Trattorium restaurants in Rome
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Siciliainbocca
Lemon-yellow and lined in dazzling southern ceramics, this trattoria is sunny in demeanour and colour. It's a great place to sample sumptuous seafood, Sicilian specialities like caponata (browned vegetables, anchovies and capers), and the island's legendary desserts, such as cannoli (fried pastry tubes filled with ricotta) accompanied by pantelleria, the great muscatel. There's another branch in Flaminio (06 324 01 87; Via Flaminia 390; ;Tue-Sun).
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Alfredo e Ada
For a taste of a authentic Roman cooking, head to this much-loved place with its wood panelling and spindly marble- topped tables. It’s distinctly no-frills – the wine list consists of two choices, red or white – but the food, whatever is put in front of you (there’s no menu), is filling and warming, just like your Italian nonna would have cooked it.
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Da Giggetto
The atmospheric ghetto, rustic interiors, white-jacketed waiters, Roman-Jewish cooking – who needs more? Celebrate all things fried by tucking into the marvellous carciofi alla giudia and follow on with delicious calamari (fried squid). In the warmer months, fight your way to an outside table under the shadow of the ruins of the Portico d’Ottavia.
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La Botticella
On a quiet Trastevere backstreet, La Botticella offers pure Roman cooking, outside under the lines of flapping washing, or inside in the picture-lined salon. Menu stalwarts include tripe and rigatoni alla paiata (pasta with calf’s intestines), but there are less demanding dishes, such as an excellent spaghetti all’amatriciana and fritto alla botticella (deep-fried vegetables).
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Da Enzo
This snug dining room with rough yellow walls and lots of character serves up great, seasonally based Roman meals, such as spaghetti with clams and mussels or grilled lamb cutlets. There's a tiny terrace on the quintessential Trastevere cobbled street.
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Da Lucia
Eat beneath the fluttering knickers of the neighbourhood at this terrific trattoria, frequented by hungry locals and tourists, and packed with locals for Sunday lunch. On a cobbled backstreet that is classic Trastevere, it serves up a cavalcade of Roman specialities including trippa all romana (tripe with tomato sauce) and pollo con peperoni (chicken with peppers), as well as bountiful antipasti and possibly Rome's best tiramisu. Cash only.
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Cacio e Pepe
No-nonsense home-style cooking is why Romans flock to this humble trattoria. If you can find a seat at one of the gingham-clad tables spread across the pavement, keep it simple with cacio e pepe – fresh bucatini slicked with buttery cheese and pepper – followed by pollo alla cacciatora (‘hunter’s chicken’).
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Gino
Hidden away down a narrow lane close to parliament, Gino’s is perennially packed with gossiping politicians. Join the right honourables for well-executed staples such as rigotoni alla gricia (pasta with cured pig’s cheek) and meatballs, served under hanging garlic and gaudily painted vines. No credit cards.
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Nanà Vini e Cucina
An appealing and simple trattoria, specialising in Neopolitan flavours. Eat in the high-ceilinged interior, under huge brass pipes, overlooking the open kitchen, or outside on the piazzetta. Try la carne tenenera scaloppina Nanà, cooked simply in white wine, and other southern dishes.
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Taverna dei Quaranta
Tasty traditional food, honest prices, near the Colosseum but off the beaten track – there’s a lot to like about this laid-back, airy trattoria. There are no great surprises on the menu but daily specials add variety and all the desserts are homemade – always a good sign.
reviewed
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Osteria dell’Angelo
Former rugby player Angelo presides over this hugely popular neighbourhood trattoria (reservations are a must). The set menu features a mixed antipasti, a robust Roman-style pasta and a choice of hearty mains with a side dish. To finish off, you’re offered lightly spiced biscuits to dunk in sweet dessert wine.
