Ristorante Crispi 19, Rome & Feta Cheese, Olive & Rocket Salad

For my last day of a beautiful weekend in Rome I cannot resist having one last great meal, this time at lunch, before returning home. Again I ask the hotel receptionist (a different one) for a recommendation, who points us in the direction of Ristorante Crispi 19 and makes a reservation for us.
As it turns out we didn't need the reservation as we are the only name in the book when we arrive and indeed the only patrons in the restaurant. An empty restaurant at 1pm on a Sunday lunchtime? Hmmm... this doesn't look promising. The friendly front of house man shows us to the corner of an unremarkable room, with a fish tank containing lobsters and a sea bream in the window. Learning the lessons of yesterday, we cut out the appetiser and head straight for the primi piatta, where I have spaghetti with clams, bottarga, shrimps tartare and a hot carrots cream and She has spaghetti alla carbonara.
My pasta was a beautifully cooked, swirl of al dente spaghetti in the carrot and clam sauce with a little pile of prawns at it's summit - this is really tasty and paired up beautifully with the house white wine. I could not help soaking up the sauce left in the dish with the freshly cooked bread we also had.

Seafood spaghetti with carrot cream sauce

It's only at this late stage that I come to the realisation that despite the emptiness of the place, this is a genuinely good, mostly seafood restaurant, which makes my choice of beef fillet medallion steak for the next course a bit foolish;

Beef fillet medallion

She's not much better with her pork tenderloin, but these transgressions pale in comparison to the middle aged American couple who come in, eat a mixed salad, refuse any other courses, refuse to sample the freshly cooked bread, refuse the wine and eat in silence before settling the bill and leaving. Fittingly the staff hit them with a 15% service charge presumably for being such miserable bastards!

Pork tenderloin

But back to the food, both meats were beautifully cooked, Her's probably a tad better than mine. In fact her dish edges mine with the fried almonds and tangy apple, the meat almost falling off the fork. My medium rare cooked beef with it's marvellous pink inside, has a parmesan crisp on top of it and a brittle net of sweet wine(?) reduction. Both our dishes have a mixture of seasonal vegetables and tasty savoury gravy.
Dessert is a shared affair of 3 cold items, orange ice cream covered in dark chocolate, pistachio ice cream and some other kind of cold cake with sultanas and a swirl of burnt cream on top. Some nice touches by the staff here: they beautifully arranged the dessert on a large serving plate and noticing that I am left handed, put my dessert spoon to my left side, you cannot ask for better service than that! All these desserts are very good, my favourite being the in-season pistachio ice cream.

Dessert

We each end with a coffee and consider the bill, which comes to €135 in total including service charge, which equates to under £60 each, very reasonable for the quality of food and friendly service received. We chat with the owners as we leave praising them for the excellent food, shaking them by the hand and leaving them my email address to send me some recipes. We walk happily away up the street.
My actual supper was a hastily thrown together Feta Cheese, Olive and Rocket Salad with garlic flatbread when I got home. This was something of a let down, but Rome lovely Rome, I shall return to you one day!

Feta cheese and olive salad