Restaurants in Rome

If you get out of the historic district, you'll find reasonably priced restaurants that are family owened. Pasta in Italy is different than most people serve and eat it here in the States. They use less sauce, the lasagna has bechemel sauce instead of ricotta, no meat and very little sauce. Don't expect to find your grandmothers cooking as I come from an Italian family and found out that the real Italian food is quite different than what our Italian/American families make.

There are two restaurants in Rome where we enjoyed eating food that you describe. Perilli on Via Marmorata is quite good--we had lunch there. One of their dishes that was delicious was small zucchini that was cored out in the center as an apple would be cored and filled with a meat stuffing. The anti pasta dishes are great also. No English is spoken there. Another place is Dar Pallaro which is tricky to find--in the Campo Fiori area. At this resto there is no menu(Roman style food) but you are served six or seven courses plus the house wine for 22euros pp. It is not touristy yet but is listed in several travel guides so it is possible to run into other Americans there.

Try the Trastevere area. Find a restaurant with the menu in Italian and locals patronizing it. Menus are posted outside. I think I was lucky - my grandmother was born and raised in Italy so her cooking actually was like the cooking in Italy.

I second what Mark says, what we eat in Italy bears little resemblance to what is considered Italian food in the US, including what people's grandmothers made. Rome is full of good restaurants, try the areas behind Piazza Navona, Via del Governo Vecchio, or Campo dei Fiori, or even go to Testaccio or Trastevere. Places with the words Trattoria tend to be cheaper and more low key than Ristorante.

The Vatican area isn't known for having a lot of great restaurants. I'm sure there are some but there are many restaurants in this area that rip tourists off so be careful.

Here are a few of my favorites in Rome:

La Fraschetta - Via San Francesco a Ripa 134 (Trastevere). Pizza, pasta, meat & fish.

La Focaccia - Via della Pace 11 (Piazza Navona). Pizza, pasta, meat. This place has no sign so be sure to write down the address or you'll never find it.

Obika - Piazza Firenze (between Piazza Navona & the Pantheon, north a bit). A mozzerella bar & wine bar. Heaven!

La Taverna dei Fori Imperiali - Via Madonna dei Monti 16 (off of Via Cavour near the Roman Forum). Family run, friendly with great food.

Well, it might be a bit the fault of my great-grandmother that your grandmother didn't make "Italian" food...In the 1920's Gram was a young home economist working in the North End of Boston teaching immigrants to cook with local produce which might have changed the Rome recipes...One of my favorite restaurants in Rome..inxepensive, hard to find (aren't they all??) and needs reservations..We arrived at 8:00 and it was full in 30 mins. www.burroesugo.com

I'll admit it - I am a sucker for those "one-price-you-eat-what-we-make" places with a tiny Italian grandma running around in charge. As someone else mentioned, Dar Pallaro near Campo di Fiori is fun - maybe 22 or 24 euros for several courses, including an amazing good appetizer of lentils marinated in a vinaigrette that I never would have tried otherwise. It is listed in RS guidebook. Similar but a few euros less is Alfredo e Ada (perhaps Ada e Alfredo) west of Piazza Navona (between Piazza Navona and the Tiber). It is not is RS but in several other guidebooks.