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La Buca di Ripetta
Popular with actors and directors from the district, who know a bargain when they see it, this is cheery and dependable, and you may have to queue. Cooking is robust. Try the country-style soup with rosemary-scented bread or the roasted suckling pork with potatoes and you'll be fuelled either for more sightseeing or for a lie down.
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La Carbonara
La Carbonara offers superb ringside seating on the never-dull Campo de' Fiori. The food is good, earthy Roman fare that comes at surprisingly honest prices. As its name suggests, it's known for its spaghetti alla carbonara , although the restaurant is actually named after a coal shop that the owner's father once ran.
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La Focaccia
Hotfoot it to an outside table at this unsigned, gay-friendly pizzeria. It faces the beautiful Chiostro del Bramante, and inside the downstairs dining room is surprisingly big. As well as great bruschetta, you can eat wood-fired pizzas and breads, and delicate fresh pastas.
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La Fonte della Salute
Whether this Trastevere gelateria really is a fountain of health (as its name translates) is debatable, although the soy- and yoghurt-based gelati support the theory. The fruit flavours are superb and the marron glace (candied chestnut) is so delicious that it has to be good for you. The scoops are generous.
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La Gallina Bianca
The 'white hen' is a friendly, handy pizzeria among the minefield of tourist trash around Termini, serving great thick-crust Neapolitan pizzas made from slow-risen dough. It's large and airy, decorated in cool pale blue and old wood, with shaded outside seating on a not-too-busy street.
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La Gensola
This discreet Sicilian smasher fills small, brightly lit, graceful adjoining rooms, and offers superb cooking. It specialises in seafood - try the delicious tuna tartare or pasta with fresh anchovies. This is the kind of restaurant you want to have in your neighbourhood: it's unpretentious but classy, waiters are knowledgeable and quirky, and foodies will love it.
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La Piazzetta
Molto simpatico, on a tiny medieval lane, this gay-friendly restaurant has a fabulous antipasti buffet and equally impressive primi and secondi - try the yolky carbonara . A dessert-sampler buffet means you don't have to face a difficult decision between puddings.
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La Rosetta
La Rosetta is so excellent that it doesn't have to be overly formal. Some say this is Rome's best fish restaurant; others say it's the best in Italy. Chef Massimo Riccioli's dishes are often startlingly simple - cuttlefish with lemon and olive oil or linguine ai frutti di mare (flat spaghetti with seafood) - but they're prepared with genius. He can also innovate, as his moscardini (baby octopus) with mint shows. Bookings are essential.
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La Tana dei Golosi
Created as a culinary adventure, this simple-looking restaurant has an ever-changing menu that travels all around Italy twice monthly, featuring different regional cuisines. A southern period, for example, may feature tiella barese (rice, mussels and potatoes) and polpette di melanzane (aubergine balls). All ingredients are exceptional: it's the holy grail of regional excellence pursued with dedication.
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La Taverna degli Amici
Roman politicians like to eat well, and La Taverna degli Amici is where many from the nearby Democratici di Sinistra headquarters come to lunch. On a quintessential ivy-draped piazza on the edge of the Jewish Ghetto, it serves consistently good Italian food: pasta and risotto, meat classics like saltimbocca alla romana (veal with ham), fish and homemade desserts. There's also an excellent wine list. It gets busy at lunchtime so service can be slow.
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Le Naumachie
This modern, popular pizzeria caters to locals and tourists, has a brick-arched, spacious interior, and offers classic Roman pizzas at both lunch and dinner, with tried-and-tested toppings such as capricciosa (a variety of toppings, usually mushroom, ham, artichoke and olives) and marinara (seafood).
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Mario
Under a wood-beamed ceiling, Mario has been serving up earthy Tuscan cooking to tourists and locals since 1960 - and the interior doesn't seemed to have changed much. Try classics such as ribollita (bread soup) and pappardelle alle lepre (pasta with hare sauce), or fuel your shopping with a bistecca alla fiorentina (Florentine steak).
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Mario's
A bit smarter in recent years, Mario's nevertheless remains what it has always been - a modest trattoria plastered with postcards and photos, serving homely food to whoever's hungry. Mamma shuffles from kitchen to table in her slippers, bringing out bowls of steaming pasta, plates of grilled meat and generous carafes of house wine. It's all good but the ricotta and spinach ravioli served in butter and sage is wonderful.
