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Taverna Angelica
A gorgeous, creative trattoria tucked away at the edge of the Borgo, this has an elegant, gracious interior with huge wicker lampshades and copper-framed pictures. Food is imaginative, with delicate and delicious flavours: Take, for example, tonnarelli with garlic and oil, pachino (a type of cherry tomato) and ricotta. Sunday lunch is a bargain at around €20 or around €25 (two different set menus).
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Taverna dei Quaranta
Off the main tourist track but near the Colosseum, this airy trattoria is run by gentle staff and offers super, simple Roman cooking, with delicious daily pasta specials, great bruschetta and arostocini (beef kebabs). There's some outside seating on the leafy yet busy street.
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Thien Kim
Rome's lone Vietnamese restaurant is fortunately a winner. The dimly lit interior reveals few oriental trappings but the food is pure Vietnamese, if adapted for Italian tastes. To start there's an excellent Green Paradise Island soup (a broth of vegetables, prawns and pork scented with ginger, lemon grass and celery); mains include spicy fried fish in nuoc nam (fish sauce).
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Tram Tram
This trendy yet old-fashioned, lace-curtained trattoria is usually filled with San Lorenzo hipsters. It takes its name from the trams that rattle past outside and offers traditional dishes, such as baccalà on Friday, as well as southern specialities such as orecchiette alla Norma (ear-shaped pasta with fried aubergine, tomato, basil and ricotta) and riso cozze patate (rice, mussels and potatoes).
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Trattoria
Walk through the discreet entrance and up the stairs to find yourself in the city's most innovative Sicilian restaurant. It has an excellent reputation for its interpretations of classics such as frittata and pasta alla Norma (with fried aubergine, tomato, basil and ricotta), as well as delicious fried gnocchi with culatello (a kind of prosciutto), all served amid modernist minimalism as well thought-out as the food.
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Trattoria da Bucatino
Popularity has seen this long-standing neighbourhood place expand down into the basement. Ask for a table upstairs (with wood panels, empty chianti bottles and a mounted boar's head) or outside, as downstairs has less atmosphere. Of the antipasti, try the terrific insalata di mare (seafood salad), while afterwards a bowl of steaming pasta is where it's at: the signature dish is bucatini all'amatriciana .
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Trattoria Monti
The Camerucci family runs this inviting, brick-arched place, offering top-notch traditional cooking from the Marches region. Expect homemade soups, gamey stews, elaborate pastas and ingredients such as pecorino di fossa (sheep's cheese aged in caves), goose, sultanas, mushrooms and truffles. Try the speciality egg-yolk tortelli pasta. Desserts are also delectable, including apple pie with zabaglione. You'll need to book ahead.
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Tullio
A formal wood-panelled restaurant whose simple, classic, mainly Tuscan formula has attracted a faithful clientele of politicians, journalists and artists since the days of la dolce vita. Pasta dishes range from the simple tortellini in brodo (pasta in broth) to the decadent tagliolini con tartufo bianco (pasta with white truffle). Meat, including the famous bistecca alla fiorentina, is grilled over a charcoal fire.
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Uno e Bino
San Lorenzo harbours some culinary diamonds and this is the biggest sparkler of them all, though it's a very minimalist sparkler. Classy yet relaxed, it's bottle-lined, with paper tablecloths. It's won lots of awards, and Giovanni Passerini cooks fine, adventurous food with a Sicilian slant, such as fagottelli envelopes stuffed with pecorino , garlic, tomato, date and almond milk. It's always full, so you'll need to book ahead.
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Valzani
The speciality of this humble cake shop, opened in 1925 and not redecorated since, is the legendary torta sacher , the favourite cake of Roman film director Nanni Moretti. But there are also chocolate-covered mostaccioli (biscuits), Roman pangiallo (honey, nuts and dried fruit - typical of Christmas) and Roman torrone (nougat). If help is needed, the owners speak English and will happily discuss your requirements.
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Vecchia Roma
At venerable Vecchia Roma (Old Rome), polite waiters wear white jackets, oil paintings adorn the dining rooms and candles light the outdoor terrace. The menu changes with the season, offering fabulous salads in summer, 101 things to do with polenta in winter and decent pastas and risottos year-round. Also worth a mention is the abundant antipasto selection of buffalo mozzarella, stuffed squid, prawns, fried bits and bobs and assorted vegetables.
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Vineria Chianti
Many restaurants in the environs of the Trevi are to be avoided, but this pretty ivy-clad wine bar is an exception. Specialising in Tuscan dishes, it also serves imaginative salads (such as pine nuts, cinnamon, pear and blue cheese), pastas and meat dishes, and pizza in the evenings. It's a great place to eat in summer, when tables spill out onto the tiny piazza outside.
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Vineria Roscioli Salumeria
Walk in here and swoon over the mingled aromas. Once a traditional deli, this is now a temple to food, with lots of fantastic olive oil, cheeses (around 450 varieties), Italian and Spanish hams and so on to buy. You can eat in the molto chic interior under the exposed brick arches with their modernist paintings, and the wine list has some 1100 labels (900 Italian, 200 French). The affiliated bakery is nearby.
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Volpetti
Arguably Rome's best deli, Volpetti stocks everything from spicy Provola cheese to fragrant morning-fresh bread, prosciutto, olive oils, wine, slabs of torrone (nougat) and homemade ravioli stuffed with chicory and taleggio cheese. Staff are helpful, you can order online, and there's a range of ready-to-eat treats for those inevitable hunger pangs.
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Volpetti alla Scrofa
Volpetti offers scrumptious pizza, pizza rustica and pastries to take out, as well as a selection of top-notch daily tavola calda delights (set menu around €10 ), which you can eat in or out. This is also a glorious deli with delicacies including truffles, salami and cheese.
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Volpetti Più
One of the few places around town where you can sit down and eat well for less than around €10 , Volpetti Più is a sumptuous tavola calda with pizzas, pastas, soups, meats, vegetables and fried nibbles. The quality is as impressive as the quantity, and the booming cooks who dish out the food are always willing to explain what everything is (in Italian).
