Europe / Italy / Food guide · 12 min read
Thin, crisp, and nothing like Naples.
Four pizza styles, four pasta dishes built from the same five ingredients, and the fried starters you order first.
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Rome Pizza and Pasta: The Short Answer
This Rome pizza and pasta guide comes down to three rules: eat thin, crisp pizza tonda in Testaccio or Trastevere; order the four Roman pastas -- carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana, and gricia -- at proper trattorias; and never skip fritti before pizza. For a first trip, pair Da Remo or L'Elementare with a pasta meal in Testaccio, Trastevere, or near Campo de' Fiori.
Rome pizza and pasta guide is the right search phrase for this article because the city does both categories differently from the rest of Italy.
Use this Rome pizza and pasta guide as a first-timer food map: one proper Roman pizza dinner, one pizza al taglio lunch, one trattoria pasta meal, one gelato stop, and no wasted meals on generic tourist menus.
Roman pizza is thin, loud, social, and often preceded by fried starters; Roman pasta is built around guanciale, Pecorino Romano, black pepper, egg, tomato, and restraint.
A common saying among Roman bakers goes: "La pizza è semplice, ma non è facile." Pizza is simple, but not easy. The same applies to Roman pasta. Both are built on a handful of ingredients, no cream, no shortcuts, no complexity for its own sake — and both are genuinely difficult to execute well, which is why the difference between a great version and a mediocre one is immediately obvious even if you can't articulate why.
This guide covers both categories: the different types of pizza you'll encounter (they're not interchangeable), the four pasta dishes that define Roman cooking, and the specific places where locals actually eat them.
Rome is not the place to treat pizza and pasta as generic Italian comfort food. The city has its own grammar: thin-crust pizza tonda at night, pizza al taglio by weight at lunch, fried supplì before the pizza, and pasta sauces that punish shortcuts. The official Rome tourism site is useful for planning neighborhoods and logistics, while UNESCO's page on the art of Neapolitan pizzaiuolo explains why the softer Naples style is a distinct tradition rather than simply another pizza option in Rome.
What to order, and what it tells you
| Order | What it tells you | Best context |
|---|---|---|
| Pizza tonda | Whether the crust is thin, crisp, and properly fired | Dinner in Testaccio or Trastevere |
| Pizza al taglio | How well the bakery handles dough and toppings | Fast lunch near the historic center |
| Carbonara | Whether the kitchen respects heat, egg, and guanciale | A proper trattoria, not a tourist menu |
| Suppli | Whether the fry station is serious | Before pizza, always shared |
Roman Pizza vs Neapolitan: The Distinction That Matters
Four styles, three textures, and only one of them is Roman
Before any restaurant name, the most useful thing to understand about pizza in Rome is that it comes in genuinely different forms, and ordering without knowing which style you're at can lead to confusion.
Three doughs, three different meals
The four styles you will meet
Pizza Tonda
Thin, crispy, cracker-like at the edges, wood-fired. When Romans say "pizza tonight," this is what they mean.
Pizza al Taglio
Rectangular, baked in large pans, sold by weight, cut with scissors. The default lunch and snack format.
Neapolitan
Lighter, softer, pillowy crust with more char underneath. Not Roman tradition, but now widely available.
Pinsa
Long-fermented, high-hydration dough, rectangular, ultra-digestible. Invented in Rome in the early 2000s.
Knowing which you're in the mood for shapes which kind of place to go to.
Where to Eat Pizza in Rome
Five places, and the best of them is not central
If you eat one Roman-style pizza tonda, eat it here. Pizzeria da Remo is a Testaccio institution — loud, no-frills, wobbly tables inside and out, Lazio player photos on the walls, a queue on most evenings. Time Out Rome's local critics describe it as "the best place in town for authentic pizza romana." The bruschette al pomodoro are specifically worth ordering as a starter.
It only opens evenings (Monday-Saturday, 7pm-1am, closed Sunday). No bookings — arrive early or wait. The queue is standard and moves reasonably. The address is Piazza di Santa Maria Liberatrice 44 in Testaccio.
This is the pizza that Romans eat, in the environment Romans eat it in. Everything else on this list is good in its own way. This is the reference point.
Gino Sorbillo is one of the most famous pizzamakers in Naples — he helped elevate the city's pizza culture globally. When Sorbillo opened in Rome in 2019, it meant Romans could finally access proper Neapolitan-style pizza without traveling south. The marinara — tomato sauce, garlic, olive oil, oregano, nothing else — is the one to judge a Neapolitan pizzeria by, and here it's a revelation. The simplest ingredients, handled with real technique.
A sit-down dinner rather than a quick slice. Bookings are possible but not always necessary — check before showing up on a weekend evening.
L'Elementare has three locations (Trastevere being the most central), and it consistently appears on the lists that Rome-based food obsessives — not tourist guides, actual residents who consult the Top 50 Pizza list the way others use Michelin — recommend for Roman-style pizza tonda. The crust is thin and cracker-crisp with real flavor from a 24-hour rise and semi-wholegrain flour. The pizza Parmigiana de Noantri — tomato sauce, fried eggplant, stracciatella — is the standout creative option. Classic options are equally strong.
