After closing their first restaurant in Nemi, owners Lorenzo Giuliani and Claudia Maria Negru chose this town on the outskirts of Rome as the new home for their interesting modern trattoria, which tastefully interprets the products of the Lazio countryside.
The restaurant
The intriguing gastronomic project of Acqua Bulle, a modern trattoria founded in 2021 on Lake Nemi by Lorenzo Giuliani and Claudia Maria Negru, is back in Grottaferrata. In 2024, they arrived in Rome with Osteria Chiari, a restaurant where grilling is the mantra of the culinary offering. In this small town not far from the capital, the two entrepreneurs are continuing the journey they began four years ago: to represent the Castelli Romani – with most of their products sourced from the Lazio countryside – in a more modern and refined way.
Orchestrating the kitchen is the young Francesco Caputo, chef born in 1995, who enhances local raw materials in an original way using French techniques (learned during his experience abroad), while the new entry in the dining room is Loris Paolini, skilled in managing the service and curating the wine list after several years in the historic trattoria Cesare al Casaletto and Michelin-starred experiences at Sintesi in Ariccia, Per Me by Giulio Terrinoni in Rome and Piazza Duomo in Alba.
In the spaces that once housed the historic address of the Oste della Bon'Ora (which has reopened in the City of Rome), it took several months of renovation to give the Acqua Bulle the appearance of a country house, with its smells and furnishings, stained glass windows, and wooden tables that make guests feel at home and enjoy themselves from the moment they arrive.
The cuisine and dishes
A small but comprehensive menu uncompromisingly illustrates the culinary dimension of the restaurant, dedicated to local products that chef Francesco Caputo interprets with courage, with dishes mainly based on land and a few forays into the sea, such as the excellent Coda di rana pescatrice alla vaccinara, a forward-thinking interpretation of the historic Roman recipe, which here features fish as the main ingredient but resembles the traditional dish in appearance and flavor.
The Legume, pink shrimp and lime soup is a combination of land and sea, where the shellfish—which also softens the dish with the powder from its shell—delicately tones down the characteristics of the beans and lentils, which remain meaty on the palate. Among the must-try dishes at Acqua Bulle are the Tagliolini with butter and black truffle, satisfying in their simplicity, while the second first course is a real surprise: Linguine with scampi, bottarga, and mandarin. Essential and clean in taste, the use of mandarin is the winning key to this dish.
The main courses are a triumph of meat and French technique. First and foremost, the deer pie (listed among the appetizers) is truly delicious, as is the lamb in crust with spinach and hollandaise sauce, where, in addition to the perfect cooking of the meat—left slightly rare—we would like to highlight the excellent sauce. The beef with mixed vegetables and demi-glace sauce is also impeccable.
Let's refresh our palate with a lemon curd tartlet with meringue and berries, in which the use of fresh, seasonal fruit is evident and the consistency of the wafer is just right. A final note of merit also goes to the wine list, which features around 400 labels that express so much of France (divided by production areas and with a focus on Champagne), but also so much of Lazio, the beating heart of Lorenzo Giuliani and Claudia Maria Negru's gastronomic project.
Contact
L'Acqua Bulle
Viale Vittorio Veneto, 133, 00046 Grottaferrata RM
T. 0668975537
