Best Restaurants In Rome – Find Them Here! februar 1, 2022 – Posted in: Italy, Travel – Tags: Food, Holiday, Italy, Restaurants, Reviews, Rome, Vacation

Where to eat in Rome?

The best restaurants in Rome – how do you find them? There are an infinite number of good restaurants in Rome, and it can be difficult to pick out only a few restaurants that you just have to visit. In fact, it would be easier and quicker to write about where not to eat. Still, here are a few tips for unique, gastronomic experiences in Rome that you must not miss.

How to find great restaurants in Rome

The inexperienced Rome traveler might just pick the nearest tourist trap close to the major sights. However, this is probably not where you get the great culinary experiences. Quite often it is also very expensive to eat right next to the Colosseum and St. Peter’s Basilica.

If you want to go hunting for the unique dining experiences in Rome, you must first consider what you feel like eating. Pizza, pasta or maybe risotto? The restaurants have their own specialties that they take pride in making and often there are only a few dishes on the menu.

If you want to find out where they serve the best pizza in Rome, there are many who give their recommendations online. But if you google “best pizza rome”, it is not certain that you will immediately find the place where the Romans love to eat their beloved Pizza Margherita. Tripadvisor in particular plays a big role when choosing restaurants, but you can never be sure that the criterias for choosing a good restaurant are the same as you would go for.

The best restaurants in Rome care for the taste

This is especially true at the best restaurants in Rome! The Ai Marmi pizzeria, which you can read about below, has received many bad reviews on Tripadvisor. Tourists have been disappointed when the menu did not include a “Meat lovers pizza”, and the tacky decor and busy waiters have also scared many away.

Here, as a tourist, you must know that the best restaurants in Rome don’t need to really make that much of an effort with the interior decorations. For the Romans, the taste and the quality of the food is quintessential. If you come by a restaurant with rickety chairs, arrogant waiters and really bad acoustics in an unadorned room, lit only by the cold light from fluorescent tubes and otherwise packed with loud Romans – then you can be sure that you have found one of the culinary gems in Rome!

If you want to find the best restaurants in Rome, don’t google “best restaurant in Rome”. Instead, try searching for “local” and authentic” and where do the locals eat in Rome. That said, here’s a few tips for a small handful of the best restaurants in Rome. Still, there are many, many other amazing restaurants in the beautiful city, and it only takes a little effort to find them.

About the recommendations for the restaurants in Rome

Before we take you to the good restaurants in Rome, however, it is appropriate to just tell you a something about what dining experiences we usually go for – so you can decide if you want to follow our recommendations.

We love to eat well and restaurant visits are usually a big part of our vacations. We do not necessarily eat expensive, but always locally and with local ingredients. We are also always on the hunt for the great dining experiences and prefer to eat something we have never tasted before.

The best restaurants in Rome – a selection

Ai Marmi

If you google “best pizza in Rome”, you will often be referred to Ai Marmi. If you then check the place on Tripadvisor you will see that the restaurant also has many disappointed guests. But Ai Marmi in Trastevere, where the picture at the top is from, is, as mentioned, a proof that you can’t always trust the reviews on TripAdvisor. All the boxed for really good food in Italy are checked here: in addition to rickety chairs and bad acoustics, there is also a huge freezer in the middle of the room.

But the pizzas… Oh, what a joy! Absolutely classic, paper-thin Roman pizzas, often with only 2-3 kinds of filling – all that lovers of a Meat Lover’s Pizza don’t appreciate. Also try their suppli, stuffed and breaded rice balls. If you have room for it, they also make heavenly desserts. Ai Marmi is often completely packed when the Romans eat dinner from 8pm and onwards. If you want to be sure of a seat, come by a little earlier. Read more: Ai Marmi

Pizzarium Bonci

There are two places that are known to serve the best pizza in Rome. Pizzarium, where Gabriele Bonci is the pizza master, is the other. Where Ai Marmi serves classic Roman pizzas, you’ll get fusion pizzas with a thicker base and experimental fillings of local and organic ingredients at Bonci’s.

Even if the pizza is eaten standing up, there can easily be a queue, where you have to wait for an hour or more. So stop by outside the normal meal times and remember to take a number! You will find the Pizzarium just north of the Vatican City. Read more: Pizzarium Bonci

Cacio e Pepe

Looking for the best pasta in Rome, Cacio e Pepe is the place. Not only famous among the Romans – but all over the world. Here, phenomenal pasta is served in both half and full portions, so you can taste more dishes. Definitely you should try Cacio e Pepe, the classic dish after which the restaurant is named. Pasta with cheese and pepper, as simple as it gets, but with the most exquisite taste. Also try one of the many meat dishes that you will find on the handwritten sign with the today’s specialties.

Cacio e Pepe is located in the Prati district and there may well be a waiting line to get a table. Read more: Cacio e Pepe

Hosteria Luce

Where the other restaurants mentioned here have been at an affordable price range, Hosteria Luce in Trastevere is quite expensive. Going to Rome to celebrate a birthday, anniversary or wedding anniversary, Hosteria Luce is a nice setting to celebrate small and big anniversaries.