For pizza by the slice, Antico Forno Roscioli is the benchmark — a bakery and deli near Campo de' Fiori that's been running since the 1970s as a family operation. The red pizza (pizza rossa — just tomato, olive oil, salt) is the one people specifically mention. Order by weight, eat at the counter or take it to walk the cobblestones. This is what a quick Roman lunch looks like when done properly.
Invented by Stefano Callegari in the early 2000s, the Trapizzino is a triangular pizza pocket stuffed with fillings drawn from traditional Roman recipes — chicken cacciatore, tongue with salsa verde, eggplant parmigiana. A cross between a sandwich and a pizza, portable, satisfying. Multiple locations across Rome including Testaccio and the Mercato Centrale at Termini Station. Around €4-5 each.
The Four Pasta Dishes That Define Rome
One small pantry, four different answers
Roman pasta is a family of four dishes, each built on the same small pantry: guanciale (cured pork cheek), Pecorino Romano, black pepper, eggs. Understanding how they're related makes each one easier to order with intention.
Three of the four, and they share a pantry
The four, in order of ancestry
Spaghetti alla Gricia
Guanciale, Pecorino, black pepper. No egg. The oldest of the four — named after Grisciano in Lazio.
Cacio e Pepe
Pecorino, black pepper, pasta water. No guanciale, no egg. Deceptively simple, technically brutal.
Carbonara
Gricia plus egg yolk. No cream, no onion, no garlic. The real version is tempered, not scrambled.
Amatriciana
Gricia plus San Marzano tomatoes. Named after Amatrice, northeast of Rome. Rigatoni, not spaghetti.
A Rome food tour, in motion
Where to Eat Pasta in Rome
Trattorias, and two specific additions
For traditional Roman pasta specifically, the trattorias already covered in our Rome restaurants guide (Da Enzo al 29, Cesare al Casaletto, Da Teo) are the right places — kitchens that have been cooking cacio e pepe and carbonara for decades and know what they're doing.
A few specific additions worth knowing for pasta specifically:
Grazia & Graziella, a small local spot in Trastevere — specifically cited by long-term Rome residents as doing rigatoni all'amatriciana at a level that few tourist-facing restaurants achieve. No website, no social media presence worth mentioning, which is usually a reliable signal.
Roscioli (the restaurant, separate from the forno) near Campo de' Fiori is famous enough that it sits on the tourism radar, but the pasta here — particularly the carbonara — is made by a kitchen that sources its guanciale specifically and handles the dish with serious technique. Worth it if you can get a booking.
The Fritti Rule
Dinner starts fried, and this is not optional
At a Roman pizzeria, dinner starts with fritti — fried starters. This is not optional in the sense that it's technically optional, but eating a proper Roman pizza dinner without them misses half of the experience. Supplì (fried rice balls with molten mozzarella center), fiori di zucca (zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella and anchovy, battered and fried), and filetti di baccalà (fried salt cod fillets) are the canonical trio. Order all three. Share them. Order your pizza after.
Romans drink beer with pizza, not wine. This is not a rule you need to follow, but it's the traditional context.
The canonical three
Gelato, Because You Will Want It
Metal tins, not fluorescent mountains
This belongs in a pizza and pasta guide because you'll finish dinner and immediately want something cold and sweet, and the difference between real gelato and the tourist-facing fluorescent towers is significant enough to flag.
I Gracchi has multiple locations and is consistently recommended by people who live in Rome as the benchmark for non-touristy gelato — fresh ingredients, daily production, no artificial stabilizers or food coloring. The pistachio and the dark chocolate (fondente) are the reference tests for any gelateria.
Giolitti, near the Pantheon, has been operating since 1900 and remains excellent despite the location — one of the few tourist-area options that genuinely earns its queue.
How to tell the real thing
When Romans Actually Eat
The best places open late and close hard
Timing decides more of this than the restaurant list does. Roman pizzerias are an evening business: most do not open until about seven or half past, and the good ones fill within the first half hour. Da Remo takes no bookings at all, which means the queue is the booking system. Turning up at eight expecting a table is how visitors end up eating somewhere worse two streets away.
Lunch runs earlier and shorter than most people expect. Trattoria kitchens generally serve from about half past twelve to half past two and then stop properly, rather than drifting into the afternoon. If you want a serious pasta lunch, aim for one o’clock. If you want to eat at four, you want pizza al taglio, which is sold all day by weight and is the right answer to that hour anyway.
Sunday closes a surprising amount of the city, including Da Remo. Monday is the other quiet day for family-run places. Both are easy to design around once you know, and expensive to discover on the night.
Pizzerias open around 7pm and fill fast. The best ones take no bookings.
Trattoria lunch runs roughly 12.30 to 2.30, then the kitchen genuinely stops.
Pizza al taglio is the all-day option, sold by weight.
Sunday and Monday close many family-run places, including Da Remo on Sundays.
