Rome - any decent non-Italian food?
 

I'm thinking it might be nice to pocket a few options in Rome for cuisine other than Italian as a 'break' to the taste buds... We 4 adults will have been to Venice, Florence and Sorrento before Rome. When visiting Paris we often eat Italian food one night, and maybe an Asian take-out one night, as an example...
Any suggestions? Thank you!

Ah, well there's always Hard Rock... ;-)

if you can find your way to Monti [the area of Rome roughly between the Via Nationale and the Colosseum] you'll certainly find indian restaurants - there were at least 3 in the via Dei Serpenti where we rented an apartment a few years ago.

I suspect that there are chinese restaurants round the corner in Via Cavour too.

Google maps will probably help you!

oh yes, there was a takeaway that did sushi in Via Panico [at the end of the via Coronari] too.

McDonalds on Via delle Muratte, another one on Piazza de Spagna and a Subway on Via del Governo Vecchio.

Suggest you take your break from Italian food at the beginning of your tour, in Venice, where it is at its weakest.

Yes, Venice isn't exciting for me, as I have limited taste for seafood. But it's only 2 nights...
Going to try to avoid McD and Subway, but only 1/2 kidding about HRC. Might try to find some Chinese food...
Thank you for the suggestions, will look them up.

This past summer I had dinner at Thien Kim on via Giulia. The food was okay. The people who work there are very nice. I happened to be walking by and it was late and I had no plan, so I popped in. I am accustomed to spicier and/or brighter flavors in Vietnamese food, but everyone else in the restaurant seemed to be enjoying it.

Not a ringing endorsement, I guess. But the room and the servers are lovely.

There's a version of Yelp for Rome so you can always check there for your preferred non-Italian food.

>>>I suspect that there are chinese restaurants round the corner in Via Cavour too. <<<

I've tried a couple of them in that area and they weren't good.

My recommendation for McDonalds and Subway was meant to be a joke - obviously went flying over everyone's head.

There is no such thing as 'Italian' food. Italy has regional cuisine. Roman, Venetian, Tuscan - it's all different. As for Venice having 'weak' food - perhaps you haven't done enough research to find anywhere decent. There are fantastic restaurants in Venice - it's more than just seafood.

Rome has strong immigrant communities and some good ethnic restaurants, but the best ones are kind of out of the way (from tourist routes, at least) but worth it.
One of my favorites is mesob, an ethiopean restaurant. Enquatash is also good. There are a couple closer to the center, west- northwest of termini, that are not as good as these two but fine.
Chinese might be the most widespread ethnic restaurant type in italy and also the most adapted/watered down. The no name ones between termini and piazza vittorio emanuele offer great experiences if you are there at the right time (much earlier than regular roman times) and can make yourself be understood (very often neither italian nor english is spoken). The few times we could convince owners that we want exactly what the tables full of chinese are having, we ate pretty well. A place in the vicinity that is more open to non-chinese eaters is food & beverage (yes that is the name) on via giolitti. But again, don't just eat from the menu, do eat what the chinese tables are having.
Vietnamese and thai restaurants lack in general the fresh herbs, and thus lose their appeal.
There are also a couple of corean places like bi-won and gainn that are pretty authentic, and in trastevere there is i-gio.
Doozo in monti offers a pretty good japanese cuisine, take in trastevere good sushi. Best japanese in rome is way out on prenestina, no sushi, great udon and ramen, name escapes me at the moment.
Can't talk about indian, as i have an allergy that makes them a russian roulette for me, so no first-hand experience in the last three years.

Yes, Venice isn't exciting for me, as I have limited taste for seafood. But it's only 2 nights...>>

as blueyedcod said upthread, Venice is not all seafood. Most restaurants have meat choices [liver and onions is a traditional venetian dish] and i have had lovely lamb and beef in Venice as well as plates of prosciutto and cheese. places specialising in meat have been discussed elsewhere here - a bit of research may find you the right threads or start your own.

We went to an Irish pub once when we were in Rome in 2011. Actually had pretty good food and a very good time. We had a long conversation with a young American woman working as a nanny. She had been in Rome for almost a year and said she found the pub when she was homesick in the first months of her job. I'm sorry I don't remember the name or the location, but we did walk there. I imagine if it's still there you could find it on tripadvisor.

I suspected that the McD & Subway ideas were for fun, lol, but I haven't been above the occasional visit to such in 18 years of visiting Europe.
Venice will be delightful, and some of the traditional dishes are surely lovely, but I just can't look at octopus, black squid and the like... pasta, salads, meatballs, fileted fish, pizza will be fine for me. Last time we ate once at La Bitta (no seafood on the menu) but we're on the Cannaregio side this time. I do have some bacari and restaurants noted for the area.
You've given me a lot of ideas to check out, thank you.

Maybe the Rome pub was this?
http://abbey-rome.com/food-2

No, it wasn't that close to Piazza navona.......I googled it, I remembered it was near St. Peter in Chains......this is it, I'm pretty sure this must be it...
http://www.finneganpub.com/FindUs.htm

Yep, on reading the descriptions and seeing the pictures, that is definitely it. Finnegans. They were very proud of being an Irish pub owned by Irish. We had Irish dishes, shepherds pie and stew, both were tasty. Again, 4 years ago, anything can change, but it was a fun afternoon and I think I would go again.

Try Anice Stellato in Cannareggio - lovely food, especially the fritto misto.

Let me look at that one, too.