La Dispensa dei Mellini

I absolutely LOVED this place. It was our second night in Rome, and the food totally redeemed Rome (as the first few meals after arrival were sub par for this foodie who had high expectations for Italian food). This place is definitely off the beaten path and is not dined by tourists, and is rather dined by locals.
La Dispensa was a few store fronts from the B&B we were staying at. We walked by the first night and saw how busy it was. It must be good, right? Our B&B helped us make a reservation for the following night. We were actually on our way back from a day trip to Florence and walked all the way from Termini station to the restaurant, made it within 5 minutes of our reservation time.
Our waitress was really sweet and patient. She walked through each item in the menu and explained it to us in English. We were so appreciative. It was difficult finding that level of kindness during our trip in Rome.
We ordered two apps and two pasta entrees, and a dessert.
Apps: Italian vegetable tempura. yes! We did it! After almost 2 weeks in Europe my body was desperately craving vegetable even if it meant it was deep fried. I was REALLY impressed with the batter. It was super light and flavored perfectly. They didn’t have the traditional Japanese vegetables, and the vegetables were more main stream: broccoli, carrot, onion, zucchini. It came with this creamy dipping sauce that I wasn’t necessarily a fan of. I think I would have preferred tempura dipping sauce. The portion was more than enough for two people. 4 people could have shared it as an appetizer. It was really good and I highly recommend.
Apps: Warmed parmigiano and fried squash blossoms. This was AMAZING! I still don’t know what it quite was. I don’t know if it was straight parmigian regiano heated up until gooey or some mixture of it that was then baked. It was basically a warm, soft block of cheese. That was it. It was so unctuous, it had so much umami, it had that cheesy goodness. You would just eat it by itself. Just scoop it. We ate it with the vegetable tempura: P
Pasta: some bolognese sauce with home made pasta in the shape of calamari. AMAZING! I don’t even know how to properly describe it. It probably wasn’t exactly bolognese. It was some pork ragu sauce. I could definitely taste that the pasta was authentic (not sure if it was homemade) and it was cooked to the prefect consistency.
Pasta: linguini with some broccoli sauce. This was more disappointing. Compared to the one above, the flavors here were a little more muted. The flavors were definitely cleaner. The pasta itself was definitely good, but I wanted more wow-​factor that the dish didn’t deliver. I probably misunderstood what the dish was when we were told.
Dessert: tirimisu. It was good, but not necessarily great. Tirimisu in Italy must be different from how I think it is in the states. The custard part is more creamy than it is typically thick in the states.
Overall the meal was fantastic and wasn’t that expensive. The trip is becoming a blur, but the meal must have been less than 100 euros with two wines each. Oh yea, and sparkling water… see note below
In Italy you have NO option of tap water. They don’t actually understand the concept. Upon being seated at a restaurant you are asked if you want still or sparkling, and those are your only options for water. Each bottle costs about 3 – 4 euros depending on where you are, which yield about $ 5 – 6 USD. Just FYI.