If you’re wondering where to eat in Lazio and find yourself hungry near the Cascata dei Trevi, I wholeheartedly recommend the “corner” restaurant Punto di Ristoro La Cascata Restaurante – Bar.
They serve coffee, sandwiches, à la carte dishes, and Mauro’s favorite arostticini (a type of skewer) made with lamb or mutton. Since it was lunchtime, we decided to eat there.
At first glance, the place didn’t make the best impression, and it still didn’t look the best afterward either. Under a fabric roof, tables are draped in red and white checkered oilcloth, and the furniture is old.
The restaurant looks like a simple eatery, so fans of sophisticated interiors will be put off by the decor. I wasn’t.
A large dog roams the restaurant, which I accidentally petted, making a new friend. A dog named Victor (if I remember correctly) followed me around for a good five minutes, waiting for more petting. Then Victor was put on a chain because he peeks at the plates and munches. Like any dog, he’s always hungry, and because he’s so big, poking his nose into the guests’ food comes effortlessly.
The restaurant is a family business; the son takes orders at the bar, the father cooks and serves as a waiter.
After some consideration, we decided to try the tourist menu. Mauro was a bit skeptical because he thinks dishes on the tourist menu are always less tasty than those on the menu, but this time we decided to go for it.
The tourist menu at Punto di Ristoro costs €25 per person. For that price, you get two courses and a drink. We chose water and wine, and that was the first surprise, because the tourist menu usually includes 0.5 liters of the cheapest, mid-quality wine. Instead, we were served a liter (!) of quite decent wine.
For the first course, we were given oval plates, which, as part of the first day’s menu, were half filled with pasta in a sauce with mushrooms and pieces of meat, and the other half with gnocchi with tomatoes.
The second course was grilled meat with fries.
Being a salad fanatic, I asked for greens; the owner-chef-waiter went to the garden, picked a head of lettuce, and placed it, freshly washed, in a bowl on the table. Then we ordered sheep arostticini; there were five of them, stuffed on sticks. For all this and a bottle of water, we paid 60 euros.
For a tourist menu, which is usually worse than the à la carte menu, the food was very good. In fact, it was very good without comparing it to the à la carte dishes.
While waiting for the dishes, Mauro checked the reviews for this restaurant; many people complained about the plastic plates – it’s true, the food is served on thick plastic plates (ours were floral), but not disposable ones. This didn’t bother me, and in fact, I think the simple plastic tableware simply fits the somewhat outdoor dining area.
Another complaint from the reviews is that the restaurant is dirty. The tables are outdoors, and the floor is concrete, so I wasn’t expecting lounges. The floor wasn’t exactly the cleanest, but the rest was okay, as is probably the case with most open-air restaurants where leaves and other such things can blow in. Surprisingly, there were no flies or other annoying creatures.
There was also a normal dining area in the restaurant, meaning indoors, but it was closed, perhaps it’s not used in the summer.
Some previous guests complained about the waiter. Maybe there’s another waiter there, and he’s not exactly courteous. We were served by the restaurant owner; he wasn’t overfriendly, but he wasn’t unfriendly either; I’d say neutral, leaning towards pleasant.
We spent over two hours in the restaurant – drinking a jug of wine takes time. Meanwhile, new guests arrived, and people stopped by to buy sandwiches, and the restaurant filled up. While paying the bill, we were offered a free espresso and struck up a conversation with the bartender.
As I mentioned at the beginning, in my humble opinion, the restaurant is quite nice, and the food is good. So if you get hungry near the waterfall wondering where to eat in Lazio or feel like eating at an open-air restaurant, simply stop there.
