Tea Time: Ristorante La Campana in Rome, Italy

Still trying to wrap up Rome before I start blogging about our Mallorca getaway....hopefully I'll have time to get a few posts in this week!

Before we visited the Spanish Steps in Rome, we decided to lunch at Ristorante La Campana. Advertised as a local family restaurant with authentic Roman food, it had pretty good reviews and was recommended in a Japanese guidebook that we had on hand, too.
We arrived just past opening time and there were only a few patrons inside already, but the restaurant filled up rather quickly (mostly with Italians) as the hour progressed. Our servers spoke English well, and they quickly provided a high chair for Keila and making a happy fuss over her snoozing form. In Europe, you never know if you're going to get a high chair or not, so it's always a pleasant surprise when a restaurant has some. Of course, since there actually was a high chair, Keila chose to sleep through most of that lunch in her backpack carrier. Murphy's Law.
I can't remember everything that we ordered, since it was over 3 months ago now, but I do know that arancini (fried rice balls), a steak, and some seafood risotto made the list. Didn't try the steak myself but apparently it was good, and the risotto was wonderful. We had the arancini as a starter, and they arrived piping hot and full of pumpkin (I think it was pumpkin) cheesy goodness. The menu was quite extensive and had lots of classic dishes on it, but I'm not a huge meat fan so baby lamb, ox tail, and other choices were definitely out. Other reviewers all seem to say that they're quite good, though.
All of our dishes arrived promptly, and our waiters made sure we were happy but weren't overbearing. The only part of the meal that disappointed me was dessert: homemade flourless chocolate cake. It was way too dry for my liking, and I recall wishing that we'd just gotten some gelato afterward instead.
Overall we had a really pleasant experience here: nice atmosphere, service was great, and the appetizers and main courses were really good too. I'd go back again if we happened to be in the area.

Ristorante La Campana
Vicolo della Campana, 18, 00186 Rome, Italy

Most seats were full by the time we left