccia croccante

It’s typical to have pasta as a main course in Italy. And since it’s fava beans season, we had paccheri, which is a type of big and round pasta served with pecorino romano, a type of sharp cheese and cuttlefish with a touch of crunchy mint.

I almost expected the dish to be strong, but fortunately it wasn’t. The fava beans were small and sweet (older beans would taste more … grassy) and balanced the cheese well.

Trofie con vongole, asparagi e peperoni concasse al basilico

Trofie, one of my favourite kind of pasta (on account that it’s curly and cute) served with asparagus, peperoni and clams. It was so delicious! And I was sorry when it was all gone from my plate.

Secondi :

Calamaro ripieno con patate viola e fave, Raviolo di spada con caponatina

Second course would usually entail a meat based dish and we had squid stuffed with red potatoes and fava beans. For some reason, it reminds me kind of like eating sushi. The little package on the left is a sort of ravioli, but instead of pasta, it’s made of sword fish and stuffed with caponatina.

Cart’s vegetarian version was really good too.

Oh gosh, look at that parmigiana di melanzana! One of my favourite Italian things to eat! It looks so gorgeous and tasted so good, I was almost wishing that I had that instead. This was accompanied with a medley of seasonal vegetable tempura.

Dolci :

Gelato alla birra, carpaccio di ananas con gelato al riso venere

For desserts, we had gelato alla birra, which I could barely touch. While it didn’t contain any alcohol, I just don’t like strong, bitter tastes.

But I absolutely adore the black rice ice cream, which is amazingly not at all black in colour here. Served with a thin slice of pineapple, it was so light and delicately sweet, it was wonderful.

All in all, I had a very pleasant and lovely evening with good food, and good company in a beautiful place. It’s hard to ask for anything better 🙂

Il Bavaglino
Via Ruggero di Lauria 26/A – Roma