Does dining it Rome have to be expensive?
Jun 12th, 2002, 05:23 PM
#3
Guest
Posts: n/a
Yes.<BR><BR>You can get wonderful food quite cheap if you wander off of the tourist track and find little restaurants that aren't frequented by tourists but by the locals. I found that especially true in trastevere. Take a walk to explore this area and you will undoubtedly find a good place to eat. I walked here alone after dark and felt safe if this is important...<BR>I ate at a few restaurants in this area and none cost over 30euro incl. wine and gratuity.<BR><BR>Unfortunately I don't have the names of these places, but there are tons of little restaurants to be found!<BR><BR>Hope this has helped
Jun 12th, 2002, 06:07 PM
#6
Guest
Posts: n/a
We just returned from Rome and Sorrento (wrote very detailed report - "Just Returned from Rome, Sorrento and London".<BR><BR>Our eating pattern was a full breakfast at the hotel, a very small snack during the day and then dinner around 9PM.<BR><BR>We (wife and me) usually had salad, a main course and a bottle of water (don't drink). Total was almost always between 20-30 Euros for both. We ate at a different restaurant every night and didn't pay too much attention to prices on the menu. They just worked out that way.<BR><BR>We didn't have dessert as we always had gelatto during an after dinner walk.<BR><BR>In Rome we always ate somewhere between Piazza Navona and the Fountain of Trevi. Best meal was right near the Pantheon - Fortunata del Pantheon.<BR><BR>Worst meal - there wasn't one.<BR>
Jun 12th, 2002, 06:16 PM
#7
Guest
Posts: n/a
Depends on what you mean by great. Michelin-starred great, for example? Or just very good Italian cooking? <BR><BR>Like Julie said, you might want to check out restaurants or trattorias that are away from heavily-touristed areas. <BR><BR>For lunch, a popular kind of Roman eatery is called a tavola calda, "hot table." A tavola calda has a variety of meats, vegetables, and desserts to choose from. My favorite is the Antica Tavola Calda del Corso, on the west side of the Via del Corso about 3-4 blocks north of the beginning of the Corso. I think the food there is absolutely delicious and there's a very good selection.
Jun 13th, 2002, 04:43 AM
#9
Guest
Posts: n/a
I have some recomendations:<BR><BR>Walking from the Coloseo to San Clemente you pass thru a working class enighborhood with many a fine trattoria. Most have an antipasti table in the window so you can chose by what looks good. We dined on 4 plates of pasta, minerali and some wine at one place for under $20.00!<BR><BR>Also, in Testaccio you can go to Volpetti and get the makings of an iincredible picnic. They also have a little place attached where you can get a meal. Volpetti is one of the great food shops int he world. Incredible cheeses and wonderful roast meats and marinated salads. We can never say no once there and usually buy enough cheese to feed 23. I'm sure we have sent them on vacation with our spending......<BR><BR>Campo di Fiori is ringed by little cafes where you can get some great panini and then you complete your meal buying fruit at the market. Or try the pizza bianco or rosso from Il Forno di Campo di Fiori. The Torte di Pignoli e Ricotta is decadent at about $5.00 for enough to serve 6 or 8 normal appetites. In my pre heart attack days it was a snack for two! You could have a wonderful meal for two for well under $30.00 in this area.<BR><BR>The area around Campo di Fiori and Teatro di Pompey is filled with tons of tiny restaurants. We ate at one with the word Angeli in the name that served wonderful pasta. It was filled with young romans wearing sunglasses at 10 pm and they had cool jazz on the stereo and minimalist art on the walls. <BR><BR>Finally wine bars can be a wonderful cheap experience. They always have some food, weather its a plate of cheese and meats or a more complete menu. There are just too many of them to name. The area around the Jewish ghetto is full of them and Cul de Sac is quite famous. The latter is by Piazza Navona.<BR><BR>I second the notion that Trastevere is full of fine dinong at reasonable prices. We loved Checcho er Carreteria on Via Benedetta 10-11-13. If you stay away from the fish its very reasonable. We dined for 4 people with a lot of seafood and a nice bottle of wine and spent $120.00. If we has stuck to antipasti, pasta and simple secondi it would have been far less. Our scampi pasta was $40.00 for 2 alone so if we had had a non fish primi it would have cut the bill by 25% alone. Skip the desserts and have a gelato right next door at their gelateria. <BR><BR>Just a little down the street from Checcho towards Santa Maria is a Forno which specializes in pizze. Just order by weight. Insanely good and dirt cheap.
Jun 13th, 2002, 12:11 PM
#13
Guest
Posts: n/a
We went to Rome for the first time about a year ago. I was blown away by the food and I pride myself on being a foodie. This sounds like a big "Duh", but...I have never had italian food like I had it in Italy! What we make and serve here in the US is a totally different deal.<BR><BR>I especially loved lasagna, any dish with pine nuts, and panecotta (don't know if the spelling is right) oh and any pasta with Amatriciana (again, spelling?) sauce. Wow, the food was great.<BR><BR>We did the same as many people above, wander around and look at posted menus until you find what you want in your price range. We had no problem eating in Rome, Florence, Venice, or any of the smaller towns we visited.<BR><BR>In Rome my favorite restaurant was called Due Colonne (or whatever the correct translation of Two Columns is) I don't know exactly where it was but I know we walked there from the Forum and it was a 10 or 20 minute walk. Very good. I think you'll be happy wherever you go.<BR><BR>Now for some cheapo suggestions: There is a fast-food pizza chain called Spizzico and it's all over Italy. In the Rome train station, the pizza there was so, so good. So GOOD! Pizza was all they had (and soda). Other Spizzico's were not so good, but very cheap and fast. One other exception was the Spizzico in Venice, which was combined with another fast food restaurant. The Spizzico there had great pizza and even better salads, for very cheap and fast and easy. <BR><BR>The eating is good in Italy. Have fun, you can't go wrong.<BR><BR>Shelly
Jun 13th, 2002, 11:45 PM
#15
Guest
Posts: n/a
I agree with all of the above. We kept all of our meals reasonable, except for one bad lunch where they suggested they put together a plate for us and the price was a big surprise. But, we just looked at menus, tried to stay away from tourist traps with mediocre dishes and did just fine. Frommer's had a great recommendation: La Maschere in the Campo di Fiori area. We ate there twice because it was so good and the people were very friendly-remembered us, etc. It was less than 30 euros for two and we had some really authentic dishes.
Jun 14th, 2002, 12:58 PM
#16
Guest
Posts: n/a
Get the book "Cheap Eats in Italy"...I went to Rome for a week in April and used the book to find moderatley priced restaurants. It was very helpful.<BR><BR>One moderately priced place located neat Trevi was Trattoria Scavolino. The food was wonderful and two of us ate 3 courses a piece with wine for less than 50 euro. Highly recommended--hey even Tom Cruise liked the joint (his picture was behind the register from a recent visit)
