Q&A: Where to eat in Rome Italy, Rome Restaurant guide:

The best Restaurants and cheapest places to eat in rome? These Rome Restaurant guide articles should help you find the best Trattorias, Pizzerias and Rome hotel restaurants that are friendly to the budget...

Dianne says: There are so many good places to eat in Rome Italy, the best bet is stay away from the Rome hotel restaurants and tourists spots and ask the locals.

Cocktails are very popular in Italy, when you order a cocktail you normally get a selection of antipasto, or crisps, or a plate of nuts.

Ask to see the cocktail menu, some of them are really spectacular. They cost around 6 euros (depending on location).

 

Bridgette says: "Navona Notte", near Piazza Navona, is one of the best places in the center for good quality and price. The cheapest eat is at Termini Station in the "larga cafè" where you can get good pastas.

 

BR8 says: Rome is a very pedestrian oriented city (they should tell the drivers that though). I doubt you are ever going to be put in a corner where a lunch is going to blow the budget. There are millions of Rome cafes which have what I call "NY Pizza" - the pizza is pre-cooked and sitting in a window - tell them what you want and they put it in the oven to warm it up. It's only about 2 or 3 euros. For a traditional cooked to order pizza it's about 10-12 euros but enough for two for a lunch. Often lunch will include a glass of wine.

Bottled water is expensive on the street 2-3 euros. I buy mine at a grocery store when I get there (I think I paid 1.8 euros for 6) and kept them in the hotel room.

Two other alcoholic drinks I can think of are grappa and limoncello. Grappa is the distilled fermentation of wine-making by-products and is typically 100 proof or more. Limoncello is lemon flavored liquor.

Sambuca is an anise flavored liquor, but I've never looked for it in Italy.

(Marcus from Roman Life Rome Italy adds: The tap water in Rome is excellent, and there are thousands of fountains throughout Rome. Take a little bottle with you when you go out walking and fill up at the fountains.)

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Orion says: Rome restaurant guide? You don't need it. In Rome, everywhere is good! But seriously the cheapest way to dine in Rome is at a Pizzeria. In a pizzeria you can eat some starters, a good pizza, dessert and drink beer for 10-15 euros. The best are in the Trastevere area of central Rome. In most pizzerias you can have pasta instead of pizza. Also Instead of dessert you can have a ice cream in gelateria: it is usually better and cheaper that desserts in restaurants.

Rocky says: My favorite Rome Restaurants are: Alfredo alla Scrofa (the pasta), Alberto Ciarla in Trastevere (Nouvelle Cuisine Fish), Bastianelli al Molo in Fiumicino - by the airport (fresh fish from the local catch), Shangri La all' EUR (the Buffet and pasta, in addition to VIPs you meet).
For “value for money” I usually go to:
Vatican area: the “Ristochicco, Borgo Pio 186, or a little more sophisticated the nearby “Al Passetto di Borgo” or “Massa” just round the corner. When I'm at the fashionable Via Veneto area: the Ristorante Mariano, via Piemonte 79; a little more upscale is the Girarrosto Fiorentino in via Sicilia.
Every now and then I basically choose on impulse and I'm rarely disappointed.

To the specifics of your question:
Breakfast: is in front of my old office in via Tomacelli - there are three excellent alternatives, one has salads, one a full English Breakfast the other anItalian but even Kosher; the alternative is a Fish Breakfast at Fiumicino Molo or do what the Italians do - cappuccino & cornetto in Piazza San Lorenzo in Lucina (3 top bars).
Lunch and Dinner: any of the afore mentioned places.

Mary says: I agree with Orion, you don't actually need a Rome Restaurant guide but...my favorite Rome restaurant is La Taverna dei Mercanti in Trastevere. The food is very good and the atmosphere is wonderful. The building appears medieval inside and out. There are some torches on the outside of the restaurant. The menu came rolled up like a scroll and we even got to keep it! It is awesome I had it framed and it now hangs in my house!

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Anon says: In the Trastevere and Gianicolo areas there are a lot of good Rome restaurants but skip the Vatican area ,they are too touristic.

Try pizza (generally in the evening) it's very different and better than pizza from USA (it's thin and wood- oven cooked) .

Have a nice trip and welcome in Rome

Marco says: Pizzerias: Montecarlo (the one near Corso Vittorio Emanuele), Ivo in Trastevere.

There are too many good Rome restaurants to suggest a few, but, the best advise I can give is to stay away from the restaurants in the touristy areas. They will be expensive and the food will be mediocre.

The best bet is to find the small out-of-the-way places in the residential areas, these are the places the locals go to and they will be much cheaper and of much better quality.

 

Federico says: Marco has great advice, so to add something different, last week I found a great little pizzeria on the Via Principe Amadeo, just southeast of Via Viminale, by Termini Stazione. It's called Est Est Est!

It's a little "hole-in-the-wall" family run place (Osteria) but if you go at 2100 (900PM) or later there is a funny little old man who loves to sing and play the guitar. He's very talented and it will give you a lot of the local flavor (I'm assuming you are not Italian?) Can't beat that for Roman culture.

Buon Viaggio!

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Bree says: There are lots of good Restaurants in Rome Italy, just watch out for tourist traps, which are mainly located around the tourist sites. For example, my first time there we went to the Pantheon and ate in the square. The food tasted as if it was warmed up in the microwave. Like one other person mentioned, Trastevere. Great area, great food. Also ask the concierge where you're staying at for suggestions. They have never led me wrong.

Ort89 says: You can go at the restaurant Pastarito Pizzarito, it's a local pasta pizza chain, the quality is good and so are the prices.

For more advice about Rome Restaurants - where to eat, how to eat, when to eat - see my Rome restaurant guide page.
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