Drogheria della Rosa

I came to Bologna for a quick holiday and my friend recommended this restaurant. Therefore, as soon as I settled into my Airbnb, I tracked across the city to this establishment. For a Saturday night, I was able to sit down to a table with only booking a half hour before they started serving. They do speak English here and I suspect other tourists have heard about this place, because I was surrounded by different tongues. As soon as you’re seated, they bring you an aperitivo on the house. Then, a compliment of the chef dish, which was some type of game with mozzarella. I ordered the typical Pasta Bolognese (when in Bologna, right?) and it was more than enough. But, since I have a sweet tooth, I had some hazelnut gelato, which was to die for. While I was enjoying this heavenly dessert, they served me a shot of sweet wine — on the house. I highly recommend this restaurant — the food was excellent and they make you feel at home. I would absolutely come here again.

Really fantastic. We stumbled across this place right before closing time, which was no problem at all for this delicious establishment. The outside tables were all filled, but the owner pulled out a table from the inside so the two of us could sit outside, then gave us a glass of bubbly. I love being treated like an old friend, which is the impression I received throughout this meal. My friend is a vegetarian, which is a bit like a curse word in Emilia Romagna, but a beautiful dish was suggested for her without a bat of an eye. Delicious food, great service, and attention to detail, there was even an improptu concert as a mezzo-​soprano from the near by opera house came to eat and sang everyone a lovely aria. !00% returning on my next trip to Bologna. Thanks Emanuele!

Out of all of the places I had been during my travels to Italy, this was the worst. The good was sub par and the service was rude. I came with a huge, hungry group of students and we were yelled at even though we said we would be more than happy to sit separately. Not one of us had a good meal. I had a simple antipasti platter than was greasy, warm, and the mozzarella was covered in whey. Others had just dessert because the waiter rushed them into ordering, but their dessert was haphazardly thrown together and cold when it should have been warm. The food was tolerable at best but the waiter, I’m assuming a son of the owner, was rude and harassed one of the people in our party when she didn’t want to order while she was being rushed by him. He yelled at her in Italian, which she did not understand, and then e quickly yanked her silverware from her place setting and stormed away. The whole situation was just awkward and memorable for all the wrong reasons. Definitely not how we wanted to end our trip.

My husband and I stopped into Drogheria della Rosa on a Thursday night after having been denied a table at al Sangiovese and we could not have had a better experience. We were welcomed by the owner and then quickly poured a glass of Pignoletto (or of the like). We then wondered what happened next — would we be delivered menus? Was it a set menu? How did this work?
A few minutes later, we were delivered a small appetizer which resembled a quiche and had a slice of mortadella on the side. Once finished, we ordered a bottle of Sangiovese (very good) and another server came by to tell us all about the menu which, I have to say, was a bit overwhelming. There were so many choices and both the first and main courses were cited one right after another. I wish she would have explained the first course, had us choose, and then explained the main course. That said, I understand why she rattled off all the dishes at once — so we had a full view of the entire menu and could make accurate choices for each course.
We both chose the taglietelle with ragu for our first course. I chose the osso buco for my main course and it was absolutely delicious. It was tender and the meat literally fell of the bone and the bone fell to pieces. The potatoes were delicious as well — soft and appropriately seasoned. My husband chose the beef in red wine (cannot remember the name) and was also very pleased though I think he had food envy.
Total price for two appetizers, a glass of Prosecco each, two first courses, two mains, a bottle of wine, a bottle of still water, and a basket of bread was 70 Euro. Total time spent at the restaurant was about two relaxing hours.

