On our first full day in Rome we had an excellent lunch in the middle of a very hot day of hardcore touristing: the Colosseum, the Palatine Hill, the Forum etc.. It was hot, hot, hot in Rome, with blazing sun and no little humidity, and what had seemed like an easy 15 minute walk from the Forum to Emma turned into a bit of a trial. We arrived hot, sweaty and cranky but unlike a number of fellow tourists waiting at the door, at least we had a reservation. Alas, this reservation—made weeks before—didn’t get us an indoor table under the air conditioning. We were shunted instead to an outdoor table—covered seating, yes, but still very hot, and with the sun advancing on our table, not the most comfortable situation as the meal went on. The food, however, was very good indeed. Herewith, the details.

Emma is both a pizzeria and a regular restaurant. We had selected it mostly from the point of view of eating Roman pizza—and also because reservations could be made—but when we looked at the expansive menu, we could not resist getting a few other things as well. This made the meal more expensive than we had intended it to be, as the pizzas are in fact the cheapest things on the menu.

Before I get to what we ate, a quick description of the restaurant. The covered “patio” dining is what you will see as you approach but there’s a lot more restaurant inside. This is not immediately apparent when you peep in as the dining room towards the front only has a few tables. But as you go in and then down some stairs there’s a large dining room with a deli/salumi counter and so on. This is where the air conditioned people were. We were outside and would have resented them more if we had been aware of the existence of this indoor space before rather than after our meal, when we went in search of the toilets. There’s also a fine foods and wine shop connected to the restaurant.

Okay, to the food! The menu is expansive and is supplemented by a separate seasonal menu. As at the pizzerias in Naples, the range of pizzas on offer is quite large. After a lot of dithering we settled on one from the summer menu and one from the regular menu, from the selection of house specials. But before the pizzas there were other things.

First up, a porcini salad. This was not on the menu but our server talked us into it. I’m glad she did because it was truly excellent: thinly sliced porcini mushrooms, arugula and shaved parmesan with a herbed dressing and a topping of pine nuts. (It’s a separate matter that it turned out to be the most expensive item on our check—almost as expensive as the two pizzas put together.) Alongside this was a platter of mixed Italian salumi and it was just excellent and a great inauguration of what became three weeks of dedicated salumi consumption. It included salami, truffled mortadella, cured pork loin and a few kinds of prosciutto. The producers are all apparently well-known—you can peer at the menu pic in the slideshow below if you’d like to know who they are. Rounding out the starters was an exceptional plate of burrata with grated bottarga on top and dried tomatoes and olives as a further garnish. This was dynamite, especially dressed with a little more olive oil and salt. Oh yes, we also got some of their bread on the side.

The pizzas came out next. They get their pizza dough from the storied Roscioli baking operation (in collaboration with whom the restaurant was opened a decade or so ago). We’d actually originally thought we’d eat pizza by the slice at their bakery near Campo di Fiori but reports suggested it would be a more hectic experience and so we opted for Emma instead (there’s also a more Roscioli restaurant that can be booked but it’s not open for lunch on weekdays).

Well, the pizzas at Emma didn’t disappoint us. From the regular menu we got the Chorizo (Pata Negra salami) with tomatoes and mozzarella; and from the seasonal menu we got the Marinara di Ponza with tomato sauce, dried small tomatoes, fresh garlic, extra virgin olive oil and oregano. The crust on both was the crisp, cracker-thin kind associated with Rome—a far cry from the billowy dough of classic Neapolitan pizza (see my reports on Attilio and Starita). This does mean that a pizza of this style is less filling than a Neapolitan pizza of similar diameter—a fact we appreciated given both the heat and the antipasti and salads we had already eaten. Both pizzas were excellent. I do wish the boys had been willing to get one white pizza but no matter.

By the time we got done with the pizza, the sun was a third of the way across our table and we were not inclined to linger for dessert (even if we’d had the room).

For a look at the restaurant, the menu, and what we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down for thoughts on service, to see how much it all cost, and to see what’s coming next.

Service was both friendly and a bit hectic. They got quite busy as the lunch hour went on and it must be said that the staff outside were also labouring in the heat. Given the heat, we did not explore their vaunted wine list. We stuck with soft drinks and prodigious amounts of water. Tap water is not usually an option in restaurants in Italy,  by the way; you can get either still or sparkling water in bottles.

Price? It came to 127 Euros. Which is, again, more than we’d planned to spend at lunch. Keep in mind that if you’re eating only pizzas you can get out for far less money. But we ate dinner in at the flat that evening and so it more or less evened out. As good as the meal was, at that price I would go back to Santo Palato every time (and eat pizza by the slice elsewhere).

Up next, from Rome: an account of a far more informal—and even better—pizza lunch eaten the next day in the vicinity of the Vatican. I might even get that one out this weekend. Let’s see.