4 Colonne Ristorante

Since it is our last week here in Rome, Brooke and I decided we deserved a nice, hearty, expensive meal to celebrate our trip. She had her eye on one particular restaurant for the past three weeks, called, 4 Colonne Ristorante which was conveniently located at the southern end of Piazza Navona. The restaurant is hidden away, in a back alley away from the busy restaurants that surround the Piazza. When we arrived, a man in a tuxedo politely guided us through the freshly modern, all white furnished restaurant. My excitement and hunger for dinner soon turned to confusion when I opened the large menu, only to find that I could not comprehend one word on the menu. We both stared, as though it would miraculously switch to English if we stared hard enough. With nothing to lose, I asked the waiter what was molto buono (very good). After pointing to a few dishes, describing the food in Italian, his eyes lit up and pointed to a pasta dish and said “fish.” I was convinced, and agreed to order the fish, not knowing what I was in for. A couple of minutes later, I saw our waiter come from the kitchen with a large, bright red lobster that was anything but dead. He held it in front of me to explain that it was what I had ordered. We were both impressed and satisfied with our surprise dishes that we ended up ordering.

This was a perfect example of how you should never eat at the first restaurant that you see. All of the piazza’s in Rome are filled with an abundance of restaurants that offer the usual pizza, pasta and meat dishes. But, it is always important to keep in mind that if you walk away from the center of a piazza and step away from the chaos, you will most likely find a cheaper and more unique menu.