6 Best Restaurants in Aventino and Testaccio, Rome

It's everything you're looking for in a true Roman eating experience: authentic, in a historic setting, and filled with Italians eating good food at good prices. In this very romani di Roma (Rome of the Romans) neighborhood, surrounded by discos and bars, you can enjoy classic local dishes, from vegetable antipasto to cacio e pepe (said to be the best version in the city) and lamb chops.

Run by a husband-and-wife team (she's Danish, he's Italian), this hip restaurant has a Scandinavian-meets-Italian design and menu. It draws a young, international crowd who come for the sourdough, cinnamon buns, and veggie-forward dishes. While brunch is the runaway favorite, the savory lunch dishes (served Wednesday to Friday) are standouts as well. All bread and pastries are baked in-house, ingredients are sourced locally, and only natural wines and specialty coffee are served.

Literally carved into the side of a hill made up of ancient shards of amphorae, this upscale, family-run establishment has an exceptional wine cellar and stellar contemporary cocktails that incorporate traditional local ingredients. One of the first restaurants to open near Testaccio's (now long-closed) slaughterhouse, it still serves classic offal dishes—though the white-jacketed waiters are happy to suggest other options.

This family-run institution has been serving seafood in the working-class Testaccio neighborhood for more than 40 years, and if you visit the local market early enough you might spot the owner selecting the freshest fish, which mainly arrives from Gaeta, south of Rome. The menu changes every day, but look for house specialties like paccheri (a very large, tubular pasta) with totani (baby calamari), pasta with telline (small clams), or the wondrously simple spaghetti with lobster. Start with appetizers from the cart that the waiter can wheel over to the table, or opt for the excellent moscardini fritti (fried, small squid). Although the menu has non-seafood Roman classics like cacio e pepe and pajata (intestines of an unweaned calf), this really is the place to order fish.

Set in a structure so massive that it takes up the better part of a block on a street that's gone from gritty clubland to popular nightspot, Porto Fluviale is a bar, café, pizzeria, lunch buffet, and lively evening restaurant. The menu is all-encompassing, too, with dishes that highlight cuisine from all over Italy.

Stefano Callegari is one of Rome's most famous pizza makers, but at Trapizzino he's doing something a bit different. The name of the restaurant is derived from the Italian words for sandwich (tramezzino) and pizza, and the result is something like an upscale pizza pocket, stuffed on the spot with local specialties like chicken alla cacciatore, or trippa (tripe), or roast pumpkin, pecorino, and almonds. The supplì (fried risotto balls) are also delicious.