Restaurant Review Rome: Gelateria del Teatro

This is a grown up Gelateria. Well… Anyone can eat ice cream there, but it has some amazingly grownup flavors.

• Cioccolato fondente al nero d’avola (Dark chocolate and red wine)
•  Fragola allo spumante (Champagne and Strawberries)
•   Salvia e lamponi (Sage and raspberries)
• Cioccolato bianco e basilico (White chocolate and basil)
• Zabaglione zibibbo  (Sicilian wine cream)
• Mandorla d’avola (Sicilian almond)
•  Vecchia Roma (Cherry and cheese)
• Rosmarino, miele e limone (Rosemary, honey and lemon)

Very original and just alcoholic enough for my tastes.  They also had more ordinary flavors too, but the majority had some kind of exciting twist. It’s not as creamy as the gelato from Gelati & Mozzarella but it was still quite delicious.  I think it’s a Sicilian gelateria because it uses quite a few ingredients from Sicily which would also explain the less creamy consistency. 

What I really love about this place is the originality. You’re not going to find flavors like these in most other gelterias. For example I got a tasting of white chocolate and basil gelato. Where else are you going to find such a combination?  It was delicious and so completely unexpected. The white chocolate was the perfectly sweet balance to the pungency and earthiness of the basil.  It was really quite good.

I decided to skip it in my cup only because I didn’t want the white chocolate. It’s generally a little too

sweet for me. Instead I got the dark chocolate and wine gelato, strawberry champagne gelato and the sage and raspberry gelato. So refreshing on a hot, sunny day.

Surprisingly, my favorite flavor was the strawberry champagne.  It was light and refreshing, exactly what I needed after my 3 hour walk yesterday.  The strawberry tasted like fresh berries bursting in my mouth combined with the light bubbliness of champagne.

I liked my other 2 flavors as well. The dark chocolate is strong, not only was the dark chocolate flavor very strong but so was the wine. You can definitely taste both equally.  I really liked it but it was a little heavier. I would be hard pressed to eat a cup of it alone.  That being said, it paired really well with the other 2 flavors since they were both less heavy.  Even the sage and raspberry gelato was pretty light considering it was made with some kind of a cream base. I loved that the sage and the raspberry were quite well balanced. The sage was a nice earthy tone that worked with poignancy of raspberry.  It also matched quite nicely with my other flavors. 

Gelateria del Teatro is pretty well known. It’s won all sorts of awards for its gelato; all well deserved.  I happened to arrive during a lull which was nice. I could look at the flavors without making any snap decisions.  About ten minutes later, while I was sitting outside with my gelato however, there was a big rush and the place got packed.

It’s on an accessible corner but it’s not prone to the most foot traffic. People go there because they know it’s good so I suggest looking up directions and grabbing a gelato while you’re already in the Trastevere area or when you’re by Piazza Venezia  or Campo dei Fiori. It’s right on the river and is easy to get to from any of those areas on foot.  However, you won’t find it accidently (unless you happen to be walking on that side of the river, on the correct side of the street… it’s not super easy to spot unless you know where to look). I highly recommend that you look for it on purpose.

And if it’s sunny and warm outside, you can sit at their cute little café tables and bask in the shade. It’s a little noisy from the cars but it has a lovely breeze to chase away the heat.

P.S. There are two locations. The one I went to is Lungotevere dei Vallati 25 right on the corner of Via Melangolo about a block away from Ponte Garibaldi.