5 Really Good Places to Eat in Rome
Trip Advisor and travel books be dammed, here’s where we ate in Rome, and why you should, too.
Full disclosure: I’m not an expert on Rome. But I am an expert at packing month’s worth of experiences into a week off of work, and when we travel, my family likes to eat well. The 96 hours we spent in Rome were par for the course: Action-packed days beginning at the crack of dawn and sinfully decadent dinners lasting well into the evening.
The meals we had were nothing short of extraordinary, especially considering that with only one exception, they were not particularly well known or even well rated. It just goes to show the magic that can be made when you pair an open mind with an empty belly.
Stazione di Posta
This Michelin star restaurant is located in a former slaughterhouse in Testaccio, a working-class neighborhood now hailed for its nightlife and culinary scene. Find Stazione di Posta down a road marked for pedestrians only, adjacent to the ancient Roman landfill of Monte Testaccio, and tucked inside the Città dell’ Altra Economia (the site of Gay Village 2018). Your Uber driver will have a heck of a time finding it. But once you’re there, you won’t be disappointed. We were looking for a “Michelin star” experience, and Stazione di Posta delivered.
Indoor and outdoor space combined, Stazione di Posta has seating for approximately 60 amid an ultra modern décor on top of the original stone floor. While reservations are generally required, that Monday evening ours was one of only a handful of occupied tables, and we had the full attention of the host, the bartender, and our waiter. The service was exemplary, and definitely up to the challenge of our demanding group: After eating nothing but grilled, baked, and fried seafood for a week in Abruzzo, as we sat down, my dad declared, “I want meat.”
We started with Prosecco and then moved on to two excellent (and mid-range) bottles of red wine, recommended by the bartender. Stazione di Posta offers three- and five-course tasting menus, which change nightly, and a menu of à la carte dishes, modern takes on classic Italian recipes, including vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. Most dishes are 8€ –14€. The menu (and their website) is only in Italian, but that just makes ordering all the more fun.
Due to the logistics of serving, the tasting menus are only available for entire tables, so we made up a tasting menu of our own choosing three or four courses each (the dishes are small). The biggest hits were the Amatriciana di Gamberi, spaghetti with a traditional red sauce and shrimp, the Tartare Carne Abbinato a Gipsy Woman, beef tartar, the Scapece, a cold antipasti with zucchini, ricotta, and olives, that evening’s Cacio e Pepe special with octopus, and my dad’s Tournedos of pork with mushrooms, potato, and apple. We selected five desserts to share between the seven of us.
Ristorante Arco di S. Calisto
Sometimes the best meals happen by accident. The plan was to go to a highly-rated restaurant around the corner, but a broken glass, an accidentally stolen iPhone, and a moment of general chaos trying to get our group of seven out the door of the hotel resulted in our arriving at dinner (again) way too late (by American standards). The designated restaurant had a wait of an hour, and it was already close to nine o’clock.
Hangry and in desperate need of a glass of wine, we ended up at a cozy street-side table at Ristorante Arco di S. Calisto. The location in Trastevere is post-card perfect with party lights strung between the buildings. The wine and a plate of mushroom bruschetta, and came quickly, satisfying the immediate hanger so that we could relax into the rest of the meal.
The restaurant has baskets of fresh mushrooms sitting around, and they put them in all sorts of dishes. To start, I shared a plate of pasta with porcini mushrooms and parsley with my dad. He moved on to the braised lamb shank, a succulent dish with a rich sauce and generous vegetables while I choose the Pollo alla Romana, a traditional dish of braised chicken and red and yellow peppers. It was Roman cooking at its purest: tender, full of flavor, incredibly satiating. Other selections included a mushroom pizza, wood-fired and crispy, the risotto with scampi and cream, and the lasagna. Most main dishes are 14€ –24€. At the end of the meal, every plate was clean. Stuffed, we reluctantly (not really) shared a tiramisu for dessert and our waiter treated us to a delightful limoncello.
The reviews for Ristorante Arco di S. Calisto are mixed on Trip Advisor, but from our group’s point of view, it was the best meal we had in Rome.
Caffè delle Arti
The biggest drawback to Rome is that you have to stand in line. A lot. Pretty much anywhere you go. Even when we spent 60€ each to book a sunrise guided tour of the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel we had to stand in line. The one place we didn’t have to stand in line was La Galleria Nazionale, Rome’s museum of modern and contemporary art.
