Twelve places to eat well in Rome for little money: supplì at Supplizio (€3), trapizzino in Testaccio (€5.50), porchetta at Er Buchetto, fried salt cod at Dar Filettaro, pizza bianca at Antico Forno Roscioli and a €17.50 aperitivo buffet, plus the cover-charge and counter rules.
The short answer: Rome's best cheap food is fried, stuffed or in bread. Start with a supplì, the city's fried rice ball with a string of mozzarella inside, at Supplizio near Campo de' Fiori (€3). Then try a trapizzino, a pocket of pizza bread filled with a Roman stew such as chicken cacciatora or meatballs in sauce, at the original Trapizzino in Testaccio (€5.50). Add a porchetta sandwich at Er Buchetto by Termini and a slice of pizza bianca from Antico Forno Roscioli, and you've had the classics for less than a sit-down pasta.
What Rome's street food is: supplì and other fritti (fried snacks, including filetti di baccalà, fried salt cod); pizza al taglio, baked in trays and sold by weight; pizza bianca, plain pizza bread with oil and salt; panini and ciriole (sandwiches, including porchetta, slow-roasted pork); and the tavola calda, a counter of ready-cooked dishes (the food hall at Termini does the same job). At aperitivo time, from about 6pm, some bars serve a buffet with your drink. Pizza has its own guide.
Two money rules. There's no coperto (cover charge) at a counter: it's banned in Lazio, and the bread or service charges some restaurants add apply to table service. And at a bar, a coffee or a drink at the counter costs less than the same thing at a table. For sit-down meals, see the best restaurants in Rome, and for a whole day's budget, what a trip to Rome costs.
Supplì and fried food
A supplì is a ball of rice, traditionally cooked in a meat and tomato sauce, wrapped round a piece of mozzarella, breaded and fried. Pull it in half and the cheese stretches out like a phone cord, which is why Romans call it supplì al telefono. Supplizio, chef Arcangelo Dandini's fry shop on Via dei Banchi Vecchi, is the place to try the classic next to modern versions.
Order: a classico (meat, tomato and mozzarella) and a cacio e pepe or carbonara supplì, €3 each, with a smoked potato croquette (€2.50), then crema fritta, fried custard, for dessert (€2.50). The dish of the day is €5. Spend: €11 for two supplì, a croquette and the crema fritta. Open: Monday to Saturday, 12 to 3:30pm and 5 to 9:30pm; closed Sunday, and closed for its summer break from 10 to 31 August. The catch: it shuts in the afternoon, so plan for lunch or an early evening snack.
Run by chef Arcangelo Dandini. About 5 minutes' walk from Campo de' Fiori and 10 from Piazza Navona.
Supplì Roma on Via di San Francesco a Ripa is the Trastevere fry shop that Turismo Roma calls a neighbourhood institution, with two more branches elsewhere in Rome. Alongside the classic supplì (with chicken-giblet ragù, or tomato and basil) it fries amatriciana, cacio e pepe and mushroom-and-pea versions, plus other fried food to take away, and pizza alla pala.
Order: a classic supplì and one of the variations, eaten on the street. Spend: it doesn't publish prices online. Closed: Sunday, according to Turismo Roma. The catch: it's a takeaway counter, so eat on the street. It's also on the Trastevere guide, with the rest of the neighbourhood.
Turismo Roma lists it as open every day except Sunday. Tram 8 to Viale Trastevere, a few minutes' walk.
Dar Filettaro a Santa Barbara, on the little square of Largo dei Librari just off Campo de' Fiori, is known for filetti di baccalà, salt-cod fillets fried in batter, and the Roman dishes round them, in a rustic room. It's a good stop between Campo de' Fiori and the Jewish Ghetto.
Order: a fillet of baccalà, with puntarelle (chicory shoots in anchovy dressing) when they're in season. Spend: it doesn't publish prices or opening hours online. The catch: it has no website, only a Facebook page, so check there or phone before you go.
A tiny square off Via dei Giubbonari, 3 minutes from Campo de' Fiori. It has no website, only a Facebook page.
