Rome is packed with great food. You can find an Italian restaurant at every few steps, and their Google ratings are somehow always good. I do LOVE Italian food, but having green, white and red for every meal is just too much. So I spent some time looking for non-Italian food, to let Mom try something new where she definitely wouldn’t step in on herself.
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What to Eat in Rome
During our 6-day trip to Rome, we sampled not only traditional Italian, but also European, Eritrean, Tunisian, and Korean.
I can tell from heart that these are tasty and worth trying out!
1) Testaccio Market
It is a vivid indoor fresh and cooked food market located in Testaccio and open for morning and lunch, 6 days a week (Sunday closed).
We tried 2 vendors which are very popular and absolutely outstanding!
Florentine Street Food: Sicché (Italian)
I first noticed Sicché from Rachel Roddy’s IG who is an English food writer based in Rome.
Sicché is famous for tripe sandwiches (lampredotto) and chickpea pancakes (torta di ceci), especially the melting-in-the-mouth lampredotto. It works well with both green and red sauce. You can also have it as a dish or bulk buy to enjoy at home.
100-Hour-Fermenting Pizza by Weight: Casa Manco (Italian)
Many pizzerias make good pizza, but I don’t like eating a whole by myself (even share by 2) since it’s too filling! That’s why I like Casa Manco. You can buy it by weight! Choose as many varieties as you want, and order each in a small piece so that you can sample everything! Isn’t it great?
They use organic flour and slowly ferment the dough for 100 hours to achieve a chewy but airy dough. And its toppings are more exciting than in restaurants, too, like pumpkin and licorice, bean cream with purple cabbage (Take a look at the website). But of course, it depends on what they make that day.
It can get very busy during lunchtime so they use a ticket system. Grab a ticket at the left corner and wait for your turn.
2) Reasonable and Tasty: Osteria del Grillo (Italian)
We found it by chance after visiting the Victor Emmanuel II Monument. It tucked in a narrow lane and nobody was outside saying Buongiorno to the tourists. However, their ratings are good, so we gave it a try!
They have traditional Roman dishes such as spaghetti cacio e pepe and carbonara, which surprisingly didn’t come to my choice during the whole trip. I rather took the cream-less approach and it was great!
Their second courses are nice for the wallet, too, priced at an average €12.
3) Michelin Recommended: Dogma (Modern European)
Newly recommended by Michelin in 2024, Dogma quickly became one of the hottest restaurants in Rome that requires advance booking.
I always admire chefs who design carefully on the menu and carry out great execution, which I felt satisfied at Dogma. The food was tasty and in appropriate portions.
The pictures shown were a 5-course seafood-focus tasting menu plus an amuse-bouche and pre-dessert, priced at €48 per person.
My family and I quite liked everything and enjoyed it in a dimmed and relaxing setting. The only compromise is the non-central location, but our B&B is just a short 10 minute bus ride away.
4) Wonderful Hospitality: Habibi (Tunisian)
Don’t you agree: Outstanding service is the secret ingredient added to a great meal?
This Tunisian young man, genuinely and enthusiastically introduced his home country’s food to us, using his phone to show the dish pictures one by one with detailed explanation. It’s truly a great start to our very first Tunisian food!
Based on his recommendations, we made a great choice to share some signature dishes – all were well-seasoned and flavourful, but not too spicy.
Out of those, we mostly liked this ojja filled with shrimps and calamari, when the seafood flavour infused every corner of the dish, and we couldn’t help but lick our fingers!
Habibi is a 5-minute walk from the Vatican museum, which makes it a perfect stop after a few hours roaming in the most-crowded museum in the world.
5) Authentic and BIG Portion: IGIO (Korean)
Although Trastevere is famous for its vivid nightlife and attracts young crowds, I aimed for one thing only – tasty Korean food.
There are quite a few Korean restaurants in Rome, but this one sings to me because of its clean and elegant setting. Look at the website or review and you’ll have some ideas.
We ordered a beef pot (bolgoghi) and pig trotters (jokbal) to share, of which quantity by-passed our stomach limit, and we left very happily. The lettuce for wrapping was very fresh and well-washed.
One more advantage: there is no cover charge despite the delicious kimchi provided.
6) New Try: Eritrea (Eritrean & Ethiopian)
I won’t say this was the best Eritrean restaurant I’ve ever had, but it was a good chance for my mom to try something she definitely wouldn’t like in Hong Kong.
Spiced vegetables and meat are served atop injera, a slightly sour fermented flatbread, like a sponge texture I’d say. I quite liked the greens though, and the stewed beef was flavourful, juicy and tender.
Where to Stay in Rome
Exceeding my expectations, Rome is very touristic that hotels and B&B are around every corner. Accommodation can get crazily expensive if you don’t book in advance.
In our case, I booked 6 months ahead and still, barely managed to grab one or two with a relatively reasonable price on hand.
Below is the one we stayed in and it turned out we liked it a lot.
Lonely Planet Recommended: Althea Inn Roof Terrace
I booked this because of the Lonely Planet recommendation and good Google ratings.
It’s located in a residential building, so you’ll be staying like a local. One of the advantages is to enjoy a private balcony and have an amazing breakfast there!
Every day, you order your own breakfast by scanning a QR code – the choices is more than enough: croissants (with fillings, too), cereals, yogurts, boiled egg, ham and cheese toast, and the most impressive fruit cups. How could the fruit be so sweet? This deliver-to-door breakfast is absolutely a great start to a day!
The location of Althea Inn is not very central, but it’s just a 10-minute walk to Testaccio Market (to me, it’s fantastic!). The nearest metro station, Piramide, is a 6-minute walk away. You can even walk to the Colosseum in 30 minutes!
