Campagnolo Roma

The bread prepared for us in this bruschetta had a perfect crisp, even in the puddle of olive oil that it sat in. As an eggplant lover, I felt that the marinade did disaster to the mild sweetness of the eggplant. The overall dish was too acidic; sour was the only flavour we could taste.

A special of the day, a deep-fried risotto with mozzarella cheese inside is what it literally is. It was a delicious appetizer, probably the best dish of the day. The salsa verde, which is generally made of parsley, capers, garlic and olive oil, was a perfect complement to the rich and creamy fior di latte, in other words, the mozzarella.  Wish this could be a regular on the menu because we would definitely order it again.

We both had high hopes for this classic Roman dish; yet, it was just one huge disappointment. The salt-cured Italian bacon bits, or pancetta, were not crisp-cooked, and the generous use of it made the carbonara overly salted. That delicate coating of egg and cream we were desperately craving for was absent. Perhaps the bottom strains were a bit creamier but the egg was completely missing.

Margherita pizza got its name from the Italian Queen Margherita, who thought pizza should be made to resemble the colours of the Italian flag – red tomatoes, white mozzarella, and green basil. Campagnolo Roma’s version was tad bit too salty for Oliver’s taste; however, I thought it wasn’t so for me. Originally wanted to try their carbonara pizza but this branch doesn’t offer it so, we added an egg on top. The egg yolk gave the pizza a creamy coating, which we really enjoyed. Otherwise, everything else felt rather flat, it was just an ordinary thin crust pizza.

Tiramisu, a little “pick me up” in Italian, means to be a comforting dish to be eaten when feeling low. Although liqueur and coffee flavours were a bit faint, all the usual components of tiramisu that we were expecting were somewhat present. What was distasteful about this tiramisu was its overly moist texture. After a few tastes, we actually saw murky puddles of liquid content in the tiramisu and it really wasn’t appetizing at all. Perhaps, they had prepared the tiramisu at an too-early hour or left it out too long that water had been accumulating in the tiramisu? Not quite sure what happened there…

The affugato was delicious but Campagnolo Roma can’t really claim the prize, since Mario’s Gelati provided the gelato. They explained that the restaurant is too small for them to create their own gelato but maybe in time, they will make it at the main Campagnolo and bring the product over. Nevertheless, affugato isn’t a difficult dessert when gelato is made for you so I feel reluctant to give praises.

At the end of the day, we were surprised that our experience at Campagnolo Roma was very different from the one we had at the original Campagnolo. The restaurant didn’t live up to the expectations and instead, it left us feeling unsatisfied. Even until this day, I can still taste the disappointment and crave for carbonara. I guess, I really need a good tiramisu, “pick me up”, to lift up my spirits.

Love,

Rachel