i_am_kane,

Thank you for the great list! It will come in handy when I am in Rome at the end of the month.

dutyfree - Are you going to be in Rome between Oct 24 - Oct31? It would be nice to meet a fellow Fodorite

Tom

If anyone wants the list of Trastever/Testaccio restaurants, they are in a Word document, and I can e-mail it to you.

The list is formated to be cut and laminated on a 5 x 8 index card, but you can take out the line breaks yourself. Also, I have added Zerlina's update about De Felice.

I can offer a great ghetto restaurant:
Il Portico on via del Portico d’ Ottavia, 1e
Excellent Jewish artichokes!

too bad artichokes are not in season...I will miss them later this month :(

I am kane,
I note on your list Mario's and while I had no complaints in previous years this year I had a horrible meal there. Also I didn't see Dar Poeta which has great pizza.

If you skip down to the end of my trip report http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35046872 you can see where I ate in Trastevere.

Henry

Henry,

Do you think I should remove Mario's from my list? (A lot can change in a year.)

I'll research Da Poeta, and add it to my list (per your recommendation).

I am Kane,

I have taken Mario’s off my list. I understand that a place that I consider good can have an off night. An off night means it slips to average. If you read my trip report you can see that what came out of Mario’s kitchen this year does not deserve another chance. I don’t have gourmet taste and am almost always happy with my meals in Italy but this year at Mario’s was the worst meal I have ever had in Italy and I have had hundreds and hundreds of meals in Italy.

Henry

Henry, I just read your trip report (which was wonderful). OMG, greasy soup and possibly rancid pancetta. There are no excuses for serving food like that - anywhere.

Isnt't it fun having the grandkids with you when you travel? We took four of ours in 2006, and are planning another trip with two of the oldest in 2008 for their second trip to Italy. The two younger ones will have to wait a bit.

I am kane,
I have had a great time taking my grandkids to Italy. If you want ideas try my trip reports:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34494897

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34608686

Henry

We had a very disappointing meal at Dar Poeta. Here are my notes from the report I wrote:

"That evening we decided to eat light and wanted pizza so we went to Dar Poeta in Tratstevere, touted as one of the best pizza places in Rome. NOT. It was jam packed, inside and out with a line of people waiting to get in but their reputation far exceeds the actual product. I ordered a pizza of potato/sausage and mozzarella cheese and DH ordered smoked salmon/zucchini flowers and arugula. There were no zucchini flowers to be found under the mountain of arugula and very little salmon. On my pizza, there were only 5 little pieces of sausage. With one beer and a bottle of water the bill was 22E. They had charged us for bruchetta that we didn’t order but took it off our bill when we pointed it out.

Someone posted a link to an article on Fodors not long ago about the practice of some restaurants in Italy serving different food to the tourists than to the locals and I wondered if this was one of those places that cut corners for the tourists' food. It’s hard to imagine that people would keep coming back to Dar Poeta if what was regularly served here was similar to what we got.

If I was at home I would have definitely complained, but being a tourist and not speaking Italian, we just ate what we got and left quickly. I suppose some places count on that if they’re stiffing the tourists. But in general, they seemed way too busy to keep on top of what was happening and this was the only place during the whole vacation that brought us a bill before we asked for it."

The pizza at Popi-Popi far exceeded that of Dar Poeta and we had fabulous antipasti and dolce there as well.

bookmarking

This website lets you search by neighborhoods, type of food and price.
http://www.menudiroma.com/

bookmarking

Ai Spagettari at http://www.aispaghettari.it/
is excellent for pasta and pizza. Inexpensive and delicious.

[email protected]

Bummer about Mario's. I was taken there by locals back in the early 80s. When I returned in '01 with my family, I somehow was able to find it again, and we had a great meal there (for next to nothing). In fact every night when dinner time rolled around my son would as "can we go to Mario's again?".

Bookmarking

Great info- thanks!

Ivo on Via San Francesco a Ripa. Hands down the best pizza I've had in Italy, and dirt cheap, fun outdoor seating.

travelbug, I'm with you all the way! The pizza we had there was the most memorable ever. When I think pizza I think Ivo automatically. I can visualize every single second about that pizza experience.

A very fresh update, but not Trastevere, but quartiere San Lorenzo.
Last night I had a very delicious dinner at CRIBBIO !
Vero good pizza but also the normal courses.
Cheap enough: 25 euro per person.


Vincenzo