From the standpoint of Italian technique, Via Carota is more accomplished than its no-reservations neighbourhood-trattoria image suggests, and that gap is worth examining. The insalata verde gets all the attention, but the genuinely difficult cooking here is the cacio e pepe and the cotoletta. A cacio e pepe that holds its emulsion at service volume, plate after plate, without breaking into oil and clumps is a far harder thing than the four-ingredient list implies, and Sodi's kitchen does it consistently.
The vegetable contorni are where Rita Sodi's Tuscan training shows most clearly. The roasted seasonal vegetables are cooked the way they would be in a Florentine home kitchen — olive oil, salt, restraint, and an understanding of when a vegetable is finished — rather than the way an American restaurant tends to dress them up. It is cooking that takes confidence to leave alone.
The cost of all this is the wait, which is real and unmediated by a reservation system for most seats. Go at an off hour, put your name down, and have a drink nearby. The cotoletta and a plate of greens is the order I would build a meal around.
Note: Limited reservations and otherwise walk-in only; the early weekday window or late seatings are the realistic way to avoid an hour-plus wait.
