Restaurant eating in Italy

I always create a google map (my places), pinpointing dozens of places recommended on websites like Time Out or Eater. These tend to be kept up to date, rather than one person saying that they had a good meal at Restaurant XYZ over 5 years ago. When I am in the city, I pull up my map (usually with free wifi) and can find the closest, good place to me quite easily.

"don't eat at restaurants with menus printed in English if you want
authentic Italian cuisine"

I wouldn't take that as gospel. In international cities like Venice, Florence, and Rome that might easily mean you will starve - or travel way out of the city.

Best experiences I have had were in restaurants with children's drawings on the wall - from children having to pass the time while their parents were eating.

Italians think and eat in dialect, to avoid tourist traps forget about the non-existing "italian cuisine".
Learn the main dishes of the area where you are. Then look for those dishes on the menus posted outside restaurants (and do not trust any restaurant having a smiling middle-aged man on the door instead of the menu).

A Venice restaurant serving Carbonara is a place where no italian older that 15 would dream of entering and obviously caters to foreign tourists. Same for a roman restaurant serving italo-american dishes like Alfredo pasta and Spaghetti alla Bolognese. Or a Florentine restaurant serving only pasta dishes and no soups at all.

"don't eat at restaurants with menus printed in English if you want authentic Italian cuisine",

I think that might have been true 15 years ago but in the big cities many popular restaurants have English menus just because English is a default language.

I agree to run from any place that has a punter outside trying to bring in business. Or has pictures of the dishes outside.

I will echo the sticking to regional cuisine restaurants as well.

I try not to eat in big piazzas (where normally they have waiters trying to entice you in, just like "Little Italy" in NYC) as those restaurants FEED off of tourists who don't know any better. Anywhere where they don't have to depend on ANY repeat business is a recipe for a sub par restaurant.

Many of my favorite restaurants in Florence (due to the small nature of the city and BIG tourism business) have an English menu, so I wouldn't discount them for that. I just go a little bit farther away from the main tourist areas to get a better experience, if not better food, and probably a cheaper price. If their whole menu is pictures, that turns me off a bit.

We try to get recommendations from the hotel staff as to where the locals eat.

Here is my advice with some already given:

1) If there is a waiter outside trying to get you to come in, keep walking. If the place was that good it would be busy and the waiter wouldn't have time to stand outside.

2) Look and listen. If you see lots of blue and gold guidebooks on the tables or hear English being spoken, keep walking. I try to go to places where I hear the local language. This may mean walking a few minutes away from a major tourist site. If they cater to locals it will probably be good. My Italian friends tell me that a restaurant trying to get the local business will not survive unless the food is good.

3) Don't expect the Olive Garden or the same dishes. Eat local and in season. Only order Chianti in the Chianti region. I was with a group of people in Northern Italy last year. One guy, who was on his first trip to Italy, said the one thing he wanted to do in Italy was to eat his favorite Italian meal: Spaghetti Bolognese. I tried to explain to him that it was Italian-American but he didn't care. He did eventually get his SB and he was thrilled.

4) If you see signs in the window like "We serve Spaghetti" or "No Frozen Food" keep walking. If they display flags from other countries it's probably a good idea to keep walking.

5) Menus are displayed outside for restaurants. If the only one being shown is in English, keep walking.

6) A gelato a day keeps the doctor away. Just make sure it's the real thing. (Look at the pistachio. If it's green, it's fake. If it's a beige/grayish color it's probably real.)

We've had some good meals in restaurants with staff outside the door, both in Rome and Paris. And as several people have noted, it's hard to get away from English menus these days.

A couple of years ago we were in an out-of-the way restaurant in Padova. It had been recommended by a non-English speaking local. As soon as we walked in, the waiter swept the Italian menus off the table and handed us English menus. As near as I could tell, not one staff member spoke English. I had to ask for an Italian menu, which was provided with a smile. We did, however, have to consult the English menu once, since some of the names of dishes were in regional dialect. The food was delicious. We ate rather early, but as we were leaving the place had filled up. As far as I could tell, we were the only non-Italians there. (Although the restaurant does appear in some guidebooks, including Rick's.)

I would, however, skip places with the big, Denny's style menus with pictures. And absolutely find out what the regional specialties are, and order them. Eating on the main squares can be fun, but the food is seldom the best. The only really good meal we've had on a main square was in Brussels. A few blocks off the squares seems to find better food.

Just because they have so many courses doesn't mean you have eat them all.
See an Italian family eating out on a Saturday night and you wouldn't believe how much food and wine comes across the table. Although I'm a head taller and much larger than most Italians, I cannot begin to eat nearly as much food as they do.

