Italiano
L’Isola del Pescatore, sea view tables
The atmosphere is as seafaring as you can get, the service is fast and polite, the scent of fish is in the air. It is worth arriving in Santa Severa to treat yourself to a "luxury" lunch.
One of those Sundays at the end of winter, the sky over Rome is grey but I decide to go for a walk anyway, towards Santa Severa, a small seaside resort a few kilometers north of the capital on the coast. I get there in a little more than half an hour and there is a clear and sunny sky, a long and semi-deserted beach, the glow reflected on the big waves and the beautiful and imposing Odescalchi castle on the left, like a stack guarding the inlet. After a refreshing walk on the beach I land at the Isola del Pescatore. Here you have to book well in advance, it is a well-known restaurant and the seats are not so many, they work on several shifts and the opinions I had read were quite discordant but I wanted to touch with my own hands. I tell my experience that was positive and certainly to be repeated.
Simple tables directly on the beach looking at the sea, the atmosphere is maritime and colorful, the service is quick and friendly. The scent of the catch wafts in the air mingling with the saltiness and is immediately peace of mind.
The imagination and variety of the house mixed appetizer impressed me: they start the dance with a small sample of crudes - oysters and sea urchins. This is followed by a slew of bites, 9 to be precise, all of which were tasty. Served in colorful bowls, they were a profusion of freshness and imagination. From the classic seafood salad to the marinated salmon bites; from the shrimp and artichoke salad to the octopus and potatoes; the cuttlefish and its black on polenta croutons to the grouper meatballs; the sea bass fillet covered by a green bath and the baked cod and potato gratin pie. All light and good that already at the end of this roundup (well watered by a bubble) you could stop ... but you know, the diet begins on Monday.
So let's come to the dish that gave me that little thrill of pleasure, the kind that is so good that you say to yourself "next time I'll come back especially for this first course here". I'm talking about the spaghetti with octopus sauce. So well made that the sauce had that "caramelized that sticks to your lips" feeling. A perfect creaminess envelops the al dente spaghetti. More delicate and always good were the scialatielli with prawns and the very first wild asparagus of the season.
The sea air as well as the mountain air makes you hungry (I don't know if it's an excuse or just a suggestion but it's true) and already upon arrival I smelled the scent of grilled food so I took a taste together with the fried calamari (not easy to find and delicious).
A sore point is the wine list, which is certainly scarce for such a restaurant. But I don't blame them given the current times, there will certainly be time in the future to buy a few more bottles.
To sum up, my Sunday lunch at Isola del Pescatore was really very good, of course the bill is not really within the reach of every wallet but every now and then some little joy must be indulged. I would also like to make another small reflection regarding the bill in this kind of restaurants: first of all we must always keep in mind that everything is relative and that everything, but really everything, has increased considerably. On the one hand there is the objective cost of utilities and raw materials and on the other hand there is the location of the restaurant which has its own added value. One cannot simply say "it costs too much" tout court without keeping these two factors in mind. The question, here as everywhere else, is another: is it worth it? For me, in this specific case, the answer is yes.
