Eating out in Rome can be an extraordinary experience as long as you remain calm and remember that while at home, eating is designed to punctuate our more meaningful exercises of the rest of the day, in Rome the rest of the day’s activities are designed to punctuate the more meaningful exercise of eating. Oh, and this: you are supposed to enjoy the waiters’ snobbery and rudeness, just as at home you are supposed to enjoy their forced and obviously-fake geniality. Its just a different way of looking at it – at least here, it’s more honest because in either place it’s a miserable job. 

Finding a good ristorante or trattoria (a more informal place where you can grab a plate of pasta and lets your kids roar without causing a stir) is easy – as long as you stick to the list we’ve compiled on this site. Unlike most of Italy, there are many bad eats here, but luckily most make themselves easy to spot. Beware of slick-sounding street hawkers, pictures of the food and generally any place that advertises a tourist menu (you’ve been warned!). Of course, most of the good places will be positively mobbed, so its best to make a reservation, even for pizza.

Once you’re in, your waiter (they are usually men) will probably try to cajole you into ordering a ton of food, because – as he will likely tell you in his best broken English – it is the Italian way to order a dish from each course. Not so, not so. Don’t feel like you’ve got to stretch your stomach and break the bank: its perfectly common and acceptable here to order only a primo (pasta) and a contorno (vegetable) or any other combination you damn well choose, even just a salad. 

Eating should be a laid-back experience as it is one of the great pleasures of Italian life, so don’t rush (your waiter certainly won’t) and drink plenty of wine as the afternoon or evening drags on. There is always time for dessert, liquors, coffee (never cappuccino – that’s only for breakfast!), etc. and the tradition is for waiters to never rush anyone, even if others are waiting for a table. When you are finally ready to go, if after three polite requests the waiter has still not brought your conto (bill), stand up and pretend you are getting ready to leave – this does the trick every time. 

Tipping is completely optional. As a rule, Italians don’t do it, but if you feel like you’ve had good service and want to leave something, check first to make sure its not already included in your bill as Servizio, Tavolo, Pane, Coperto or some combination of them (if not, a 10% tip will suffice). A waiter asking for a tip is a bruta figura (a huge no-no) that no Italian would ever tolerate (and you can’t add a tip to a credit card charge in Italy, so tip only in cash). 

One final thing: check restaurants first to make sure they take credit cards, even if there is a sign outside. Many simply take cash and others will tell you their card machine is ‘broken’. Or, just bring enough cash along to ensure that you don’t have any embarrassing moments and they can continue peacefully engaging in Italy’s favorite pastime – tax evasion.