Ketumbar

Located in Testaccio, almost inside the famous hill made of discarder Roman amphorae. Excellent food at fair prices. Full of locals, a good sign.

This is definitely a hidden gem in Rome. After eating at a bunch of places with really bad food in the touristy parts, we decided to venture off in to this neighborhood. We came to find out that this is the foodie part of Rome which is right up our alley. After eating at an unpleasant 5 star rated restaurant last nite called Felice and dealing with pushy and rude servers, we were pleasantly welcomed by the waitresses here. They made us feel welcome and spoke really good English. The drinks were awesome and a nice change from drinking wine and beer. For appetizers my husband and I ordered the tuna tartar with avocado and tomatoes, which was amazing! It was super fresh and rich in flavor. We also got the artichoke cream dip which was also pretty good.
BUT! The star on the menu for us was the squid ink pasta with avocado and shrimp! It was the most amazingly unique pasta we have ever tried. It looked like the squid ink was put in to the dough of the pasta instead of just on top. AMAZING! Very light as well. We also got the tonarelli pasta with pepper and cheese which was just as good. Very pungent flavor from the aged cheese but amazing!
This place definitely does not deserve a 3 star rating. We are from San Francisco and are total food snobs. We’ve eaten at some of the worlds best restaurants and in Rome this is one of them.

We came here for a cocktail before dinner and had a great experience.
They had a «formula» where you could get a cocktail and a snack from their happy hour buffet for € 10. Great friendly service and yummy vegetarian tasty plates.

First we found the service great — 2 waitresses were very patient and talking English. Secondly the prices are very okay — we paid € 59 for 1 starter, 2 main courses and 3 drinks. The food was okay and good but not really great: the baked potatoe in a folie was so brutally over baked that there was no potatoe left — all dried up. When we asked for replacement, the waitress told us that they had no other potatoes and therefore would not make up for it. The chicken stripes with sesame were really good. The Fettucini in spinach sauce with cheese — bitter spinach and no flavor. But the pasta was al dente.

Went back to Ketumbar for a party, and I have to say my review for this bar got worse. How can a bartender with a full crowd in front of her spend 5 minutes placing straws in the right order in front of the bar? That’s something she should do in quiet moments, not with several demanding people in front of her! When she finally got ready to prepare drinks she was incredibly slow. I doubt I’ll return here again.