I will be traveling to Italy in 2020, Rome, Venice, Florence and Sorrento. We have no set restaurants that we've pre-determined in advance, my question is, if you go in person to the restaurant as they open for dinner, will you usually have good luck to get a table? We like to eat early, and I see that most restaurants open at 7PM or so, so we'd be fine being sat right away. If anyone has any good suggestions, I'd love to get a list started for myself, we consider ourselves foodies and are used to more authentic dishes, and love and appreciate many varietals of wine - thank you!
Posted by
Folsom
2734 posts
The reservation question: the answer is maybe. Take a look at this website, one of our favorites in Rome https://www.ristorantenino.it/. Scroll down and you’ll see they open for lunch, close, re-open for dinner at 7:30. You walk in at 7:30 and the place is empty. They tell you sorry, they are booked. If you hung around you’d see the place stayed empty until the first reservations appeared, maybe 8:30. You think, shoot, we could have been finished by then! But that’s not the way it works. If a place seats you, the table is yours for the evening, so a good restaurant won’t take chances and anger a customer with a reservation. There are plenty of places where you may be seated. But the really good in-demand restaurants you’ll want to reserve. Here’s another good one near the Pantheon http://www.armandoalpantheon.it/. Here is a casual place near the Coliseum https://www.naumachiaroma.com/en-gb/home Pastas are the feature. We had really excellent food here http://www.latavernadeiforiimperiali.com/roman-cuisine.html. All of these just this summer.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23626 posts
Our experience is that a reservation is expected and service is better. If we see a restaurant we like we will simply stop by and make a reservation for that evening. I have made reservations at 5pm for 8pm with no problems. There have been reports here of walk-up seating by the kitchen door or a very dark corner. And we have had the experience of showing up with only one or two tables being used and a shaking head saying, no, no,no. Also hotels are good at calling for a reservation.
Posted by
OP
21 posts
Thank you both for the feedback and restaurant suggestions, I'll have the hotel assist me, or make one in person for later in the evening when I'm out and about.
Posted by
New York
1206 posts
If there is a specific resturant that you want to go to then book the reservation on line. Many resturants have websites and through there website you can book a table. Just print out the confirmation from the resturant and bring it with you. You most likely won't need it but it can't hurt. I did this in Paris and it was great.