Food in Italy! Now that's reason enough to go there!!! I do tend to return to restaurants year after year. Once I find one that rings all my chimes, I like being 'faithful.' I also like it when I hear: "Roberto, welcome back!" My criteria for a new place? It's got to be loud and crowded. True: places with a 'tourist menu' should be avoided but more and more there are menus printed in several languages out front. i just want to make sure that locals are eating there and not just tourists. That means getting off the main streets and finding places that don't have dozens of tables - remember, once you sit down they do not expect you to 'eat and run.' You have the table for the entire evening, if you want. Is it possible to get a bad meal? In a tourist trip? Definitely - I learned my lesson when I got food poisoning on my first trip and the first night fell victim to a 'tourist menu.'

All that said, I really enjoy Trattoria Carlo Menta in Trastevere. It's fairly big, very crowded and you can stuff yourself for half what you would spend just about anywhere else. The food is plentiful, honest and very local.

Whatever, EAT!

1) If there is a waiter outside trying to get you to come in, keep
walking. If the place was that good it would be busy and the waiter
wouldn't have time to stand outside.

For the most part true, but not gospel either. First afternoon in Rome, wandering around some back streets off Campo de' Fiori, around some sewer construction I saw a guy standing in front of a restaurant that said 'Sicilian Food' with a listing of the menu. I went up to him and asked, 'This place any good?', and he responded, 'Yes, I'm the owner'. So we got to talking, about how the construction is hurting his business, and bottom line was we decided to come back later for dinner. This was late February, and we were one of only three couples dining in the place at any given time.

Fabulous food. Arancini, Pizza Siciliana (no cheese, with capers & anchovy), Caponata. We returned one more time before we left town. Elle Effe. Don't miss it if you're in the vicinity.

Everybody's experience varies, as you're seeing. (The rule about avoiding places with menus in English is both wrong and stupid. Some of the best meals I've had in my five trips Italy have been in restaurants that have multiple languages on their menus.)

One cardinal rule I follow: The shorter the menu, the better the food.

Also, be skeptical of recommendations from hotel staff, esp. if it's a large hotel. They might be getting a kickback.

Steve,

One of the methods I use to find a good restaurant is to ask hotel staff. They've never steered me wrong yet!

I sometimes walk off the main squares and into obscure back streets until I find something that looks good. I'll stop and check the menus posted outside, have a look inside to see whether it looks good and then just take a chance.

In the more popular tourist locations, the practice of waiters trying to "collar" people walking by and pressure them into sitting down at the often pricey sidewalk tables really annoys me. I won't patronize those places just on principle.

You have to trust your gut. Restaurants in super touristy areas are a bad bet. Look at the menu up front, it shouldn’t be 10 pages long. Shorter menu translates into fresher, seasonal cooking. Fresher, seasonal cooking means it’s a restaurant that survives and thrives from regular, local customers and not tourists. A tourist restaurant across from the Trevi fountain has zero incentive to service repeat customers, and every incentive to cut corners and pump up profits to pay their rent. That stuff is coming out of a microwave. You need to eat where people LIVE.

Honestly, my best strategy has simply been to follow recommendations from local hosts and guidebooks. I don’t think RS guidebooks get enough credit for their food recommendations. They’ve all been quite good, with a couple absolute standouts.

When we travel overseas after I book our hotel or B&B in a city, I use TripAdvisor to find nearby restaurants and check their ratings. Also, when in the hotel, I ask the desk clerk about the restaurants or even some that I didn't find on TripAdvisor. That method has worked very well where ever we go.

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I appreciate your candor and sharing your experience. We're really excited about our upcoming journey, and it will be good to be able to draw from your experiences as we make our way through the various restaurant options.

hey steve
i agree with robert, ristorante carlo menta. first trip to rome, we walked thru the jewish ghetto to trastevere and stopped here. outside seating, crowded but was seated family style at table. my friend and i shared a pasta dish, pizza, salad and dessert. she had tartufo chocolate and i had the vanilla. it was soooo good, friendly owners and staff, great day and a walk back to piazza navona area where our place was.
also 2 years ago, took a train from florence to venice for an overnight visit. 2 friends had never been, i had a knee issue so while they roamed, i sat at ristorante da nino under umbrella right on canal with the "best tiramisu" and prosecco. talked with family from padua, people watched, all the boats go by, across train station. i had a great time to relax and see the world go by. that was my third trip to venice.
aloha