Trapizzino
A trapizzino is a triangle of pizza bianca dough, split open and filled with a Roman stew: pollo alla cacciatora (chicken with vinegar and rosemary), polpetta al sugo (meatball in tomato sauce), lingua in salsa verde (tongue with green sauce), or seasonal ones such as coda alla vaccinara (oxtail). Pizza maker Stefano Callegari invented it, and Trapizzino Testaccio on Via Giovanni Branca is the original shop.
Order: two trapizzini (€5.50 each) and a supplì (€3); the shop has five fixed fillings (doppia panna e alici, parmigiana, polpetta al sugo, pollo alla cacciatora, lingua in salsa verde) and three seasonal ones. Spend: about €14 for two trapizzini and a supplì. Open: every day from noon to midnight, until 1am on Friday and Saturday. The catch: it's in Testaccio, south of the centre; there are other Trapizzino shops in Trastevere (see the Trastevere guide), by Piazza Risorgimento near the Vatican, and at Termini.
The first Trapizzino. There's seating in the room next door, which is also a shop. Metro (subway): Piramide (Line B), about 10 minutes' walk.
Mercato Centrale Roma is a food hall inside Termini station, on the Via Giolitti side, with counters including a burger bar, vegetarian and vegan cooking, gelato and a beer bar, and a Trapizzino counter. It's the easy cheap meal if you're arriving or leaving by train, or staying in one of the hotels round the station.
Order: a trapizzino at the Trapizzino counter, where every flavour is €6, with a supplì. Open: the Trapizzino counter's own page gives two different sets of hours (12 to 3pm and 7 to 11pm, or from 10am), so check on the day; the other stalls keep their own hours. The catch: prices are a little higher than at Trapizzino's Testaccio shop, and it's a station food hall, so it's busy.
On the Via Giolitti side of Termini, so it's the easy meal before or after a train. Stalls include a burger bar, vegetarian and vegan cooking, gelato and a beer bar.
Porchetta, pizza bianca and pinsa
Er Buchetto, a narrow shop on Via del Viminale between Termini and Piazza della Repubblica, is all about porchetta: a whole pork roast, boned, stuffed with herbs and slow-cooked until the skin crackles, sliced to order into a bread roll or onto pizza bianca. It has been going since 1890.
Order: a porchetta sandwich, with a glass of Castelli Romani wine. Spend: it publishes no prices or hours online; Turismo Roma lists it as closed on Sunday. The catch: it's a tiny shop with very little room, and there's no website, only an Instagram account.
A porchetta shop since 1890 (Turismo Roma lists it as closed on Sunday). Metro: Repubblica (Line A), a few minutes' walk; Termini is about 10 minutes.
Antico Forno Roscioli on Via dei Chiavari is a bakery dating from 1824 that Marco Roscioli took over in 1972, a minute from their famous salumeria. Pierluigi Roscioli and his wife Giusy run it today, and it's the central place to try pizza bianca, Rome's plain pizza bread with oil and salt, and pizza rossa, with tomato.
Order: a strip of pizza bianca, warm if you can get it, and a square of pizza rossa. Spend: it doesn't publish bread or pizza prices online. Open: every day, 7:30am to 8pm. The catch: it's a busy bakery counter, with nowhere much to sit.
The family bakery behind Roscioli Salumeria, a minute away. A second shop is at Via Augusto Armellini 81-83.
Pinsere, a tiny counter on Via Flavia near Via XX Settembre, makes pinsa, an oval Roman flatbread whose dough is rested for 72 hours, baked to order with toppings from a margherita to courgette flowers and anchovies, potato and sausage, or prosciutto and figs. It also fries supplì and potato croquettes.
Order: the fiori e alici (courgette flowers and anchovies) and a supplì. Spend: it publishes no prices online, only a Facebook page; Turismo Roma lists it as closed on Saturday and Sunday. The catch: it's a weekday lunch spot for the offices round about, so expect it to be busy at lunchtime.
Turismo Roma lists it as closed at weekends. No website, only a Facebook page. Nearest Metro: Repubblica (Line A).
Sandwiches
Zia Rosetta in Monti fills rosette, Rome's hollow, star-topped bread rolls, from a long menu of combinations: porchetta with red cabbage, pumpkin with feta, stracciatella with anchovies and puntarelle. Each comes as a full rosetta or a mini, and there's a gluten-free roll for €2 extra. For more places that cater for coeliacs, see our gluten-free Rome guide.
