We are in Rome, and wonder if anyone has any advice on where to go to find good local restaurants & clothes shopping? We don't want the one that cater to tourists, and we don't want 5*. We just want the good places that the locals use.

We are staying near the Forum.

We stayed outside Florence in Galluzzo, and found that suburb to have great local restaurants where 4 people could wine and dine for EUR80 for all of us, and the local shops had good Italian made fashion for very reasonable price.

If we could find an area of Rome like that, we'd be thrilled.

L'Asino D'Oro, near the Colosseum - you can get a three course fixed lunch including a glass of wine for €12 per person - http://tinyurl.com/cmkxxny

Monti neighborhood has lots of fun little shops.

We were in Rome a few weeks ago and enjoyed our lunch at Cul-de-Sac near Navona. Menu listed various dishes as old family recipes. You would have to go out of your way a bit to find Perilli on Via Marmoratta but the food is really great and a trip to Rome is not complete unless we have lunch there-the stuffed zucchini is fabulous. Enjoy!

I would suspect that most of the locals do not do their shopping at "fun little shops."

Try via Cola di Rienzo over near Vatican city near the Piazza Risorgimento, in the district of Prati.
This is where lots of Romans shop, big wide boulevards, lots of shops,mostly moderate prices, some a little more, but lots of choices, we found some really great little boutiques as well as Coin the dept store which had some great stuff.
There is also an indoor farmer's market and plenty of nice cafes for lunch.

Actually Ackislander - I found out about all of the shops I visited in the Monti area from people who lived in the area or American ex-pats who live in Rome.

So.. you know what they say about assumptions

Thank you CarrieAnn40 & raincitygirl for the restaurant & shopping locations! We'll eat there tonight (hopefully) and after our Vatican tour go shopping!

Update: we had dinner at L'Asino D'Oro yesterday, and it was very good. The chef has a very interesting way of presenting food in Italy. The two dishes we had were very good, yet strangely familiar. I figured out that mine tasted like a Moroccan tangine, and my husbands tasted a lot like Moussaka. He cleverly incorporates dished from other countries into his menu.

Also, I did go shopping in that area near the Vatican yesterday, and it was good. But today I discovered that shopping in the area of our hotel, on Via Nazionale, is absolutely excellent!

That's great tiny dancer! I meant to post a second time to say Via Nazionale had good shopping too but I forgot. Glad you found it!

tinydancer, I don't know if you've looked at the Fodor's Destinations information for Rome. From what I understand, it's the same info you'd get in their guidebook, and we found their restaurant suggestions very helpful on our trip two years ago.
http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/italy/rome/

In addition to the "Best of" highlighted at the beginning of each section (restaurants, shopping, etc.), there's a link to "view all". IME, they're quite comprehensive!

FWIW, there's also a Fodor's iPhone app for Rome...
http://www.fodors.com/mobile-apps/rome/