If you’re looking for restaurants in Monteverde, Rome, you’ve come to the right place! This review of Osteria Palmira will tell you exactly why you should choose this family-run spot for lunch or dinner, when in Monteverde. Spoiler: traditional Roman cuisine is the order of the day, and Osteria Palmira also serves an excellent selection of Lazio’s best red wine, Cesanese.
Rome’s Monteverde district is a largely residential neighbourhood flanking Gianicolo Hill and Trastevere. It’s not particularly known in tourist circles for sightseeing or anything else, but as a wandering traveller, it’s easy to end up here from Trastevere station or Gianiculum walks.
Monteverde is divided into two broad zones – Monteverde Vecchio and Monteverde Nuovo – directly translating as Monteverde Old or New. While the older part is distinguished by pretty, period villas, Monteverde Nuovo has more modern housing and broader, traffic-lined boulevards.
Restaurants in Monteverde: Osteria Palmira
If you’re looking for a good restaurant in Monteverde, Osteria Palmira lies on the edge of Monteverde Vecchio, and serves hearty cuisine from the region. This family business started out in the historic centre of Rome, but moved up the city’s green hill several years ago.
The thing that strikes you most about the menu is its fidelity to the food heritage of the Lazio region, tending even towards historic and obscure recipes. This is partly because the Palmira family heralds from the town of Amatrice originally, a rural location in the hills above Rome which also gave its name to the world-famous dish, Amatriciana.
Just as you might suspect, granny Palmira is in the kitchens making hand-made pasta and more, and rendering your visit to Osteria Palmira quite unique!
Monteverde’s Osteria Palmira: the review
On my visit to Osteria Palmira, a classic Roman restaurant in Monteverde, I tried a number of the restaurant’s most popular dishes, and I wasn’t disappointed!
We started with a typical antipasto selection, featuring picchiapo, vegetarian chicory balls, cheeses and cured meats, panzanella and homemade bread. All very tasty! We went on to try three different pasta dishes, the classic carbonara, amatriciana, and a special dish from Amatrice, gnocchi ricci, which are freshly made by signora Mimma every day. These are a flat, hexagonal disc of flour and water pasta mixed with egg pasta for a versatile pasta shape which holds the sauce well.
Second course plates include boiled-beef meatballs and the largest involtino (veal rolls stuffed with vegetables in tomato sauce) that I have ever seen!
We finished up with a rustic remix of a creme brulee flavoured with citrus fruits, and drained the last of the excellent Cesanese wine.
Osteria Palmira is a great spot when looking for restaurants in Monteverde, Rome, and the prices are extremely competitive. So bookmark this page when looking for a restaurant in south or west Rome, and don’t forget to check it out when you visit the Eternal City.
Highly recommended!
Testaccina was a guest of Osteria Palmira
Osteria Palmira, Via Abate Ugone 29, Monteverde Vecchio, Rome Tel +39 06 58 204 298
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