Not Just Another Local Restaurant: Mamma Angelina

Mamma Angelina
Viale Boito Arrigo, 65
Tel 06 97615687

I’ve got to take you to Mamma Angelina.
He just kept saying it.

Whenever we were in the vicinity: Hey, Mamma Angelina’s just over on that street, I’ve got to take you there!

Whenever we split the bill at another neighborhood place: Mamma Angelina costs about the same, but the quality…. I’ve got to take you there!

Or when the wine list was too short, too expensive, or nonexistent: The wine list at Mamma Angelina is longer than the menu and it’s only a neighborhood place! I’ve got to take you!

And so he finally did. My friend Sacha, who despite his Russian name (Communist sympathies in the family? His mom is Natasha), is Roman by over nine generations and knows everyone on every block of the neighborhood. Most restaurant owners of the old establishments have watched him grow up seated at their tables and scrambling around their kitchens, so it’s safe to say that the guy knows his local eateries.

We booked a table for 8:30 on a Wednesday night. By 9pm the place was packed and the wait was, well, you wouldn’t wait. This is a place where diners linger. The décor doesn’t scream anything beyond generic Roman restaurant: wood paneled walls, ‘60s tile floors, characterless furniture, and paintings by somebody’s aunt.

The wine list was indeed longer than the menu, about an inch thick including the binding.
It started out with bubbly: Italian Spumanti and Prosecco, and included Champagne as well, an bold move for local restaurant on the outskirts of the city center. The rest of the list was divided by region and by color, and offered a great price range and excellent quality and price ratio. We ordered a Quarz Sauvignon Blanc from Alto Adige, a rare and delicious bottle I’d actually been looking for (lucklessly)! It’s smooth and citrus-y, crisp without that edge, and balanced in a way that few young Sauvignons are.

He ordered risotto alla crema di scampi, which comes in creamy tomato and brandy-infused sauce with the scampi themselves atop the rice. I had cappelletti pasta with baby calamari with black truffle. Cappelletti are like little inverted caps that cradle the sauce and make every bite succulent and delightful. Neither dish paired fantastically with the wine, but I was so excited to have found it that I refused to order anything else. It did accompany the delicately fried shrimp and calamari that followed, refreshing and cleansing on the palate as it was.

Mamma Angelina is more than a seafood place however. The moderately priced menu offers Roman comfort foods and all of the classics (matriciana, carbonara, etc), inventive pastas of the day, and enticing homemade desserts. I’ll definitely be going back, as it’s dangerously located just around the corner.