The first night in Rome – after checking into our Airbnb horror – we decided to get dressed up and go out for dinner at a nice place after a long day. We went down the street from our place in Trastevere to Il Buff.
This restaurant is truly a farm-to-table restaurant! Around 80% of their menu comes directly from one farm located in the region of Calabria, Italy. Everything tasted so fresh. I’d never eaten Italian water buffalo before and it was yummy. I had it in a Genovese style (onion base) reduction sauce with paccheri pasta. Paccheri are fat, tube-like pasta noodles. They paired great with the ingredients in this dish. I was able to pick up all the sauce and meat inside the noodle 🙂
Our waitress was AMAZING!!! She offered us the best service we got during our entire time in Italy. For every dish she was able to share where the food came from and fascinating details on how the food was grown and prepared. She also was from Calabria so that was cool because she knew the history and the typical dishes of the region.
The final touches on this great meal included live music from a mellow Spanish guitar, beautiful table settings, and a great restaurant layout that included a lush vertical garden. After our off-putting arrival into Rome this was a fabulous place to reset.
Here’s what we had for dinner … and dessert. It was from start to finish a fantastic meal!
Appetizer
Seasonal vegetable flan with buffalo cheese fondue, chocolate crumble and smoked scamorza praline.
First Course
Shoulder of Black Pig Black pig shoulder cooked at low temperature with red cabbage salad.
Pacchero alla Genovese with buffalo meat.
Dessert
Chocolate fondue Chocolate Tepid Fondue with candied Clementines
The evolution of my face after a good meal.
Savvy Roving 