Before we get into the fine detail, the most important distinction we need to make in Rome is actually between places that cook their own food on the premises, and places that don’t have a food manufacturing licence.
Learning to identify these two forms of eatery can mean the difference between eating sensational handmade delights, and wasting a meal on substandard, reheated food.
Table of Contents
Places that cook their own food
To be honest, the lines between the below three have blurred a lot over the past few years, particularly in the center of Rome. If you go into the suburbs or outside the city, however, you will find the distinctions far more obvious.
Trattoria
The name is derived from the same root as “tractor”. In medieval times, poorer people didn’t have their own kitchens at home. They would bring raw ingredients to a trattoria and the chef would cook them and serve them for a nominal fee.
These days a trattoria is likely a family-run place offering very traditional cooking from an extensive menu. Nothing innovative, but good down-home quality.
Try Trattoria der Pallaro in the back streets of Rome’s center for a homely experience – set menu and lots of laughs with the very traditional Roman family who run it.
Osteria
Rarer than the other types, the name is cognate with English “hostelry”: it’s the old Italian word for “inn”. Traditionally these places were more like wine bars or pubs with rooms that started serving food to their guests, and then expanded their repertoire.
These days they’re usually indistinguishable from a restaurant, though sometimes they might have a deli counter and extensive wine list.
For a good example of the establishment, try Osteria degli Amici in the wonderful Testaccio district. Though if you have the time and inclination, our favorite restaurant in the whole of Rome is Osteria Bonelli, which is worth the trek into the suburbs.
Ristorante
Slightly more fancy than the above two, this is a full-service restaurant. Ristoranti are where chefs can experiment and let their imaginations fly, though not all do. They tend to start out slightly more expensive than the other two, with prices and quality that go all the way up to Michelin-starred haute cuisine.
High on our list of ristoranti in Rome is Marzapane near Flaminio, which takes traditional techniques and recipes, and applies modern methods and sensibilities.
Braceria
A bit more rare in Rome, these are places that cook food over brace (embers), usually with an emphasis on meat – steaks, sausages, and abbacchio a scottadito (lamb ribs), though also serving traditional pastas, vegetables, etc.
Pizzeria
Obviously this is a place that makes and serves pizza. The distinction is that most pizzerie are sit-down restaurants as opposed to pizza a taglio (by the slice) places, though they’re usually much more casual than the other kinds of restaurants and the drink of choice is often beer. They’re sometimes combined with a braceria to take advantage of cooking over a wood fire.
For cheap and cheerful dining on delicious, thin-crust Roman pizza you can’t go wrong with the rowdy and friendly Formula 1 in San Lorenzo.
Places that don’t cook their own food
Bar
A “bar” in Rome is roughly equivalent to what we would call a café – a place primarily set up to serve coffee, that also sells some food and some alcoholic drinks, but that’s not the emphasis (though confusingly there are also bars in Rome in the English-speaking sense of the word – set up for beers and cocktails etc. – but they tend only to be in nightlife areas).
Bars in Rome do not have equipped kitchens, most importantly an approved extractor chimney – which is often a planner’s nightmare to fit in the context of Rome’s ancient and crowded architecture – so they are not licenced to cook food on the premises. This means they can only prepare and serve cold food, or re-heat food that’s been cooked elsewhere.
In the morning these places serve breakfast – cornetti (sweet croissants), and various pastries and other sweet treats – and at lunchtime they tend to serve panini (filled bread rolls), tramezzini (triangular sandwiches), cold cuts, salads, and occasionally they have a tavola calda (cafeteria-style hot food counter) – or they reheat plates of pasta and other traditional dishes that have been made on other premises.
Sometimes these places have a menu that tries to make them look like they’re actually cooking the food. But if you order pasta or other traditional cooked foods in one of these places you’re likely to find that it’s pretty low quality, reheated in a microwave. Also it’s also almost impossible to request changes to anything the menu as everything’s already been plated up in the morning. We strongly recommend that you do not order any traditional food in such a place!
How to spot if you’re in a restaurant or bar?
Even if the place offers pasta and other hot dishes but has a prominent glass counter with sandwiches/pastries behind it, and a big coffee machine, and maybe a cash register selling chewing gum and candy, then chances are you’re in a bar. This is likely a good place for a breakfast, snack or sandwich, but if you want a cooked meal that’s memorable for the right reasons, this is not the place to be in.
That said, the Roman bar is also home to marvellous tradition of the early evening aperitivo – snacks and drinks for a low cost.
Enoteca
An enoteca is a wine shop, nothing more. However some of them do serve food, provided you buy a glass of wine. We are particularly fond of Antico Enoteca Baccaria near Flaminio, for sensational reds accompanied by generous sandwiches.
Now you know the difference between them, you know your way around a menu in Rome, and you know how to avoid Rome’s unfortunate tourist trap establishments, you can be even more certain that the meals you eat while visiting are going to be ones that you remember fondly for the rest of your life.
