Eating at Cacio e Pepe is a friendly, cozy experience. The food is good, the service is attentive, the lighting is flattering – there's hardly anything bad to say about the place. We went in a big group and made reservations (which ended up not being necessary – though on a previous attempt the place was completely packed, so just in case?
As appetizers, Jim and I split the tasty very smoky mozzarella and prosciutto. It started things off on the right foot, but the pasta dishes were the real stars of the evening. We shared the gnocchi with wild boar ragu (photo from flickr) that was rich and tangy and soothing. The traditional cacio e pepe was also yummy and it's presentation was dramatic. Our waiter brought out a huge practically hollowed out round of parm and mixed the fresh pasta, pepper and cheese within it. My apologies for failing to get a photo. You'll just have to go yourself, trust me you won't mind.
The only shaky step came at the very end, and maybe its our own fault for ordering the most bizarre sounding dish on the menu: white chocolate with candied olives, and Gorgonzola. They call themselves creative roman, but with this dish I think they got too carried away. All the individual elements were good, but combined, it was just too bizarre to totally enjoy. Mike's panna cotta was superb though.
Stick to the classic dishes, and particularly enjoy their fresh pastas which everyone at my table was thrilled with and Cacio e Pepe could easily turn into a standby spot when you're craving decently priced Italian that no one else knows about
But what do you think?