This 500+ year old restaurant is the oldest in the city, and they have staying power for good reason. Everything on the menu is so solid—the pastas, polpette, the veal breast with potatoes, the puntarelle—you can’t go wrong. It’s open for lunch and dinner everyday except Mondays and is a perennial favorite of ours.

For Sunday lunch, head to Tiberino for a table in the sun overlooking one of Rome’s prettiest squares, just a stone’s throw from Trastevere. It’s everything you want: white-tableclothed trattoria tables, efficient and friendly service, and seasonal, delicious food.

This old-school Roman trattoria in the Jewish quarter is open for lunch on Sundays, when local families take up big tables for a lingering pranzo della domenica, and the vibe is so great. We always get the baccala and a pasta, and the bottle of house white that is just 11 euros!

A third-generation family-run osteria that’s so lively, welcoming, and great with kids. The menu is full of delicious Roman classics made with zero kilometer produce, and there’s a gelateria right next door for dessert. It’s open daily for lunch and dinner.

Beloved by Roman families for Sunday lunch, Pierluigi is open daily for both lunch and dinner. Our tip is to skip the whole fish and order the off-menu spaghetti vongole senza bottarga. And if the weather’s good, ask for a table outside on Piazza de’Ricci, which is prime people-watching real estate.

Open late into the night, La Barchetta strikes the perfect balance between Neapolitan restaurant and Roman trattoria. Order the straccetti ai carciofi o con rugola, and save room for dessert—Paola, the charming owner, often passes through with the most delicious sfogliatelle calda di ricotta or scorzette d’arancia e cioccolato.

On Via di Monserrato, this is the kind of spot you might walk right by, but shouldn't. The food is excellent, the crowd is mostly local, and the prices are refreshingly fair. The interior is tiny, with a giant menu del giorno handwritten in chalk on the wall. They speak enough English to help you navigate, but the atmosphere is distinctly Roman.

Romans come here for the pizza, but we think the pastas are just as good. If the weather’s right, sit outside on the cobblestone terrace boxed in with leafy planters, or head indoors to watch the theatrics of the pizza oven behind a glass wall.

The epitome of old school Rome: friendly waiters in vests and ties, skinny tables packed into the long, airy dining room, and the freshest ingredients, like their mozzarella, which is trucked in daily from Campania. Open every day but Saturday for lunch and dinner.

If you need a break from the pasta circuit, this traditional trattoria is beloved for its tableside steak tartare and some of the best Tuscan food south of the Arno. The dim interiors add to the very laidback vibe—you’ll never be upsold or rushed here.