Best Restaurants in Rome
Roman food is not Italian food. It's its own tradition — and one of the great cuisines of Europe. Here's where to eat it properly.
Roman cuisine is built around a handful of intensely good dishes, seasonal vegetables, and the offal traditions of the ancient slaughterhouse district. You don't need to eat expensively to eat brilliantly. You do need to know where to go.
If a restaurant near a major sight has an English menu displayed on a board outside, with photographs, the prices will be double and the food half as good. Walk two streets away and look for handwritten menus in Italian. This is universally true in Rome.
Carbonara at Roscioli
Via dei Giubbonari 21, Campo de' Fiori | €18–25 for pasta | Reserve 2 weeks ahead
Roscioli is simultaneously a deli, wine bar, and restaurant — one of Rome's great institutions. The carbonara is frequently cited as the best in Rome: made with Amatrice guanciale (cured pork cheek), aged Pecorino Romano, fresh egg yolk, and a quantity of black pepper that seems aggressive until you taste the result. No cream has ever entered the building. The wine list is extraordinary. Book well ahead — it fills up weeks in advance in summer. If you can't get a dinner reservation, the deli counter for lunch is an acceptable alternative.
Cacio e Pepe at Da Enzo al 29
Via dei Vascellari 29, Trastevere | €12–15 for pasta | No reservations — queue
The most discussed cacio e pepe in Rome, in a tiny Trastevere trattoria that hasn't changed much since the 1960s. Two ingredients beyond the pasta: Pecorino Romano and black pepper. No cream, no butter, no shortcuts. The result is silky, intensely savoury, and deeply Roman. They don't take reservations — arrive at opening (12:30pm for lunch, 7pm for dinner) or wait. The wait is worth it. The rest of the menu is equally good: rigatoni all'amatriciana, abbacchio al forno (roast lamb). Cash and card accepted.
Supplì at Supplì Roma, Testaccio
Via di Monte Testaccio 86, Testaccio | €2.50–3.50 each | No booking needed
Supplì are Rome's version of arancini — fried risotto balls with a molten mozzarella centre (pulling the two halves apart reveals a strand of cheese; the Romans call this "telefono" because it looks like an old telephone cord). Supplì Roma in Testaccio is the best in Rome. Eat them immediately, standing outside. The classic is ragù and mozzarella; they do seasonal variations. Get three — they're small.
Jewish Artichokes in the Ghetto
Via del Portico d'Ottavia, Jewish Ghetto | €8–12 per dish
Carciofi alla giudia — the deep-fried artichoke of the Jewish Ghetto — is one of Rome's signature dishes. The artichoke is pressed flat, fried twice, and arrives at the table looking like a flower, crispy to the point of shattering. The two best places: Nonna Betta (Via del Portico d'Ottavia 16 — traditional, excellent) and Ba'Ghetto (Kosher restaurant, Via del Portico d'Ottavia 2 — excellent for the full Jewish-Roman menu). This whole area of the Ghetto is also worth exploring on foot — one of Rome's oldest inhabited neighbourhoods.
Pizza al Taglio at Forno Campo de' Fiori
Vicolo del Gallo 14, Campo de' Fiori | €3–6 for a slice | Opens 7:30am
Pizza al taglio — by the slice, sold by weight — is Roman fast food. The best pizza al taglio in central Rome is at Forno Campo de' Fiori, a bakery that's been operating since 1968. The white pizza (pizza bianca — olive oil, rosemary, sea salt) is the classic. The pizza con patate (potato, rosemary, olive oil) is an Roman institution. Order at the counter, eat standing in the street. Change often included in the price of a bottle of water at the bar next door.
Breakfast: Cornetto and Espresso Standing at a Bar
The Roman breakfast is non-negotiable: a cornetto (Italian croissant, lighter and less buttery than French, slightly sweet) and an espresso, consumed standing at the bar. The price standing is always lower than sitting — sometimes by 50%. A proper bar breakfast costs €1.50–3. Do not go to a café near a major sight for breakfast — you'll pay €5 for the same thing. Find any bar where locals are standing at the counter and go there instead.
Good options: Sant'Eustachio il Caffè (Piazza di Sant'Eustachio 82, near the Pantheon — the most famous coffee in Rome, excellent, the only place that might be worth slightly tourist pricing), Bar Tazza d'Oro (Via degli Orfani 84, near the Pantheon — granita di caffè con panna in summer is extraordinary).
Gelato at Giolitti
Via degli Uffici del Vicario 40, near the Pantheon | €2.50–4.50
Rome's most historic gelateria, open since 1900. Classic flavours done exceptionally well — pistachio, stracciatella, coffee, fior di latte. The cones are made in-house. Long queues are the norm; they move fast. For something more adventurous: Fatamorgana (multiple locations, best near the Vatican on Via degli Ombrellari) does genuinely creative flavours — basil, walnut and honey, violet, chocolate with chilli. Both are excellent; they're doing different things.
Obikà Mozzarella Bar
Multiple locations including Campo de' Fiori | €12–18 for a plate
A Roman chain (and now international) built around one thing: fresh mozzarella, burrata, and smoked buffalo mozzarella flown in daily from Campania. A plate of three different mozzarellas with simple accompaniments — prosciutto, roasted vegetables, pesto — is an excellent lunch or starter. The Campo de' Fiori location has outdoor terrace seating. It's more expensive than a trattoria but the product is exceptional and unmistakably Italian.
Sunday Lunch Culture
Sunday lunch in Rome is an event, not a meal. Romans go with family; the table is booked for 1pm and you don't leave until 4pm. Restaurants serve multiple courses, wine flows freely, and rushing anyone is considered offensive. If you want to experience this: book ahead at almost any good trattoria for Sunday lunch, order the full menu (antipasto, primo, secondo, contorno, dessert, coffee), and surrender to it. The bill will seem high and be entirely justified. This is Italy doing what Italy does.
Book a Roman Food Tour
A market food tour or cooking class is the single best way to understand Roman cuisine. GetYourGuide has options from €45 — from Testaccio market walks to full pasta-making classes.
Rome Food FAQs
The four Roman pastas: carbonara (egg, guanciale, pecorino, black pepper — no cream), cacio e pepe (pecorino, black pepper), amatriciana (guanciale, tomato, pecorino), and gricia (guanciale, pecorino — the base dish the others evolved from). Beyond pasta: supplì (fried risotto balls with mozzarella centre), carciofi alla giudia (deep-fried artichoke, a Jewish Ghetto speciality), trippa alla romana (tripe — an acquired taste, but Romans love it), and saltimbocca alla romana (veal with prosciutto and sage).
Italians consider milky coffee drinks a morning thing — the idea being that milk is heavy and a post-meal cappuccino would impede digestion. Nobody will throw you out for ordering one at 3pm, but you'll mark yourself immediately as a tourist. After lunch or dinner: espresso, or an espresso macchiato (espresso with a small amount of frothed milk). Also: never "a coffee" — always "un caffè" — it means espresso.
Standing at a bar for breakfast (cornetto + espresso): €2–3. Pizza al taglio lunch: €4–8. Lunch at a good trattoria: €12–20 for a main, €5–8 for a primo (pasta). Dinner at a mid-range trattoria: €25–40 per head including wine. Fine dining: €80–150+. The tourist premium is real — move even two streets off the main sights and prices often halve.
For the best-known places, yes — Roscioli requires 2 weeks ahead in summer. Da Enzo al 29 doesn't take reservations, so you queue. Most mid-range trattorias can be booked same-day or with a day or two's notice. Walking into a good Roman restaurant at 8pm on a Friday in August without a reservation is possible but unreliable.