I *heart* Rome part 2

Dining in Rome is a relaxed affair. You arrive, and ten minutes later a waiter gives you bread and a menu. Twenty minutes after that the waiter takes your order. Thankfully the wine usually arrives promptly after you've ordered it. They then give you a good thirty minutes to drink the wine and finish the bread off before giving you your starter. By this time you're starving and a bit tipsy, so finish the starter off in record time. Which is unfortunate as you now have another twenty five minutes to wait until you get your main course.

Dinner in Rome can take a good three hours, but this is no complaint when you are sitting outside on a cobbled street, watching Rome go by.

This is certainly the case when we went to the best vegetarian restaurant this side of the Colosseum;  Il Marguetta. Situated in between the Spanish Steps and Piazza del popolo, in a nice local upmarket area of Rome away from the touristy side of things and off an off street. I read about this place before going to Rome, and a friend who had been to Rome recently said that "its a must". Both my friend and the articles I read, said that it has an all 'you can eat' buffet. So I went there expecting a buffet style eatery. What I got was a very nice swanky restaurant, with a menu to match. What a delight to come to a lovely upmarket restaurant that serves vegetarian food only.

The menu was a very well thought out imaginative mix with no shortage of options. They have an extensive a la carte menu as well as five set menus that range from Gourmet (60 euros) to Light (29 euros) to vegan (32 euros). The a la carte had delights like saffron, courgette flower and courgette risotto, to seitan lemon escalope with lemon dressed kale. After studying the menu for a while the American Vegetarian and I opted for the Spinach salad with strawberries and a balsamic dressing, to share, and as our main I opted for the Aubergine platter and the American Vegetarian had Breaded seitan with golden potatoes and a sweet and sour sauce. When the friendly and polite waiter took our order, he asked if we were sharing and we said yes. As each order arrived, he placed the plate with the food, on one side and the spare plate on the other. And as each dish arrived one by one, after we had finished the dish we were eating, he alternated who got the dish with food and who got the spare plate. This was just fantastic. The food was so good, inventive and most importantly tasty that we both got to enjoy it all.

What amazed and delighted us both was the care that had gone into the presentation of the food as well. I don't think either of us expected what we were served. When our salad arrived we were presented with a beautiful plate of spinach leaves  with a mound of mini strawberries upon them. It was fresh and mouthwatering. The balsamic dressing had a lovely zingy-ness. All in all it was one of the best salads I've had in a long time.

Next was the aubergine platter. I love aubergine, its one of my favourite vegetables and this dish did not disappoint. As you can see, it came made four ways. In the glass bowl the aubergine was roasted and then mashed up with a soft texture, but with some lumps of aubergine. The breaded ball at the top of the photo was lightly fried, warm and soft and just melted in your mouth. If I had to pick a favourite from this selection it would be the one in the middle. It was like soft cheese, but with a slightly smokey flavour to it, and it had a rough creamy consistency. It was absolutely divine. The final piece of magic on the plate reminded me of eggplant parmesan, a warm cheesy aubergine fest. I could have ordered this whole plate again and again.

Then came the breaded seitan with golden potatoes and a sweet and sour sauce. The sauce was very familiar, in fact quite like tomato ketchup, but I love tomato ketchup, so va bene! Now I've only ever had seitan in New York, and so it was a lovely surprise seeing it on the menu. This dish was great as well. Seitan is a protein with a 'meaty' texture. The potatoes were cooked to perfection, and after the soft aubergine platter it was nice to have a dish you can get your teeth into.

After this amazing dinner, it would have been rude of us not to have dessert. Unfortunately I haven't got any good pictures of dessert because by the time dessert arrived it was dark and I was unable to get a good picture of the food without using the flash, and then it had too much glare on it.  As for dessert,  you are just going to have to imagine what the triple layer chocolate looked like. It tasted; ooohhhhh, aaaaahhhh, mmmmmm! I highly recommend anyone, vegetarian or not to visit this restaurant when in Rome.

Il Margutta have a day time all you can eat brunch: 12.30 -3.30pm. Restaurant in the evening: 7.30 - 11.30pm.