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Pommidoro
Throughout San Lorenzo’s metamorphosis from down-at-heel working-class district to down-at-heel bohemian enclave, Pommidoro has remained the same. A much-loved local institution, it’s a century-old trattoria, with high star-vaulted ceilings, a huge fireplace and outdoor conservatory seating. It was a favourite of controversial film director Pier Paolo Pasolini, and contemporary celebs stop by – from Nicole Kidman to Fabio Cappello – but it’s an unpretentious place with superb-quality traditional food, specialising in magnificent grilled meats.
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Osteria Margutta
Theatrical Osteria Margutta is colourful inside and out: inside combines blue glass, rich reds and fringed lampshades, while outside flowers and ivy cover the quaint entrance (snap up a terrace table in summer). Plaques on the chairs testify to the famous thespian bums they have supported. The menu combines classic and regional dishes, with fish served fresh on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday; desserts are homemade, and there’s a top wine list.
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La Carbonara
On the go since 1906, this busy restaurant was favoured by the infamous Ragazzi di Panisperna (named after the street), the group of young physicists, including Enrico Fermi, who constructed the first atomic bomb. The waiters are brusque, it crackles with energy and the interior is covered in graffiti – tradition dictates that diners should leave their mark in a message on the wall. The speciality is the eponymous carbonara.
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Armando al Pantheon
A family-run trattoria, Armando’s is a wood-panelled, inviting, authentic institution close to the Pantheon. Always busy, it’s fed the likes of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and footballer Pelè. It specialises in traditional Roman fare but you can also branch out on dishes like guinea fowl with porcini mushrooms and black beer and spaghetti with truffles. Book ahead.
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Hostaria Zampagna
The trendification of Via Ostiense – with ever-growing numbers of bars and clubs in its side streets – has thankfully bypassed this humble trattoria. As for the past 80 years, you sit down to good hearty, homecooked food prepared according to the city’s weekly calendar. It’s all splendid: try spaghetti alla carbonara, alla gricia or all’amatriciana, then tuck into tripe, beef or involtini.
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Casetta di Trastevere
With outside seating on a cobbled Trastevere corner, this characterful trattoria is held in high regard by Italians, who will cheerfully queue for a table, either inside or out. What they're waiting for is no-nonsense hearty fare served in pleasantly large portions. Particularly good is the crema di fave con crostini (broad-bean puree with croutons) and pasta e fagioli (thick borlotti-bean soup). Service can be slow when it's busy.
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Il Bocconcino
Visited the Colosseum and need lunch in a local trattoria? Try ‘the little mouthful’ in the area heading up towards San Giovanni. Its gingham tablecloths, outdoor seating and cosy interior look like all the others in this touristy neighbourhood but it serves excellent pastas and imaginative meat and fish mains such as rombo in impanatura di agrumi (turbot with citrus fruit coating).
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Maccheroni
With its classic vintage interior – think plain, bottle-lined walls and hanging strands of garlic – attractive setting and traditional menu, Maccheroni is the archetypal centro storico trattoria. Locals and tourists flock here to dine on Roman stalwarts like tonnarelli al cacio e pepe (pasta with cheese and pepper) and carciofo alla Romana (Roman style artichoke).
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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.
reviewed
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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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Da Olindo
One of Trastevere’s old-style basic kitchens, this is your classic family affair, where the menu is short and the atmosphere is lively. Cuisine is robust, portions are huge. Expect baccalà con patate on Fridays and gnocchi on Thursdays, but other dishes – such as coniglio all cacciatore (rabbit, hunter-style) or polpette al sugo (meatballs in sauce) – whichever day you like.
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Campana
Caravaggio, Goethe and Federico Fellini are among the luminaries who have dined at what is said to be Rome’s oldest trattoria, dating back to around 1518. Nowadays, local families crowd its two dining rooms to dine on fresh fish and traditional Roman cuisine served by proficient, black-waistcoated waiters.
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Lilli
Eat like a local at this authentic neighbourhood trattoria on a cobbled cul de sac five minutes’ walk from Piazza Navona. Few tourists make it here but it still gets frantically busy at lunchtime, with diners digging into cacio e pepe (pasta with pecorino cheese and ground black pepper) and other old-school Roman favourites.
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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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