I am a native of Bologna and I had no idea this place existed. It took my American students to invite me out for their last night in town after a semester abroad here in Bo. We were a party of five, and our dinner experience was incredible. The place itself looks small but it actually has pretty good capacity. As soon as we sat down, the waitress brought us a welcome bottle of very refreshing prosecco and filled our glasses. I gotta admit we had to wait a little bit for the appetizer to come out but the place was packed that night (you don’t get to choose the appetizer, it varies every day; this one night it was mozzarella di bufala with chopped cherry tomatoes and bread). You do not get to read a menu; the waitress comes and tells you the options for the day, both for first and second courses, and usually five or six different dishes per every course. Now you gotta know, my family is 100% bolognese and I was spoiled growing up with my grandma’s and mom’s homemade ragù. If you’re from Bologna, you wouldn’t really go out for dinner and eat what you’d eat at home. But I went for tagliatelle with ragù, and I do not regret it one bit. The plate was abundant, I like my tagliatelle generously drenched in ragù and that’s what they served me. The pasta was cooked splendidly; I was in heaven, and I didn’t know it was so close to home. My American friends got some lasagna and some ravioli with artichokes, I didn’t get to try them but the look on their faces spoke for itself. As a second course, I got some filetto with aceto balsamico (beef tenderloin, rare, with balsamic vinegar). It was very reasonably sized (which is good if you’ve had a first course before) and came with roasted potatoes and vegetables. It was so tender and juicy, and the balsamic did not cover the taste of the rare meat as it happens sometimes with filetto al balsamico. Meanwhile we were also sipping on a bottle of Sangiovese wine (red, and from the region). At this point we were more than fine with our appetite, but we could not withhold from dessert. They brought us a plateful of panettone (typical Italian Christmas sweet bread with raisins) to dip in our mascarpone dessert. Another friend got some nut cake, and another one a semifreddo. Superb.
The highlight of the dinner was that as I was outside for a cigarette break, I got to meet the owner, who’s a wonderful, friendly, funny mid-​aged man from Bologna. At the end of dinner, he came to our table with a bottle of limoncello and two extra bottles of red wine on the house. He sat, chat, and drank with us for a bit. He also speaks some really good English!
Final tab? 35 a head! My students picked the check for me, but I would have not regretted one single cent. For all we ate and for how good everything was, it was all worth it and even cheap, in a way.
So yeah, who would have thought a native of the food capital of the world actually found out about this gem thanks to some Americans…

My wife and I came here without a reservation and were very lucky to snag an outside table, since they were fully booked inside — definitely make a reservation here! We had our best dining experience of our vacation here. There’s no printed menu, they list out a handful of choices for primi and secondi that you pick from. Emanuele does a great job explaining the choices, and offered to pick out the wine to pair with our selections. They treated us like family, bringing us extra wine after our bottle emptied, and as much grappa and lemoncello for dessert that we desired, and never rushed us, and even apologized for having us sit outside, even though we were the ones that showed up without a reservation. All for 85 euros total. If you are in Bologna, definitely make a reservation and go here!

I found this restaurant in the travel guide book. I forgot that it was expensive and were surprised at the lack of menu and prices indication. The waiter approached us after few min, took our drink order and disappeared for several minutes. We discovered that this restaurant doesn’t serve beer only wine so we settled for a cold white wine as it was very hot that day in Bologna. The waiter verbally told us the menu for the day and we ordered lasagna and pumpkin and cheese ravioli. The food arrived after some wait, the portions were on a small side. Lasagna was a bit dry and didn’t have bechamel sauce as well as any tomato sauce. The ravioli were much better. Before food, they gave us some bread and salumi (cold meats) which was included in the coperto. We didn’t have anything else after this and requested a bill which came to 40 euros but there was no detailed breakdown of this amount. The bill apparently included 10% service charge. The good thing about this restaurant is its outside seating area but right next to it is another restaurant much cheaper. Next time we’ll go its neighbour.

Als ich mir das erste Mal Bologna erlaufen habe, bin ich nur durch zufall in diese Gasse gekommen, voller Hunger. Als ich das Restaurant sah, hat mich zunächst der Name angesprochen — nicht gerade typisch für ein Restaurant, aber er läßt Phantasie und Traditionsbewußtsein erahnen.
Was sich hinter der Tür verbirgt, ist ein sehr kleines Restaurant mit 2 Eßzimmern, in denen man sehr gemütlich sitzen kann und eine subtile Intimität aufkommt.
Die Auswahl ist nicht groß, was in der Regel immer für die Küche spricht, und es sind sehr einfache Speisen auf der Karte, die durch die ein oder andere Rafinesse wirklich sehr appetitlich sind.
Man wird meistens von der Frau des Besitzers bedient; beide sind jung und sehr gastfreundlich, warm und zuvorkommend.
Die Preise sind absolut angemessen, alles in allem: Ein wunderschönes, lauschiges Restaurant im Herzen von Bologna; wer so richtig Appetit und Lust auf eine Pause vom Lustwandeln unter den Portici hat, sollte hier unbedingt hin — und eine Visitenkarte mitnehmen und zuhause einrahmen!

Le plus simple est d’emprunter la via Santo Stefano qui part des tours Asinelli. La via Cartoleria est à environ 5 min sur la droite. Tél.: 051 22 25 29.
Très bonne cuisine régionale revisitée par un chef fort sympathique qui prend soin de ses convives. Prix moyens.