The small family restaurant serves authentic and traditional Italian food. Feel free to try the delicious zucchini flowers, ravioli or a pasta dish and finish with one of the wonderful desserts. The restaurant is very popular with locals and tourists and it is recommended to book a table. Read more: Hosteria Luce

Food markets in Rome

Really delicious food you can also get at some of the many food markets in Rome. If you are on a tour around the city, make a stop at one of the local food courts and get a quick bite before the journey continues.

The food market at Termini train station, Mercato Centrale Rome, is a bit pricy but really, really delicious. The restaurants are carefully selected and good food is served everywhere. Also note that each restaurant serves something new. One of the rules for opening a shop at the food court is that you have to serve something that is not already available in the other food stalls.

Also the food market in Testaccio, Mercato Testaccio , is worth an experience. At the hip and innovative food market, located right in Testaccio’s restaurant area, you’ll get delicious food and snacks.

Everywhere in the city there are also small, local food markets, such as the Mercato dell’Unità right by the Vatican. Here you will find fresh vegetables, fish and smaller food stalls.

Tips for a quick snacks at the sights

If you are on an trip to one of the major sights in Rome, it can be difficult to find a decent place to eat. Often the food around the sights is expensive and not very good. A good tip is to go out within a radius of 500 meters from the sights – then you’re away from the worst tourist traps. If you start to see restaurants and cafes where the locals gather, you are now far enough away.

Across town you will also find pizza bars selling pizza al taglio, square pizza slices sold by weight. It is almost always a quick and solid meal. A good snack to satisfy the worst hunger is also gelato, the tempting Italian ice cream. Go for ice cream parlors that do not scoop the ice into balls, but instead scrape up the soft ice cream. To keep the ice at the right temperature, the best ice cream places often keep a lid over the ice.

Around the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica, the pizza bar Panificio Lintozzi and the coffee bar Capitan Cono can be recommended, the latter both for its gelato and the crispy croissants. If you are at the Colosseum, go upstairs to the metro station and continue up the hill to the University of Engineers. At the corner of Via Eudossiana the small Fauna pizza bar is filled with students enjoying the cheap pizzas. Would you rather sit down, a few cozy bars and cafes are just around the corner.

Are you in Trastevere and looking for a place where you can rest your legs and get a quick glass, you’ll get a nice glass of wine at Latteria in Trastevere. Baylor Café is good for beer and snacks before dinner in Trastevere. Biscottificio Innocenti is one of the city’s oldest bakeries, and you must not leave Rome without having tried the sinfully good bruttiboni, crispy and sticky hazelnut macaroons.

Find a great hotel in Rome

On Booking.com you get thousands of hotels to choose from when you search for accomodation in Rome. It can be difficult to choose – which hotel is actually the best hotel in Rome? Rome offers hotels in all price ranges, and here you get recommendations for good hotels in Rome, all of which can be booked through Booking.com. See more hotels by performing your own search here:

Booking.com

An apartment in Rome for a family

On our last visit to Rome, we stayed in a beautiful apartment with the most amazing view of St. Peter’s Church. St Peter’s View Apartment is located a 10 minute walk from St. Peter’s Square. The apartment consists of two rooms, a living room, shower & toilet and a small kitchen.

However, we never got to use the kitchen! Just around the corner from the apartment is the small café Capitan Cono. Here we had our morning coffee every day and the crispiest croissants, and dinner was eaten at some of all the lovely restaurants in Rome. Read more about the apartment here: St Peter’s View Apartment

A holiday in a medieval defence tower

If you want a completely unique hotel experience, book a room in Residenza Torre Colonna. The tower was built in 1247 to protect the distinguished Colonna family and today houses an exclusive boutique hotel. The old medieval defense tower has five spacious rooms and is located right in the center right next to all the major sights.

Bring your breakfast up on the small roof terrace and enjoy the view of the very oldest part of the city. Residenza Torre Colonna is a hotel for those who want to be in the middle of history, but with a spa and air conditioning.

An affordable hotel in quirky Trastevere

On the other side of the Tiber lies Trastevere, an area that offers plenty of good restaurants and bars. Within walking distance of Campo de ‘Fiori you will find an affordable guest house, Relais Le Clarisse. The small and charming B&B was formerly a convent belonging to the Order of Le Clarisse.

For a small fee, you can have breakfast in the old herb garden of the nunnery, under the shady olive and citrus trees. Right in front of the hotel there are both buses and trams, ready to transport you right to the city center. Relais Le Clarisse is for you who want to stay on a budget in the middle of the historic city life of Trastevere.

See more great hotels in Rome here on Booking.com!

How do you get to Rome?

Rome has two airports: Ciampino and Fiumicino. Ciampino is the oldest and smallest and is mainly used by the low cost airlines. Fiumicino is the largest, with more than 25 million passangers every year. Both airports are located south of the city, but at different ends, so remember to take the location of the airport into account when booking your hotel in Rome.

Read the other articles about Rome here!