Castagnetum Hostaria

My 400^th Unilocal review is dedicated to what might have been my favorite meal in Italy: Castagnetum Hostaria.
The whole place was run by one woman, who was running around like a chicken with her head cut off, but she was lovely. Didn’t speak much English, but we got along fine, and she brought us so much delicious food.
We started with a selection of bread, which they make in house, and then the food just kept coming. The fresh spaghetti was outrageously delicious. My husband was wanting something without meat to start, so he asked for spaghetti pomodoro, which wasn’t on the menu, but ended up being one of the best things we ate in Italy. He claims it may have been one of the best things he’s eaten in his life. The pasta was perfect, dressed with olive oil, salt and pepper, and fresh tomato. So simple, and so good. A friend had the same spaghetti with meat ragu, which was clearly freshly ground and so tasty. I had the risotto with zucchini to start, which was light, creamy, and flavorful.
For our main course, my husband had a steak, which was cooked to perfection and served with mushrooms and cheese. I had gnocchi with mussels and fried sage. So much flavor and texture.
A friend who was with us had been sick and this was his first meal in a while, so he requested pain potatoes and white rice. They brought him the most delicious plain potatoes and white rice… the rice was essentially plain risotto.
The house red wine was tasty, to boot.
We ended up ordering the pistachio flan to go and ate it back at our hotel. It was not a Mexican-​style flan; it was more of a buttery, pistachio-​y lava cake. We fought over the last bite, it was so good.
Thank you, Castagnetum Hostaria, for a most delicious meal!