Fiaschetteria Beltramme, Rome

Fiaschetteria Beltramme, on Via della Croce, has been around since 1886 and has a marble plaque inside the doorway decreeing the restaurant to be of significant interest by the Italian Minister of Culture. There is no telephone number, no bookings, no menus in English and no personal tables; you must share a table with others when you dine there. What they do have, however, is very good traditional Roman cooking in a unique dining room with the walls totally covered in art and a big table at the back where lone diners seemed to be eating. The owners seem a little eccentric, it gets full real quick and, unlike many places around here that cater to tourists, it closes at 2.30 p.m and re opens at night.
The excellent quality of the cooking and ingredients means the dining room is full of locals popping in for lunch from the office or shopping trip, Madonna has been spotted here and in the Dolce Vita days of the 50’s it was a haunt for playwrights, film makers and social commentators like Ennio Flaiano and Federico Fellini.
Pasta with clams and mussels x 2, beef with artichokes, grilled tuna with a salad, bread and a litre of wine was 68 euro. Smashing.
my full blog is on http://www.salvos.co.uk/diary/blog/index.php?show=0,12,2006

Favorite Dish: beef with artichokes or ruchetta when artie season finishes.