Everywhere in this guide, mapped
A Few Honest Trade-Offs
The best pizza is not where you are staying
The best pizza in Rome is not in the historic center. Da Remo is in Testaccio. L'Elementare's best location is in Trastevere. I Quintili (currently considered among the top Neapolitan-style pizzerias in the city) is further out near Furio Camillo on metro line A. Going to these places means a metro ride or a longer walk, and it's worth it every time.
The al taglio option — Antico Forno Roscioli, or any well-regarded forno — is the right call for a cheap, fast, excellent lunch near the historic center. Don't skip it in favor of a sit-down tourist restaurant just because al taglio feels less formal.
What to Budget
Separate the quick food from the sit-down meals
Rome can be excellent value if you separate quick food from sit-down meals. The mistake is paying restaurant prices for food that should be a bakery slice, or choosing a view over a kitchen that actually knows Roman classics.
Typical spend, meal by meal
| Meal | Typical spend | Best move |
|---|---|---|
| Pizza al taglio lunch | EUR 5-10 | Order by weight and point to the piece you want |
| Pizza tonda dinner | EUR 12-22 | Add suppli and beer before the pizza |
| Roman pasta trattoria | EUR 14-24 | Order one classic dish, not a long menu of everything |
| Gelato after dinner | EUR 3-5 | Look for covered tins, not neon mountains |
A Simple Two-Day Plan
One day built on pizza, one on pasta
If you only have two days, avoid chasing every famous restaurant. Build one day around pizza and fritti, and one day around the four Roman pastas.
Two days, two shapes
Day 1: Pizza Rome
Eat pizza al taglio for lunch, save dinner for Da Remo or L'Elementare, order suppli first, and drink beer if you want the traditional Roman pizzeria rhythm.
Day 2: Pasta Rome
Pick a serious trattoria for carbonara or amatriciana, then use the next meal for cacio e pepe or gricia. Finish with espresso at the bar and gelato from a shop that keeps flavors covered.
Pasta by the Neighbourhood
The best pasta is not in the most visited streets
A practical note worth making: the best pasta is not necessarily in the most visited neighborhoods. Testaccio is probably the single best neighborhood for traditional Roman cooking — it's where many of the dishes originated, and the trattorias here cook for the neighborhood rather than for tourism. Trastevere is slightly more tourist-facing but still has genuinely good kitchens (Da Enzo, Tonnarello) operating between the souvenir shops. Monti and the area around the Colosseum have improved significantly in the last five years with a new wave of quality-focused trattorias.
The historic center near the Pantheon and Campo de' Fiori is the most mixed — proximity to tourism hasn't ruined every kitchen, but it's where the lazy tourist traps are also most concentrated. Use the restaurant guides rather than walking in blind.
Coffee After Pasta, in the Correct Order
Two minutes, standing, and never a cappuccino
The Bottom Line
A small number of ingredients, done properly
Roman pizza and pasta aren't complicated. They're built on a small number of ingredients that have been refined for centuries, and the quality gap between a place that respects those ingredients and a place that doesn't is immediately, unambiguously present on the plate.
Go to Remo in Testaccio for Roman pizza tonda. Order supplì first. Eat the amatriciana at a proper trattoria. Never accept cream in a carbonara. Ask for the cacio e pepe at the right temperature and watch what happens.
Before you go
What pizza should you order in Rome?
Order pizza tonda for a classic sit-down Roman dinner, pizza al taglio for a fast lunch by the slice, and pinsa if you want a modern Roman dough style. Neapolitan pizza is available in Rome, but it is a different tradition.
What are the four classic Roman pasta dishes?
The four classic Roman pasta dishes are carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana, and gricia. They rely on guanciale, Pecorino Romano, black pepper, egg, tomato, or a combination of those ingredients, with no cream.
Where is the best neighborhood for Roman food?
Testaccio is the strongest neighborhood for traditional Roman cooking, especially pizza tonda, pasta, and trattorias. Trastevere is more tourist-facing but still has good kitchens, while the historic center is the most mixed.
How much does pizza and pasta cost in Rome?
Pizza al taglio can cost around EUR 5-10 for lunch, pizza tonda is often around EUR 12-22 before drinks, and a good Roman pasta dish at a trattoria is usually around EUR 14-24.
Do Romans eat pizza with wine?
Romans traditionally drink beer with pizza, especially in casual pizzerias. Wine is not wrong, but beer is the classic pairing for pizza tonda and fritti.
What should you avoid when ordering pasta in Rome?
Avoid carbonara with cream, overcomplicated menus near major sights, and restaurants where every Italian dish from every region appears on one laminated menu. Roman pasta is specific, short, and ingredient-driven.
Is Rome better for pizza or pasta?
Rome is excellent for both, but they serve different purposes. Pizza is best for a casual evening with fritti and beer, while pasta is the better test of a trattoria's technique and respect for Roman tradition.
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Sources
Dish definitions, opening hours and prices checked against the official and reference sources below · Turismo Roma · Roma Capitale · Italia.it · 50 Top Pizza · MICHELIN Guide Rome · Gambero Rosso · Italian Ministry of Agriculture · Accademia Italiana della Cucina · UNESCO World Heritage Centre · UNESCO intangible heritage · Istat · Rome weather and daylight
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