The visit ticked off two boxes: My desire to see a museum that satisfied my idea of “museum” — air-conditioned, spacious, quiet, tall white walls that provide the opportunity for peaceful contemplation of art — and the group’s desire for an elegant, relaxing café break.
We arrived at La Galleria Nazionale from the Villa Borghese by pedal car and walked through the museum to get to the open-air Caffè delle Arti restaurant and coffee bar. The restaurant was winding down lunch, so we sat under the canopy on the coffee bar side (both have indoor and outdoor seating). We ordered an assortment of paninis and salads, which were tasty, filling, and moderately priced. They also offer a selection of specialty cocktails, a perfect indulgence for an afternoon of museuming.
I can’t tell you that Caffè delle Arti is a culinary must-visit, but if you’re looking for a lovely spot away from the crowds, it’s an excellent option. Be sure to leave some time to enjoy the collection, ranging from Impressionism to neo-Dadaism, including some of Monet’s water lilies and Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain.”
La Scala In Trastevere
It was our last night in Rome, our last night in Italy, and after a whirlwind 10 days, we batted around the idea of ordering pizza up to our room. (To be fair, our suite at the Hotel Ponte Sisto had one of the best rooftop patios in the city.) Instead, feeling compelled to suck the marrow out of every last moment of our trip — figuratively, if not literally — we opted for a mojito in the hotel’s rooftop bar and then hauled ourselves one more time across the bridge to Trastevere.
We’d picked a restaurant via favorable Google reviews adjacent to the Piazza Trilussa in equal part for it’s proximity to our hotel and enticing interior photography. But when we walked up, we felt it was too cold and modern, dare I say “hipstery” for our crowning evening in the Eternal City. Exhausted but not defeated, we shuffled on.
Not too far around the corner, we were presented with two suitable options. The one that got us a table first won. Ristorante La Scale in Trastevere invited us to have a drink at their communal table in the bar while we waited for a table for dinner on the patio. It was the last Thursday of August and Rome was busy, but not terribly so. Only halfway through our rose, we were seated.
As enticing as the menu at La Scale was, we quickly came to the decision that we really didn’t need three to five courses for dinner. I’m not embarrassed to mention I was wearing a skirt with a drawstring waistband. We opted to share the buffalo mozzarella with wild mushrooms to start, and each chose a different pasta as our main course: homemade ravioli stuffed with butter, truffle, and Parmesan, lasagna, spaghetti all’amatriciana with lobster, spaghetti carbonara, tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms. Per family tradition, we each took two bites and passed the plate around. The homemade ravioli with butter and truffle may have stood out slightly — because butter and truffles — but each dish found its own passionate advocate. And lest you assume Rome is the wrong place to order a half of a lobster, you assume wrong.
We may have ordered a ricotta and chocolate tarte to share; with as many dishes and flavors (and pounds) we’d packed in during those few days, I really can’t remember if we had dessert or not! I do remember being treated to a decadent limoncello as we left, my mother attempting, but failing, to refuse.
Sated and happy, we shuffled back to the hotel to pack and rest for one final day of eating (touring) Rome before our evening flight to Berlin.
Il Fornaio
When traveling in a group, it’s always important to build in the flexibility to do a few things together and a few things apart. The final two stops on my must-visit list were the museum of Da Vinci’s machines in the Palazzo della Cancelleria and the Museo di Roma in Palazzo Braschi. Both are fabulous — thought-provoking, inexpensive, and uncrowded — and right around the corner from Il Fornaio. This tiny artisan bakery has one single high-top table inside. My brother and his girlfriend had opted for a walking tour of the Roman Forum, so down to three, my parents and I got lucky, and the high top was available.
Il Fornaio offers several savory treats, pizzas on focaccia, paninis, and sandwiches, and about eight cases of baked goods: biscotti, cannoli, struffoli, pinolate, amaretti, several tartes and types of strudel, napoleons, meringues, and cookies with pistachio cream. Everything is baked in-house. We ordered two slices of pizza, a prosciutto sandwich, and a couple of cookies with chocolate and pistachio. We didn’t think we were all that hungry, but 15 minutes later, there was nothing left on our paper plates.
The choices at Il Fornaio are vast and change daily so I can’t definitively recommend what you should try. I can tell you that if you go there, you won’t be disappointed. And — you will walk out with an extra box of sweets for the plane!