Order: three minis (€2 to €3 each) to try more fillings, or a full rosetta (€5 to €10). A spritz is €6 and water €1.50. Spend: €6 to €9 for three minis. Open: daily from 10:30am, to 4pm Monday to Wednesday and to 10pm Thursday to Sunday. The catch: the bigger rosette (€9 to €10) cost as much as a pasta in a cheap trattoria.
Order three or four minis and try more fillings. Metro: Cavour (Line B), about 5 minutes' walk.
All'Antico Vinaio is the Florentine sandwich shop famous for its schiacciata, a big, oily flatbread split and stuffed with cured meats, cheeses and creams. In Rome it has two shops facing each other on Piazza della Maddalena and Via della Rosetta, 2 minutes from the Pantheon, plus branches at Termini and on Via del Corso.
Order: a schiacciata to take away. Spend: the Rome menu prices aren't published online. The catch: it's a takeaway counter in one of the busiest corners of the centre, so expect a queue at lunchtime.
Two shops on the same corner, 2 minutes north of the Pantheon. Other Rome branches are at Termini and on Via del Corso.
Panino Divino, on Via dei Gracchi in Prati, makes sandwiches to order with Italian cured meats, cheeses and vegetables, named after wines (the Brunello has prosciutto, primosale cheese and chilli jam), and pours wine by the glass. It's the pick for lunch after the Vatican Museums.
Order: the Brunello or the vegetarian Capresino. Spend: it doesn't publish prices online. Open: Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm; closed Sunday. The catch: it's a small shop, so it fills up quickly at lunch.
Metro: Ottaviano (Line A), about 5 minutes' walk; the Vatican Museums entrance is about 10 minutes.
Aperitivo
Aperitivo is Italy's early-evening drink, and in Rome some bars serve a buffet with it, enough for a light dinner. Momart, on Viale XXI Aprile near Piazza Bologna, offers one drink plus a sweet and savoury buffet with hot pizza from its wood-fired oven, for €17.50.
Order: the aperitivo, from 6pm to 10:30pm every day. Spend: €17.50 a head. The catch: it's out of the centre, a Metro ride north-east of Termini (Piazza Bologna, Line B). In the centre, a drink at a neighbourhood bar such as Bar San Calisto in Trastevere (in the Trastevere guide) comes without the buffet.
Out of the centre in a student and residential area. Metro: Piazza Bologna (Line B).
The coperto: a per-person cover charge for sitting at a laid table. In Rome it's banned: the Lazio region's commerce law (Law 22 of 2019, article 75) prohibits extra charges for the coperto. Restaurants can still charge for bread or a service component, as long as it's on the price list before you order (several in the best restaurants in Rome charge €1.50 to €4 a head for bread or service). Counters and takeaway shops like the ones on this page have no table service to charge for.
Standing versus sitting: many Roman bars have two prices, one for the counter (al banco) and a higher one for a table (al tavolo). A coffee drunk standing at the bar is the cheap one; the same coffee at a table on a famous square can cost several times as much. Bars must show the service component on their price list, so check it before you sit down. In many bars you pay first at the till (the cassa), then show the receipt at the counter.
Tipping: not expected at a counter. Leave the coins from your change if you like.
Water: Rome's public fountains, the nasoni, run with free drinking water; fill a bottle instead of buying one.
Cards and cash: businesses must accept card payments, but carrying a few euros in coins is still handy for a supplì or a coffee.
Lunch: a supplì and a smoked potato croquette at Supplizio (€5.50) or a rosetta at Zia Rosetta in Monti (€5 to €10). Dinner: two trapizzini and a supplì at Trapizzino Testaccio (€14). That's €19 to €24 for two meals before drinks; add a coffee standing at a neighbourhood bar for breakfast. For market stalls, see Rome's best markets, and to eat with a guide, food tours and cooking classes.
To plan the sightseeing round the food, start with the best things to do in Rome or the 3-day Rome itinerary. To keep the room as cheap as the food, see cheap hotels in Rome and hostels in Rome.
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