My husband and I will stay at the Hotel Ponte Sisto in Rome for 5 days in September. We anticipate a number of lunches and dinners in Trastevere, as it is right across the bridge. Also will be close to the Ghetto area.<BR><BR>Would appreciate any suggestions for a restaurant and hearing what you liked about it. <BR><BR>If it helps, we like to eat regional Italian cooking, enjoy fish and light pasta sauces, generally look for more local type restaurants than expensive or formal ones.<BR><BR>I have done many searches here over the past few months while trip planning and thank you all for your good advice.<BR><BR>Susan

Go to any small restaurant in Trastevere. You will not be dissapointed. Remember that pizza is wonderful and very cheap. Any good restaurant will have prices published so you can see them. Do not eat any where that does not clearly show the price.

Dar Poeta is famed for its pizzas, which are made of a special dough they make there. We loved it. I had a pizza marinara -- just a simple tomato and herb sauce, no cheese. It's called marinara because the sailors ate it, and Italians don't eat cheese with fish. In Britain of course marinara pizza isn't marinara, it's seafood pizza. Helen had a pizza margherita. We finished off with a Pizza Bodrilla -- thinly sliced apple and Cointreau with sugar, and a tartufo. The waitress sliced the Bodrilla up into pieces and brought 2 spoons for the ice cream so that we could share it. Also finished with a traditional Limoncello. Great, friendly service. <BR><BR>Doug

I should have added that in Rome a pizza restaurant such as Dar Poeta is open only in the evenings, in this case from 8pm on. The Scala Reale website says:<BR><BR>Best Roman Pizza<BR><BR>Dar Poeta<BR>Vicolo del Bologna, 45<BR>Tel: 06-5880516 [Trastevere]<BR>Closed: Mon<BR>Named in honor of Italian poet G. Belli, this excellent local pizzeria inevitably fills up by 8:30, after which people line up outside waiting hours to get a bite of the famous "Pizza alla Poeta".<BR><BR>This was our experience. In fact, we showed up the first night just before 8 and the queue was so long we booked for the next night.<BR><BR>Doug

Thank you, Doug. It sounds like a great suggestion.<BR><BR>Susan

Let us know how you liked it. It was a bit hard to find but then it was dark when we went in February last year!<BR><BR>Doug

Hi Susan-<BR> We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Galeassi restaurant on Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere. We were seated outside but under a canopy and the people watching was (almost) as much fun as the delicious food! <BR> Don't forget to see the church--wonderful mosaics, inside and out.<BR><BR>Byrd<BR>

THanks Byrd,<BR><BR>I am a huge fan of mosaics. I'm planningour walks to try to see as many churches with early mosaics as possible.<BR><BR>Appreciate your suggestion! Susan

We stayed in an apartment in Trastevere. The apartment owner recommended Checcho er Caretteria at Via Benedetta 10-11-13. Not much to look at from the outside, the inside had a wonderful display of fresh seafood and an internal garden. The menu offers amazing Roman classics like a fritti (fried) platter with Arancini (rice balls), suppli (potatoe croquettes), carciofi alla Giudea (deep fried articholes "Jewish" style and stuffed fried squash blossoms. The seafood was superb as well as the roast lamb. We had a wonderful dinner for 4 with a nice bottle of local frascati for about $130. <BR><BR>The restaurant has a great bar and gelatteria attached. Its on a small non descript side street not far from Santa Maria and off of San Giovanni delgi Marva.<BR><BR>

Topping

We also had a fabulous dinner at the Galeassi restaurant. Everything we had was excellent.

Two extremes:
A great little family &quot;hole in the wall&quot; place with a tiny &quot;garden&quot; in back holding maybe four tables called Buttero. Great food, cheap, and house Nobile di Montepulciano that was an outstanding bargain.

Quite upscale, particularly for Trastevere, beautiful inside, and a great &quot;garden&quot; area in the street -- Gli Archi di Trastevere. I never thought I liked tiramisu until I had a taste of theirs, immediately grabbing the waiter and getting one of my own --really rich with espresso flavor!

We had three lovely meals at the family run Alle Fratte DI Trastevere on Via delle Fratte di Trastrevere. Very good food (carbanara, veal, pizzas, etc) and a very friendly bi-lingual staff. It seemed to have a mainly local clientel and was moderately priced, around 60 euros for dinner for 2 with wine.

Is there such a thing as a prix fixe (fixed price) type menu in Rome? We will be on a tight budget, so inexpensive restaurants will be crucial. Nevertheless, we will be in ITALIA, so we will splurge on a couple of meals while we are there.

Renee,

Our experience in Rome has been that the restaurants offering prix fixe are usually only the very expensive, top restaurants, such as Agata e Romeo (which some say is the best restaurant in Rome, though in a very unlikely neighborhood).

Some exceptions to this rule are Pain Quotidien, a great brunch and lunch place near Piazza Augusto Imperatore, and 'Gusto, which has a fixed-price lunch buffet and is extremely popular with local business people (also located in Piazza Augusto Imperatore). But generally, prix fixe is rare.

Paul Bennett