Rome Restaurant Recommendations
Food is as quintessential to Rome as the Colosseum. As the capital of Italy, this city has high culinary standards that make any dinner out an unforgettable experience. While a wondrous meal can be found around every corner, these Rome restaurant recommendations can help guide you to some of the best.
Hostaria Antica Roma
Via Appia Antica, 176, Rome 00178 – +39 065 132 888 – Website
For truly iconic dining, consider Hostaria Antica Roma: a tavern built into ancient ruins. With a stunning garden terrace in the shadow of the grand Mausoleum, your dining experience will be surrounded by history, culture, and the vine-tomatoes growing for tomorrow’s meal. As a recommendation, try Paolo’s authentic Roman lasagna… it is fantastic. Closed Monday.
Ditirambo
Piazza della Cancelleria, 74, Rome 00186 – +39 066 871 626 – Website
Located in the lively Campo dei Fiori, Ditirambo delivers on anything you could want from a classic Italian meal. On offer is a wide range of fresh pastas like cacio e pepe or wild boar papardelle, and succulent meats like braised beef cheek and Piemontese-style veal. In addition to its staple dishes, Ditirambo boasts weekly specials that highlights the season’s best ingredients.
© Ditirambo
La Gatta Mangiona
Via Federico Ozanam, 30-32, Rome 00152 – +39 065 346 702 – Website
Open since 1999, La Gatta Magiona is one of the best Rome restaurant recommendations for unforgettable pizza. This popular pizzeria not only nails a classic margherita pie, but also expands upon it with varieties topped with unique ingredients such as lemongrass or Thai spices. They also offer an impressive array of white pies, several of which are equally eclectic. You can share a few different pizzas to sample the traditional versus the experimental, and wash them down with a drink off of their extensive beer and wine lists.
Ad Hoc
Via di Ripetta, 43, Rome 00186 – +39 063 233 040 – Website
With luxurious bottles of wine lining the walls, you know you’re in for a splendid evening. An intimate restaurant with contemporary cuisine, Ad Hoc is a must for a romantic dinner in Rome. From delicately balanced cuisine to artistic design and colorful patterns of vegetables and sauces, your dinner is a true work of art. Try the truffle tasting menu and come hungry, as there are multiple items in each course. Reservations recommended.
Aroma
Hotel Palazzo Manfredi, Via Labicana, 125, Rome 00184 – +39 069 761 5109 – Website
As a Michelin-starred restaurant overlooking the Colosseum, Aroma strives to offer a “culinary experience in the setting of your dreams”. There are a few tasting menus packed with delicacies such as risotto with whiskey-smoked butter and salted cod with tomatoes and capers. To compliment your meal, you can also order a wine pairing designed by a skilled sommelier to match each course to perfection.
© Aroma, Palazzo Manfredi
Santa Lucia
Largo Febo, 12, Rome 00186 – +39 066 880 2427 – Website
Featured in the 2010 movie Eat Pray Love featuring Julia Roberts, Santa Lucia’s dining terrace is a quiet, romantic setting behind Piazza Navona. Surrounded by a stone and ironwork wall, the terrace is shaded by trees and white umbrellas and is heated during cooler months. Inside, the restaurant is adorned with marigold- and rose-hued walls with heavy wooden ceiling beams, paintings in gilt frames, and crystal scones and chandeliers. Enjoyed by such former guests as Giorgio Armani, Martin Scorsese, Sophia Loren, and Leonardo DiCaprio, Santa Lucia’s menu offers traditional Italian dishes such as scialatielli with pecorino cheese, pepper, and mussels.
Trattoria Sor’eva
Piazza della Rovere, 108, Rome 00165 – +39 066 875 797 – Website
If you are around the Vatican area, try this loud, chaotic, and intricate trattoria run by charming people who yell their orders to the chefs in the kitchen like it’s always been customary to do in such places. Frequented mainly by locals, a lot of whom eat there everyday, and priests from the nearby North American College. Closed on Mondays.
Casa Bleve
Via del Teatro Valle, 48-49, Rome 00186 – +39 066 865 970 – Website
When in Rome, there are regular enotecas and then there’s Casa Bleve: sophisticated, Michelin-starred, and full of Roman grandeur. It spreads through the ground floor of a 16th-century palazzo, where retail wine is artfully displayed throughout, and dozens of dining tables have yards of space between them. Some are nestled up against a stone fountain along a back wall. Below those tables, in the first-century foundations of the building, the wine cellar is stocked. At the end of a meal, if servers aren’t too busy, they may be willing to show you! Closed Sunday.
© Casa Bleve
CiPASSO Bistrot
Via Metastasio, 21, Rome 00186 – +39 066 889 2620 – Website
An intimate wine bar offering exquisite cuisine, CiPASSO Vineria Bistrot is best suited Rome restaurant recommendations for a relaxing dinner. With a cobblestone sidewalk and vines climbing down towards the entrance, you are welcomed into a hidden cove of Italian vino and charm. Not only is CiPASSO picturesque, but its appetizers and dinner fare are innovative; try the classic charcuterie, beef carpaccio, and octopus for an unforgettable pairing with your glass of red wine.
Featured image: © Aroma, Palazzo Manfredi