Authentic Italian restaurants

Not sure what you are asking. Your are in Italy. All Italian menus will be "authentic." There will be mid-eastern restaurants, Greek, Oriental, and half a dozen others but it generally is very obvious so I don't think you will make a mistake of being in a McDonald's thinking it is Italian.

What neighborhood in Rome? We spent a couple of months in a Parioli, a non-touristed neighborhood so maybe we can share our favorites.

If you mean not a tourist trap….i can recommend a few in Venice. They are not undiscovered by tourists but they are authentic places and I have enjoyed each.

• Muro Frari
• Muro San Stae
  
• Osteria Mocenigo
• Osteria Ae Saracche

I think if you tell us what type of food you are looking for you may get a lot of suggestions. “Authentic Italian” would be something you would look for in San Francisco or New York City not Rome, Italy.

Agree. tell us what kind of food (specific to the region?) and your budget for one person without alcohol.

To clarify looking for places where the locals eat. A real experience with people from the area.

One of the problems with asking this forum is that most of us are tourists. Even if the restaurant is authentic, once it gets mentioned in books or the Forum or TripAdvisor, it becomes full of tourists.

Case in point: my daughter found a highly recommended restaurant in Sorrento on TripAdvisor. We got there and it was 90% tourists (including families, older travellers who looked like they just hiked in, etc.). The menu had English translations. My fairly decent Italian was invariably met with English. Having said that, the food and service was excellent. (Although my request for aqua rubinetta was met with "impossible". I paid the €3 for the water.) The fiore di zucca took a while and they brought small caprese amuses bouche. They also brought my daughter the wrong dish (she had ordered gnocchi alla sorrentina, but got the ragû) but they fixed it as quickly as possible and comped it. It was freshly made.

Nulà in Sorrento. Excellent food and full of tourists.

As an aside, I was intrigued by Ikura in Sorrento. It is a fancy looking all you can eat Japanese and Chinese restaurant with very high end finishing. The sushi looks very intricate in the photos I saw. €35. I expect it is mostly well-heeled Italians. I am from Vancouver so am spoiled for choice for this type of cuisine but if I had more time, I would consider it. But, really, we are here for the pasta and gnocchi!

I'll give you some in Rome but I need your price range. Look for places concentrating on Roman food, for one thing. I like AL MORO, near the Trevi Fountain...I had the best carbonara of my life there. Less tourists at lunch than at dinner.

https://ristorantealmororoma.it/en/menu/

Felice, in Testaccio is another good one.

https://feliceatestaccio.com/en/menu/

Also in Testaccio, this is a little more upscale:
https://checchino-dal-1887.com/sites/default/files/Menu_mobile_QRcode.pdf

Another classic Roman place near the Pantheon is Armando al Pantheon; run by a pair of brothers. Real Roman food.

You should always book ahead. Always.
And always concentrate on the daily specials...talk to the waiter, ask what's best that day. Thursday is gnocchi day.

The staff at Roman restaurants are not exactly known for great service toward tourists, so you just have to go with the flow, so to speak. Many places try to seat tourists in a separate room, for various reasons including waiters who speak other languages. I much prefer not to be seated with other tourists (it's hard to find a good restaurant in Rome that's not going to have tourists)

The best approach to avoid other tourists is go where they don’t. So in those cities, wander down side streets and visit neighborhoods away from the tourist attractions and look for places that are crowded with people who don’t look American.

Also, to the McDonalds reference above, we found that the McDonaldses in Italy had some different menu items that they don’t have in the US. We didn’t eat there but it was interesting to pop in and see an Italian McDonalds.

I posted this https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/rome-again-restaurants-worth-seeking-out a few months ago and would highlight on in particular in the very heart of the historic center

> Osteria La Quercia — a stone’s throw from Campo de’ Fiori and a world apart. I found this place thanks to a posting on the Forum about a year ago. (Thanks to Michael from Bakersfield.) I heard a few words of English, but I think only from the waitstaff. This place was all Italian. Roman classics but creative. Things not usually on a touristic menu like bone marrow and sweetbreads. We were not that adventurous, but the moscardini were divine and you are not going to find that in Portland, OR. Another splurge meal, although after Switzerland it seemed not-all-that-bad

In Venice, many years ago a local told me about Trattoria da Remigio. It was delightful! Where the neighboring places had posted menus with pictures, were almost empty, and were “hawking” to get diners in, da Remigio did not need to do so because they have standing.

Make a reservation at both. I would not count on being able to walk-in.

For Rome, go to https://www.youtube.com/@Romewise and scroll down to the Mangia! Mangia! section. There's a similar site for Florence: https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/florencewise.

The Rick Steves guidebooks also have restaurant recommendations

In Venice, in the Rialto Bridge area consider Trattoria Da Marco Valla Fava on Calle Stagneri. It is pricy so you might want to do lunch there rather than dinner. Some of the best sea food ever!! Try to eat inside rather than outside. The place has been around at least 50 years so they must be doing it right. Also in the Rialto area (on the other side of the Grand Canal) when walking to Piazzale Roma is an out of the way hole in the wall place named Pane Vino e San Daniele on Calle Dei Boteri. Definitely a local place, good food, good house wine, and not expensive at all.

If you go over to the island of Murano, try Ristorante dalla Mora on Fondamenta Daniel Manin. Lots of locals eat there and it is right on a picturesque canal.

In Florence we enjoyed the atmosphere and food at Giglio Rosso on via Panzini. But our favorite was Olio & Convivium on Via di Santo Spirito across the Ponte Vecchio on the Pitti Palace side of the Arno River. We had lunch there and it is truly a foodies kind of place. A bit expensive for lunch but really well worth it.

Google maps street view is a great tool to locate these places and "walk" to them ahead of time.

TC, Olio and Convivium sounds like the type of place we would enjoy. I went on to their website and saw their menu, but they don't list prices. Do you remember approximately what lunch cost? Would love to make dinner reservations but would like to know first what this would cost us.
Thanks!

There are prices on Trip Advisor for that restaurant in Florence.

Were any of the places I listed in Rome of interest to you?

What's your budget for a meal per person?
Lunch and dinner are usually priced the same.

kmkwoo,

Sorry, I just don't remember what the meal cost. While we are not misers, we don't just spend money unless we think we are getting a good value for it. And we did get a good value for the cost, and would eat there again.

Hi ekscrunchy!
Nice to see you here! Thanks for the tip about checking Trip Advisor for Olio in Florence to see what their prices are. I have made reservations!

TC, thanks for getting back to me and letting me know you would eat there again. We don't mind splurging as long as it's worth it and sounds like it is. I have made our reservations! Thanks for the recommendation.

Karen

Look for a Trattoria or Osteria with the menu on a black board...then you know it changes with what is available for that day...fresh! the closer to a tourist spot like a Duomo or a fountain etc the places will gather more tourists and higher prices. Wander the side streets like previously suggested. Will be a more authentic experience...and use Google translate to find out what you are eating if you don't know for sure. FYI Cavallo is horse meat so I always wanted to avoid that one. ;)

In Florence, we really enjoyed Ristorante Pensavo Peggio on Via del Moro, very cozy, great food. The ribollita and the lasagna were our favorites.

Ooops. I meant Nalù in Sorrento.

Went back for aperitivi before catching a ferry to Naples. It was a very heavy pour and I was pretty squiffy. But the tuna tartare was divine!