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Si Mangia!
A guide to dining in Rome and some of my favorite restaurants, trattorie, osteria, pizzerie, and gelaterie
This site includes some of my favorite Roman eateries, from a holy hospice run by lay sisters to a trattoria frequented by the families of convicts, some of Rome's greatest pizzerie to its most classic wine bars, an old fashioned German-style beer hall to a modern cafeteria–like tavola calda, and from classy restaurants with wine lists longer than Moby Dick to tiny osterie that don't even print menus and are tucked into Trastevere's back alleys and hidden in corners of the Jeweish ghetto.
Classic Roman dishes
Roman Restaurants
Abruzzi
Africa
Ai Banchi Vecchi
Al 34
Al Piedone
Fiaschetteria Beltramme
Birreria Peroni
Cavour 313
Cecchino dal 1887
Da Augusto
Pizzeria Da Baffeto
Da Giggetto
Da Giovanni
Pizzeria Da Ivo
Da Mario
Da Pancrazio
Da Tonino
Da Filettaro
Enoteca Corsi
Pizzeria Est Est Est
Fraterna Domus
Hostaria l'Archeologica
Hostaria Romanesca
Il Delfino
Il Duca
Il Matriciano
Il Torricella
Insalata Ricca 2
Insalata Ricca-Vaticano
L'Angolo Divino
L'Eau Vive
Sora Lella
Sora Margherita
La Tana dei Noiantri
Trimani il Wine Bar
The typical Roman evening meal is often huge and lasts for hours. Some suspect that this conga line of courses is just a scam to get tourists to order more, but Italians often do actually eat such gargantuan meals (though of late, less frequently in today's fast-paced world).
When dining out, you're expected to order at least two courses, and it helps when you stretch out dinner with good wine and lively conversation. If you're not up to a monster meal, however, just ask for a mezza portion (half portion).
You start off with an antipasto (appetizer), the Roman best being simple bruschetta (peasant bread grilled, rubbed with garlic, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt; ordering it al pomodoro adds a pile of cubed tomatoes on top). One of the city's greatest specialties is carciofi (artichokes), done alla giudea (lightly fried in olive oil) or otherwise, a dish especially popular in Jewish Ghetto restaurants.
After the appetizer, your primo (first course) could be a soup—try stracciatella, egg-drop and parmesan in broth—or a pasta: bucatini all'Amatriciana (thick, hollow spaghetti in a spicy tomato sauce studded with pancetta bacon), spaghetti alla carbonara (with eggs, pancetta, and cracked pepper); simple pasta al pomodoro (in a plain tomato sauce); penne all'arrabbiata ("hopping mad" pasta quills in a spicy tomato sauce); or gnocchi (potato-based pasta dumplings).
When you get to the secondo (main course) you may encounter "traditional local cuisine," like coda alla vaccinara (braised oxtail with tomatoes) and delicious pajata (made of calves' intestines still clotted with mother's milk). If you shy away from such culinary adventure, other main courses could include pollo (chicken), scallopine (veal cutlets, cooked in a variety of ways), involtini (veal rolled with veggies—carrots, celery, or artichoke hearts—and stewed in its own juices), or bocconcini di vitello (veal nuggets, usually stewed with potatoes and sage). One of the best Roman secondi is saltimbocca, which means "jumps-in-the-mouth;" it's a tender veal cutlet cooked in white wine with sage leaves and a slice of prosciutto ham draped over it.
The daily special
In addition to their regular offerings, the menus of many smaller Roman eateries still follow the traditional weekly rotation of dishes: Tuesday zuppa di farro (barley-like emmer soup), Wednesday trippa (tripe), Thursday gnocchi (potato dumpling pasta), and Friday baccalà (salt cod) and/or pasta e ceci (pasta with chick peas).
Finish off dinner with gelato (ice cream), a tartufo (which means "truffle" but on the dessert menu means a fudge center surrounded by vanilla ice-cream and chocolate ice-cream and dusted with cocoa) or tiramisù (espresso-soaked ladyfingers layered with sweetened, creamy mascarpone cheese and dusted with cocoa).
Top it all off with an espresso (it really does help the digestion and, contrary to popular belief, while far more flavorful than a cup of American coffee is actually far weaker, at least so far as caffeine is concerned,) and a digestivo, a shot of liqueur to "aid the digestion," usually an amaro (bitter) or a grappa (clear as water, crafted from the leftovers of the wine-making process, and it makes a good rocket fuel to boot. If you want the stuff that'll burn a hole in the table should you spill some, order a grappa duro; if you want it merely to put werewolf-quality hair on your chest, ask for grappa morbido).
If you order a table wine in Rome, you will most likely get a light, fruity white from the hills south of the city, either a Frascati or a Castelli Romane. Another excellent white wine from an Umbrian town north of Rome is Orvieto Classico. The capital's restaurants are also usually equipped with a cellar that draws on the best wines from throughout Italy.
Finding the perfect Roman restaurant
Bread & Cover
Italian restaurants have an unavoidable "bread and cover" charge (pane e coperto) of anything from €1 to €15 (though most often €2—€5) added on to your bill.
Even in the Eternal City's third millennium, you can still enjoy a feast fit for a Roman emperor. The tricky part is finding an inexpensive one. Your best bet is to hunt down one of a handful of traditional Roman osterie, the sort of down-home, family-run restaurant holdover straight out of a 1950s Fellini film. There are several reviewed on this site, but to find your own just listen for the clink of glasses and murmur of Roman dialect emanating from behind the strings of beads hanging in a doorway with no sign and no menu posted.
Pop your head inside and a beaming papa will stride over to welcome you, ushering you over to a communal table while his son abandons the soccer game on TV to go slice you a basket of bread. Mamma shuffles out from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron and asking with a feisty smile "So, what do you want?" to which you retort "What do you have?" and she inevitably replies "I got spaghetti!" so you order the spaghetti. The food will be simple, hearty, and delicious, the wine home-made, the atmosphere convivial, and the bill a fraction of that in a proper restaurant.
A note for budgeteers: The concept of a bargain prix-fixe menu is not popular in Italy. Some restaurants do offer "tourist menus," which usually entails a choice from among two or three basic first courses (read: different pasta shapes, all in plain tomato sauce), a second course of roast chicken or a veal cutlet, and some water or wine and bread. With very few exceptions, tourist menus tend to live up to their name, appearing only at the sort of tourist-pandering restaurant that the locals wisely steer clear of.
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This material was last updated August 2007. All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998-2008 by Reid Bramblett. All rights reserved.
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