I Maroncio - Roma

Went with our Italian friends and had most amazing food experience. From starters to wine to main course, everything was social and spectacular tasting

Recently my wife and I were guests at Hotel Roma Sud. We requested a recommendation for a nice restaurant nearby for dinner. We were recommended to try I Maroncio. I googled this restaurant and was impressed by the photos and history. Also, I noticed that they had the capacity to serve up to 200 patrons. We drove to the restaurant and arrived at about 8pm. The restaurant looked impressive and we noticed that there were only about a dozen patrons in the entire place. The head waiter greeted us and asked if we needed a table for two to which I replied in the affirmative. He led us to the entrance to the main dining room which we noticed was entirely empty. Upon approaching the dining area we were blocked by a man who seemed to be one of the owners or general manager. He stood in front of us and waved his hands repeating the English word full over and over again. He would not seat or serve us. The could only be one reason for this behavior, I am a white American and my wife is a black American. My wife was in tears as she had never experienced anything like this in all of our many trips to Europe and travels around the entire United States. I would highly recommend avoiding I Moroncio to any traveler that can appreciate the ugly racial misbehavior we experienced. I must add that we reported this incident to the owner and management of Hotel Roma Sud and they were so upset they called the restaurant and offered to treat us to dinner at the hotel.

Recommended by a local apartment owner we went for dinner on Friday evening. The starter course of the eggs with truffles was very good as was the primi course but from then it was very poor. One of our party had a pizza which arrived long before anyone else's meal; my veal came without the grilled vegetables; two of our party ordered the sausages with potatoes which arrived without the sausages; when the sausages turned up the other party had finished their pizza and my veal was cold which matched the grilled vegetables when they were brought to the table. All in all a very disappointing overpriced meal and will definitely not go back. The waitress was overstretched and simply forgot our table.

Many of the other reviewers seem to remember Maroncio in happier days. We were not a part of that time, but we did seek it out last night on the advice of the concierge at our hotel, and we found that that food was excellent. The service was too. Unfortunately, it took us quite a while to find the place because there's no sign. When we arrived, the maitre d', the only one who appeared to speak English, admitted this was often quite problematic. The place seems to have an established clientele of locals, however, and it was packed on a Tuesday night. So why change things, when it seems to be working quite well? Offers good traditional Italian fare. Not spectacular, but quite good with a homey feel. Definitely a place of the tourist trek and some rudimentary knowledge of Italian stands one in good stead, because there is (proudly from the restaurant's perspective no translation into English or any other language. Just look for the little number 8 on Via de Vermicino in Tor Vergata (don't set the GPS to Frascati, because it will take you somewhere completely different!

I always feel good. excellent cuisine and welcome always at the top. very recommended