Rome is currently experiencing a boom in high-end hotels, and some of them come with high-end restaurants. One of these new, posh hotels is Romeo, and it brought with it a superb restaurant housed in a spectacular space designed by the late architect Zaha Hadid. It’s within easy walking distance from the apartment.

This new restaurant is run by Alain Ducasse, the chef with the most Michelin stars worldwide. Having enjoyed some of his other restaurants (one of our favorite meals of all time was at his restaurant in Monaco), we were eager to try this one out. It was marvelous.

When you arrive at the hotel — which is gorgeous — you go down a slightly optically illusional curving corridor to the restaurant. There, the curvilinear motif continues. The walls are dark with curved elements, the ceiling consists of curve-stitched rectilinear metal, while the gigantic kitchen is in full view with its white marble. The whole place is visually stunning.

We were seated right in front of the kitchen, so we had a clear view of the team prepare our lovely dinner, orchestrated by the young Tuscan executive chef, Iacopo Iualè. A lengthy parade of magnificent amuse bouches soon graced our table.

The cuisine is exquisite with delicate but lasting, Mediterranean flavors.

Dessert was cascara (coffee cherry tea) with some little sweets — again, delicate but lasting flavors. Thus, our meal ended lovely. But not our evening.

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We had read that ancient Roman ruins and artifacts had been discovered during the construction of the Romeo hotel. We asked the charming concierge if we could take a peek at them, and he graciously gave us an impromptu tour of the hotel. The way the ancient history is respectfully shown off alongside the hotel’s art is knock-out. The design concept of lines constituting the surface is on display in the rest of the hotel too.

Wow. If I didn’t already have a lovely place to stay in Rome, I’d be very, very tempted to stay here! As it stands, I’ll be very, very temped to dine here again… and again.