Tuttifrutti

A very simple and light roman cuisine, with first quality ingredients, everything really homemade. The best 'pizzelle' we ever had! No much choice but the menu changes quite often. The look has recently changed, clean and minimal but now not so cold as at the begining.

No-one guided me through anything; I was ignored by both the proprietors who were too busy entertaining their friends, having a drink behind the bar or going outside to smoke a cigarette. The food was unexciting , the menu was very limited and the service was appalling.At nine o,clock on a Saturday evening two weeks ago , the place was about one third full and I can only assume the restaurant has changed hands from its glory days and the word has gone around. I will certainly never return and I share Valter's disappointment because the review left me eagerly anticipating my visit instead of which my evening was ruined

I don't know if something happened between the review written by the guide's author (and apparently the review by Hillary), but I can't find enough words to state how disappointing was our visit to Tutti-frutti.

In the event that nothing major happened, I am actually also extremely disappointed with TimeOut since a 100% positive record has been spoiled, in particular bearing in mind the fact that this restaurant had a star pointing it as "not to be missed".

First, it must be mentioned that the place resembles an East Germany, 1950's factory cafeteria.

This look is a perfectly intellectual exercise in stone cold mortuary decor.

Down to the tiniest detail. Thousands and thousands of Euros were spent to produce a perfectly impersonal but tailor made decor (the lighting is a perfect example).

Both the service and the food follow the same motto. BY FAR the worst meal we had in 4 days in Rome, including the airport food we had before leaving which was ten fold better.

If you have been to Italy you are bound to know the AutoGrill chain which caters fairly cheap but decent food in motorways and in scattered spots inside Italy's major cities.

Tutti-frutti's food was in line with the lower end of what you get at an AutoGrill restaurant (with the exception of a starter as I will point out below).

The pizzelle were a joke. Bad quality mini pizza bread with even worse tomato topping (stuff you buy on cans).

My starter was a decent to good fish carpaccio. Good seasoning and very fresh fish made it a good experience.

As main pasta course (primo piato), I had gnocchi with mussels. The gnocchi were grossly uncooked and the dressing very disappointing. The mussels were an hit or miss experience. Some tasted good, some bad.

My better half had raviolloni with ricotta and spinach and the best way to describe them was that I can cook the same dish to a higher standard in 5 minutes using canned tomato and any "fresh" pasta ravioli bought in the supermarket.

The tiramisu was decent, but by that point, we were so disappointed that we wanted to leave as soon as possible.

The overall feeling is that people go there for the wrong reasons: there were people arriving and complimenting the barren and impersonal decor!!!

The whole experience lasted around 30 minutes, adding to the negative feeling that we were rushed to part with 70 euros in exchange for pretty $%&# food.

A final note: the wine glasses are also taken from a time machine. Very very basic tiny wine glasses, the sort that you still find in really bad restaurants.

We may have been unlucky with the wine chosen as well, but the best waty to describe it is that even if I tried I would not find a more suitable wine: another exercise in blandness.

Taking the tip from the TimeOut Rome guidebook we trekked down to Piramide to try this restaurant, and we're very glad that we did.

It was full and buzzing when we arrived around 8pm on Saturday night (Jan 30, 2010) and although we didn't book ahead they found us a place.

The service was a tiny bit rushed but the food was outstanding and piping hot. We had the pizelle as a starter and followed with a Veal roll with courgettes and some lovely mashed potatoes for me and Spicy beef meatballs with couscous for my husband.

His dessert was fruit sorbet served in the husk/shell/peel of the fruit it tasted of (walnet ice in a walnut shell, kiwi sorbet in half a kiwi, etc) and mine was home made chocolate cake with fresh heavy cream.

Everything was delightful, friendly and the best meal we had all weekend. Water but no wine or coffee came to 48euros.

DEFINITELY recommended.