This is intended as a constructive critique of your question, not an attack.

Piazza Navona is such a leading "magnet" for visitors to the city of Rome, especially in the hours from 6 pm to midnight, that any nearby restaurant will naturally draw a significant tourist clientele.

I'm not saying that there's a shortage of restaurants in Rome that meet your criteria, and undoubtedly some are close to Piazza Navona. I certainly understand the desire to avoid "Americanized" menus - - and even worse, "Americanized" food (IN Rome - - this is not a slam against American cooking).

But of course, areas with high tourist magnetism do have GREAT restaurants. There are good restaurants in the French Quarter of New Orleans, at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, and similar places in the US. And most of the customers are from out of state, if not overseas.

But maybe your question would yield better answers if you did NOT ask for proximity to Piazza Navona as a criterion.

I think that the kinds of restaurants you seek are all over Rome - - in areas of high tourist traffic, and elsewhere as well. I have recommended Le Volte (Pantheon area, an area just as tourist-magnetic) here before, and I feel certain you will get many good answers, perhaps scattered all over the city.

Best wishes,

Rex
rbmd@usa.net

this isn't really an answer to your question, as i don't have any specific names of restaurants. but i know that when i was in rome, almost every meal i ate was at a restaurant like the one you're talking about. i can't remember eating a single meal with another tourist in sight. so my advice is to just walk around for a few minutes, and you'll probably find what you are looking for. the area (nor directly, but semi-near) Termini has a lot of these kind of restaurants.

i also don't know whether you're looking for a nicer-type restaurant or something cheap.

I agree that many of the restaurants around Piazza Navona have already been discovered by the hordes of tourists that flock to that area every day. But you can still find great places to eat, frequented by both Romans and tourists, within a 2 to 5 minute walk of the Piazza. Cul de Sac is a wonderful enoteca just around the corner and serves delicious food and Pizzeria Da Baffetto, well known to tourists and Romans as probably the best pizza in Rome is just down the street on Via Governo Vecchio. Go early and be prepared to wait in line and share a table. Your post specified "roman cuisine". That generally means the offal and organ meats and restaurants specializing in that are found in Testaccio: Checchio dal 1887 and Perilli to name two. Also, the restaurants in the Jewish Ghetto serve wonderful "roman jewish cooking" like deep fried artichokes. Piperno is one of these restaurants.

In one way we were fortunate that our hotel was not in the midst of the most heavily touristed areas of Rome. We would leave our hotel at 7:30 or 8:00 PM and just wander through the residential and small retail business neighborhoods all around us. When we were sufficiently hungry and found a place that looked nice, we stopped and had dinner. Although we had a few surprises when what we thought we ordered was not what we ended up with, all in all we did pretty well with our Italian phrase book and whatever English the waiter happened to know.

This isn't in the Navona area, but one of my favorites is Mario's in Trestavere, Via del moro, 53. see www.francescatravel.com/rome.htm for info. I was first taken there over 20 years ago by locals. 2 years ago when I was there with my family I was able to find it again. It's about as authentic as they come and very inexpensive (not fancy but very good). We were ther on a friday night and it was loaded with local families.

Do a search here on La Tartaruga.
I went there as the result of a tip that I'd gotten here at Fodors. It is a family-run wine bar and restaurant.
I will not say that no tourist has found it (after all, I did) but it is off the beaten track, and yet easily walkable from P. Navona or Pantheon area. There are also comments in the Fodors restaurant Rants and Raves section (including mine.)

In any restaurant, if you dine at 8:30 or later you will increase the odds of dining with more Romans and fewer tourists.

to the top, for cam. and a second of the opinion that one essential characteristic of "Americanized" dining is that the place opens at 6:30 pm. If a place doesn't open until 7:30, 8 or 8:30 - - that's a place for locals, or at least other Italians and travelers from other European countries.

I hope this helps. Ecce Bomba is a small family restaurant with friendly service near the Piazza Navona. My husband's cousins treated us to dinner there, and they are born and bred Italians now living in Rome. You must try the Roman artichokes. They are absolutely wonderful.

I also remember another Fodorite commenting that while at Ecce Bomba she wasn't feeling very well and requested tea with honey. The waitress disappeared and returned a few minutes later with a half-empty jar of honey; she had gone to her home to get it for me, and did so with a smile.

Have fun,

Carol

We love Baffetos for pizza. Get there early and there's not so long a wait. Then we come back to the piazza and have tartufo ice cream at Tre Scalini. It makes for the perfect night. We did eat on a south end side street that faced onto the large boulevard, but I didn't get the name. They had great food. There were tables out onto the street so you could eat outside if you wished.