Rome - Restaurant Reservations Necessary for Lunch
Sep 11th, 2007, 06:27 PM
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Rome - Restaurant Reservations Necessary for Lunch
Is it necessary to have restaurant reservations at popular Rome restaurants for lunch in the same way that it is for dinner? Is there a time that is more/less crowded for lunch?
We are traveling with our baby so have decided lunch will be our big meal (since she goes to bed too early to go out for a big dinner). I have been to Rome before and don't recall ever reserving for lunch but I think we didn't make a big deal out of lunch on those trips. Since our plans are a bit unpredictable it would be easier to not make reservations but there are a couple of restaurants I want to be sure we don't miss.
Also, what is the traditional time for a big Sunday lunch?
We are traveling with our baby so have decided lunch will be our big meal (since she goes to bed too early to go out for a big dinner). I have been to Rome before and don't recall ever reserving for lunch but I think we didn't make a big deal out of lunch on those trips. Since our plans are a bit unpredictable it would be easier to not make reservations but there are a couple of restaurants I want to be sure we don't miss.
Also, what is the traditional time for a big Sunday lunch?
Sep 14th, 2007, 05:46 PM
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If you have your heart set on a popular place in the historic district (Armando al Pantheon; Matricinella), or even a place outside that is getting lots of press (Trattoria Monti, for example), I would give a call in the morning to be sure of securing a place. With no reservation I would try to arrive at opening time.
Sep 14th, 2007, 05:59 PM
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I've never made a reservation for lunch, but as ek notes, if it's a popular place, and if it's small (like Armando al Pantheon), it probably wouldn't hurt to make one. (ek, I ate there twice for dinner when I was in Rome in July on your recommendation and really enjoyed it...well, obviously I enjoyed it or I wouldn't have returned a second time! And a reservation for dinner was definitely necessary.)
Sep 15th, 2007, 04:11 AM
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Thanks. EK, I printed out your Rome restaurant thread and am excited to try the places you recommend. We may have an 8mo. old who goes to sleep at 7pm in tow, but we will eat well in Rome!!!
Sep 15th, 2007, 05:23 AM
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Sally, my goodness, that Rome thread was so long and meandering, I hope you found a way to print out sections of it!!!!
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34931625
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34931625
Sep 15th, 2007, 05:36 AM
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Actually I cut and pasted parts of EK's thread onto a wiki that my husband and I put together for the trip. A wiki (like Wikipedia) is a website that we can both add to. We set up different pages for different topics (e.g., restaurants, day trips, apt info) and then cut and pasted info onto the wiki pages. We plan to print out the pages but also good because when we are in rome we can pop into an internet cafe and just look up the website. This is good for us because we are always losing the info we bring for our trips and I imagine we'll be even less organized traveling with our daughter for the first time. The wiki now has some personal info on there now (our plane tix, etc) but I'll take that stuff off and provide a link to it for anyone whose interested after the trip. I am interested to see how this works. It has been fun putting it together anyway!
