You’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to fine dining in Rome in 2024. Try these gourmet restaurants in Rome, you won’t be disappointed!
Ineo Restaurants at Anantara Palazzo Naiadi Rome
What do Lady Gaga, Richard Gere, Sofia Loren and the Dalai Lama have in common? Well, they’ve all stayed in this iconic 5* hotel in Rome, which recently underwent a stunning revamp. Apart from its rooftop pool, the jewel in the crown at the Anantara Palazzo Naiadi Rome is the new Ineo Restaurant, where i was recently invited to dine. Now this is the perfect spot for a special occasion and it’s a deeply romantic restaurant.
Roman born Chef Heros De Agostinis is at the helm after stacking up michelin stars around the world for the past 25 years. This experience infuses his plates with exotic poetry. Take the dish which is called “From Japan to Mexico, passing through the Mediterranean”. This combines amberjack, fermented cucumber, wasabi, yuzu, pear and jalapeno and incredibly you can taste each ingredient.
I was served the classic five course tasting menu, with other highlights including the ravioli filled with oxtail sauce; a North African take on brill, plus a herbed venison seasoned with Indonesian pepper. The dessert, called “My Memories of Colle Oppio”, is a work of art. This menu costs €145 with the wine pairing at €80. Leave room for cheese and petit fours if you dare. There’s also an impressive vegetarian, dairy and gluten free menu which won’t disappoint. Reserve now for unmissable fine dining in Rome 2024.
Ineo Anantara Palazzo Naiadi Rome Hotel, Piazza della Repubblica 48, Rome
Fine dining in Rome at Ristorante Acciuga
Acciuga Restaurant in the Della Vittoria neighbourhood of Rome is deceptively simple and deeply elegant. Specialising in sustainable fish – the smaller, more populous catches that are often less sought after in fine dining establishments – the menu has a white label feel, broadly painting themes around the catch of the day.
Chef Federico Delmonte relies on the fish that are available by season and tide, while venturing to the local Della Vittoria market for fresh produce. The result is a restaurant which is best enjoyed via a tasting experience, so you can really make the most of Delmonte’s range and ideas.
We tried the 7-course tasting menu which costs €90 per head, wine excluded. There is also a 4-course menu with slightly larger portions for €70.
Highlights of this menu included a fresh, crisp antipasto of amberjack with celery, olives and zaatar. Delmonte’s homage to Rome is the soft brioche maritozzo filled with creamy baccala. The barbecued cuttlefish have an intense simplicity, while the seabass accompanied with Jerusalem artichoke and seasonal porcini mushrooms was rich and deep, worthy of its red wine pairing.
There are some interesting pasta dishes, including plin filled with livers and octopus, but we tried the comforting nettle and borage soup with quadrucci and raw shrimp, pasta typical of the chef’s origins in Fano, in Le Marche.
Rightly in the Michelin guide for several years, Acciuga is an appealing mix of simplicity and elegance, comfort and clarity. Perfect, understated fine dining in Rome at its best.
Ristorante Acciuga, Via Vodice, 25, Rome
Orma Roma
Rome has a brand new Michelin starrred restaurant, in which guests are invited to physically travel in search of world flavours.
Orma Roma, the new restaurant from Colombian born chef Roy Caceres, is all about journeying, as the chef shifts between South American influences and the flavours of Rome, his home now for many years.I went for dinner just a couple of weeks before the star was announced, and the experience is one hell of a trip!
Dinner started on Orma’s magnificent roof terrace, which is also a great place to drop in for an aperitivo. The finger food selection is characterised by international flavours and innovative curing techniques.After the rooftop cocktail, we were invited to return to the dining room, with its warm Scandinavian lines and intimate corners. The next pitstop was at the chef’s standing table, where we tried a scallop accompanied by a cup of Peruvian-style tiger’s milk or leche de tigre.
Then we headed to the table where stones were plates and combinations were unexpected, like endive with almonds, apricots and olives, or tomato lulo and prawns. The tripe-style squid is a meeting of two worlds, while the spaghetti with pine nut milk was another surprise. Look out for the oyster ravioli or catch of the day in Caceres plating style, plus the roast mutton with bread baked on a liquorice stick. For dessert, we tried baked plantain, followed by delicious petits fours.
Worth travelling for!
Orma Roma, Via Boncompagni 31, Rome
Imago at Hotel Hassler
This Michelin Star restaurant in Rome was not what I was expecting!
I’ve been writing about Rome’s restaurants for 10 years now, but some experiences make you see the city through a fresh pair of eyes. In this case, it’s the eyes of chef Andrea Antonini, who at 32 years of age, is one of the city’s youngest stellar chefs.
But this is Hotel Hassler, the grande dame of Rome’s hotels, stately and traditional to its core. So what happens when these two forces collide?
Well, I was invited to try the new summer menu at Imago in July 2023 and it didn’t disappoint. At €210 excluding drinks, dinner starts with an amusing riff on aperitivo culture, with a packet of crisps made from dessicated meat, a peanut disc and an Italian-style bottled aperitif. The antipasto spread features a meringue pizza as the first of 9 courses. The second dish reworks green pepper steak with scampi.
I loved the oyster enveloped in bearnaise sauce and thought that the rustic remix of porchetta and coppietta with home brewed beer was adorable. Every plate is a lesson in Roman cuisine, such as the raw beef take on the traditions of using cloves in street food.
The menu even pokes fun at the classic Milan style risotto, by adding octopus. The fresh pasta with crabs is a taste of summer, while the main course of lamb is an homage to Sunday dinners in Rome.
Desserts are no less wow like the meringue rose on strawberries, a dazzling ciambellone with apricots, plus the encyclopedic cheese trolley and amazing petit four selection.
Sometimes traditions deserve to be challenged but Antonini seeks to also pay homage to the city he loves. And it shows.
Imago at Hotel Hassler, Piazza della Trinità dei Monti, 6, Rome
Fine dining with a twist: Vico Pizza & Wine
Have you ever eaten pizza in a palace?!
This incredible new project in Rome combines Neapolitan street food with a gourmet dining experience, and it doesn’t miss a beat. Vico Pizza & Wine is situated in Palazzo Rondanini, a palace built for the English Cardinal, Thomas Wolsey. And you can still admire the coat of arms of King Henry 8th on the ceiling.
And its all quite fitting as the new home of one of the pizza kings of napoli. Vincenzo Coccia, one of Stanley Tucci’s guides in ‘Searching for Italy’, has brought his princely pizzas to Rome and they are some of the best you will ever taste.
We started with a magnificent two cheese pizza featuring a 36-month aged parmesan and topped with seasonal white truffle. This was paired with a great Rosso di Montalcino from a small Tuscan producer. The wine list here is incredible overall and it’s all designed to pair perfectly with pizza.
The fritti are immense as well, including a deep fried mini calzone. Don’t miss the house desserts, such as the signature coccinella or ladybird, the artful clementina, which is just delightful, or the classic babas. The gourmet pizzas at Vco Pizza and Wine are mostly priced between €15 – €25 – and i have to say they’re worth every cent. All in all, you’ll love this original take on fine dining in Rome!
Vico Pizza & Wine, Piazza Rondanini 47, Rome
