Rome: Lunch at Da Giggetto in Rome's Jewish Ghetto

We wanted to eat at one of the restaurants in the Jewish Ghetto while we were in Rome since we thought that would be the best place to try a Roman specialty, carciofi alla giudia (Jewish style artichokes). For this preparation, they simply deep fry the artichoke.

The place that we really wanted to try out was closed for the month of August, so we ended up settling for Da Giggetto. We rounded out our lunch with a few other typical Roman dishes.

Fried squash blossoms stuffed with mozzarella and anchovy

Bucatini all' Amatraciana

and tripa alla romana

The squash blossoms were the best dish of the meal. The bucatini was OK, but, ultimately, forgettable. The sauce was a bit too thin for my taste and the pasta was slightly over-sauced. I prefer my own version. They used the same sauce for the tripe, so the same complaint holds. The only other time we had this dish was at Babbo, where they slice the tripe into much thinner strips. I thought that way of preparing it was much better.

In spite of the nit-picking, this was a fine place for lunch. The food wasn't amazing, but it was world's better than any of the tourist restaurants you might run into lining any of Rome's major piazzas. It's about a 15 minute walk from the Colosseum and the Jewish quarter is a very quiet, pretty area to walk through, so it might make a natural stop for lunch.