Rome Restaurants

Healthy lunch option

The burrata and grilled vegetable plate with homemade bread is insane

Local market open weekends 10:30-7

Recommended Jewish eatery

Locally beloved Pizza, good for lunch - With a large room of inside seating and a small garden with tables in the back even if there is a line outside (reader, if it is a weekend evening there will be a line) it will move quickly. Alle Carrete serves Roman-style thin crust pizzas at both lunch and dinner from their wood fire oven at a swift pace. While you wait for your individual pie do as the Romans do and order a few plates of fried things while you wait for your pizza. We love the slices of deep-fried artichoke and stuffed zucchini flowers. You can combine two traditional Roman dishes with their carbonara pizza.

Visiting the Cathedral of San Clemente in Rome is like turning the pages of a history book. During the realm of Emperor Nerone (years 54-68), it was part of the luxurious Domus Aurea Villa and Park, and after the fire and the fall of Nerone, it evolved from a house with a small factory (probably a mint) to a temple to God Mithras. Each layer of the underground of the Cathedral holds different functions at different points in time. The first layer is 20 meters under the actual ground level. The Christian cathedral we see today belongs to the 11th Century and was built upon a more ancient one from the 4th Century. The most outstanding part of the interior is the mosaics of the apsis, representing a harmonious pattern of symbols developing around Christ on the cross. From the 17th Century, the cathedral is managed by the Irish Dominicans monks, which discovered the underground layers and did a huge part of the excavation. The entrance to the ground level is free, while the ticket to the underground costs €10.

Describing these buildings as the most ancient commercial mall in history could be deceptive. Their original function was mainly that of serving as the Emperor’s administrative offices and archives. The entire structure is made of bricks, serving both as a structural and decorative element for the first time in history. The 6-story building at the back of the Foro di Traiano (Trajan´s Forum) was erected between the years 100-110 on the ruins of the spectacular residence of Emperor Nerone (Nero), later referred to as the “Domus Aurea”. Today, the complex hosts the Museum of the Roman Forum and shows most of the original structure. Over the centuries, it changed its function many times, becoming the residence of wealthy Roman families, a medieval fort (with the annexed Tower of the Milizie, 13th century), a Dominican nunnery, and a military barracks.

Old bookstore - Selling thousands of new, used, antique, rare, foreign, and Italian books in a tiny space. Books cover the whole shop, and the owner can guide you in the search for the book that you need.

Cocktails - Regular clients love the fact that having crossed through the entrance gate, one is gently thrown into a dimension reminiscent of the first half of the 20th Century: brocade curtains, aged wallpaper, antique armchairs. It’s said to have the best cocktails in the district, which you can sip listening to acoustic, non-intrusive live music. Sometimes it can get very busy, so the earlier you get there the better.

This is a small gelato shop that offers something like 300 unusual flavors. The gelato is excellent, and I’ve often heard the attendants receive praises, a special rarity not to be underestimated in this city!

Cocktail bar, good for aperitivo - Santo is a modern bistro and bar tucked away on a quiet street near Piazza San Cosimato in Trastevere. The cocktail list here is creative and fairly priced, and there are often guest bartenders visiting from other top bars in Italy.

good healthy vegan options

Great place for drinks

Great take-away pizza - Meter-long tongues of thin, crispy dough, topped with everything from tomato sauce to sausage, rest on the wooden counter. Direct the knife-wielding guy how much you want of what, and he’ll hack you off slices, weigh them, and print you a receipt so you can pay at the register. Space is limited and there’s always a crowd, so sometimes the best thing to do is get your pizza wrapped in wax paper and eat it while you stroll around the center of town.

For lunch or dinner - Still more of a locals’ place, even as Testaccio becomes increasingly visited by tourists, here Alessandro the chef expertly prepares plates like rigatoni con sugo di coda alla vaccinara (pasta with “tanner-style” oxtail ragù, spiked with pine nuts and warm spice), or cicoria ripassata (bitter green chicory sauteèd in garlic and oil).

Fantastic, moderately priced trattoria with great carbonara - great for lunch

Good take-away pizza

delicious and beloved traditional trattoria

Classic gelateria

A short walk from the Pantheon will bring you to Piazza Navona. Just like the Circus Maximus, this square was originally used for chariot racing and other events in Ancient Roman times, before being built over in later eras. In the center is yet another of Bernini’s fountains, the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, which has inspired people with its beauty for centuries.

Good place for a beer in Trastavere

Little cafe for breakfast - Angelo is always behind the battered metal bar in his blue jacket, ready to take your order with a smile. There is a small selection of cornetti in a warming case on the counter and a few tables outside if you’d like to sit down.

Great buzzing pizza place. Unlike thick, chewy Neapolitan-style pizza, a Roman pizza is as thin and crisp as a cracker, and Marmi’s wood oven turns out hundreds of them a night. Start your meal with supplì, fried salt cod, and uber-Roman beans cooked with pork rinds, which should be washed down with cold beer.

Trapizzino serves its namesake sandwich: a triangle of crisp pizza bread that’s squeezed open and stuffed with a variety of fillings—meatballs, eggplant parmigiana, Roman-style oxtails and even tender veal tongue in salsa verde (trust us, you won’t be disappointed). They also make wonderful supplì, the traditional Roman fried-rice ball.

incredible carbonara

incredible take-away pizza bianco

It’s a true fraschetta, meaning a tavern where they serve wine out of barrels, produced on the Quattrocchi farm outside Rome. Red or white are the only choices, and a tumbler will set you back the enormous sum of … €1. To eat, the ever-affable and generous Sandro will make you a salami sandwich, or a heaping paper plate of marinated vegetables and cheese.

Breakfast - incredible cornetto, ciambella fritta

Incredible artisanal sandwiches to take away

Highly recommend modern Italian place

Cocktail bar with light bites

Good casual pizza

Excellent Roman food

Classic Roman dinner fare

Incredible cannoli

Recommended to Yovna by a local - best gelato

Amazing pasta recced by Yovna

Rec’ed by Yovna for its spaghetti aglio e olio

Laid back wine bar

one of Trastevere’s oldest, best-known, and certainly most beloved bars. Open for more than half a century, it’s the favored haunt of artists, locals, tourists, garbagemen, drunks, street musicians, refugees, and certain Devour Rome writers.

This glass-fronted, wood-paneled enoteca doesn’t offer Rome’s biggest cellar or most extensive aperitivo. But what more would one want than a blackboard of local wines by the glass, big plates of marinated vegetables, and tables outside in picturesque Piazza San Cosimato? The perfect place for a pre-dinner prosecco and snack, while watching local kids kick a soccer ball around.