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Matricianella
Romans love this quintessential yet upmarket trattoria, with its typically Roman cuisine, gingham tablecloths and chintzy murals. It's on a quiet cobbled street with some charming outside seating. The fried snacks are great (try fried potato peel and ricotta), meat dishes fabulous and the chocolate and ricotta dessert a grand finale. Book ahead.
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Nanà Vini e Cucina
It's tricky to find somewhere reasonable near the Trevi fountain, but this is an appealing and simple trattoria. Eat in the large inviting interior, under huge brass pipes, or outside on the piazzetta . Try starters such as courgette flower stuffed with buffalo mozzarella or seafood salad, then move on to something like orecchiette (ear-shaped pasta) with a sauce of courgette and clams.
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Obikà
Part of Rome's new guard, this is a mozzarella bar that resembles a sushi joint, but with the white stuff rather than the fishy stuff. The name isn't Japanese: it means 'here it is' in Neapolitan dialect, and the mozzarella arrives fresh daily at . Try the burrata (mozzarella-like cheese filled with cream). Brunch is famously good too. Décor is ancient meets modern with columns and an underlit floor.
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Osteria ar Galletto
You wouldn't expect there to be anywhere reasonably priced on Piazza Farnese, one of Rome's loveliest outdoor rooms, but this long-running osteria is the real thing, with good, honest Roman food, a warm local atmosphere and dazzlingly set exterior tables. Roasted chicken is the house speciality ( galletto means little rooster), but the roasted lamb in season is just as fine.
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Osteria dell'Angelo
Having hung up his boots, former rugby player Angelo has been at the helm of his neighbourhood trattoria since 1989. Nowadays it's a hugely popular spot - making a reservation a must - with paper cloths on solid wooden tables and photos of Angelo's sporting heroes on the walls.
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Osteria dell'Ingegno
A casual yet chic restaurant, this is a favourite of Italian politicians and their glamorous entourages. Eat inside at brightly painted tables, surrounded by cubist-style paintings, or outside overlooking the charming square and temple of Apollo. Food has an adventurous twist, and dishes include a delicious salad of fresh buffalo mozzarella, baby chicory and anchovies, and farfalle (butterfly-shaped pasta) with leeks and saffron.
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Osteria della Frezza
Part of the 'Gusto complex , della Frezza is trendy yet simple, with white-tiled, photo-covered walls and a monochrome look. It's part osteria , part enoteca and part tapas bar. As well as selections of meat or cheese, you can order cichetti (mini-helpings) of pasta, meat and fish dishes on the menu, such as tortelli di baccalà (cod in pasta wraps) and fried ricotta.
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Osteria Margutta
Epitomizing the picturesque trattoria, this theatrical spot is colourful both inside and out: blue flowers and ivy cover the quaint entrance, while inside its blue glass, rich reds and fringed lampshades. Plaques on the chairs testify to famous thespian bums it has supported. The menu combines classic and regional dishes; fish is served fresh on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Desserts are homemade, there's a top wine list and service is friendly.
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Osteria qui se Magna!
A real neighbourhood secret, this buzzing, gay-friendly osteria (wine bar serving food) serves up cheap, lip-smacking Roman dishes such as pasta all'amatriciana (pasta with tomato, pancetta and chilli-pepper sauce) , grilled meats and puntarella (Lazio chicory with anchovies, garlic and a splash of vinegar) to loud'n'merry locals. Book for weekend dining.
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Osteria Sostegno
A well-kept secret, this intimate place is a favourite of journalists and politicians, with simple yet excellent dishes such as caprese (tomato and mozzarella salad) and lasagnetto al forno con punte di asparagi (little lasagne with asparagus heads). There's a charming small terrace between the steep walls of a narrow alley. Nearby is the similarly splendid Ristorante Settimio (06 678 96 51; Via della Colonnelle 14) run by the same family.
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Otello alla Concordia
Otello is a haven near the Spanish Steps. Outside dining is in the vine-covered courtyard of an 18th-century palazzo where, if you're lucky, you can dine in the shadow of the wisteria-covered pergola; indoors is cramped yet attractive, cluttered with pictures. The fairly priced food's pretty good, with an ample selection of antipasti, pastas and secondi ranging from sautè di cozze (sautéed mussels) to fried brains and roast turbot.
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Palazzo del Freddo di Giovanni Fassi
Sprinkled with old-fashioned marble table tops and vintage gelato-making machinery, Rome's oldest ice-cream peddler is one of its best. Undecided palates should opt for a heavenly riso (rice), pistachio and nocciola (hazelnut) combo.
