Hosteria Grappolo D'Oro

Hosteria Grappolo D’Oro is a trattoria close to Campo de’ Fiori in central Rome, and its dining room manages to feel both warm and polished. The kitchen sticks to Roman cooking in generous portions, working with what is in season and with local ingredients, part of them sourced from small producers. Its menu runs through the city’s classics, from carbonara, amatriciana and cacio e pepe to meatballs and puntarelle, along with a cream-filled maritozzo. A carefully stocked cellar backs up the food, and the atmosphere is welcoming while staying elegant.

For pasta, people who live in Rome point straight at the carbonara, which is widely rated among the best-balanced versions to be found anywhere in the city, creamy without weighing you down. Dessert, though, is where their advice turns into a firm rule, and that rule is the millefoglie, which has to be ordered. Each portion is put together only after you ask for it, then filled with Chantilly cream that is still warm, and that last-minute assembly is what leaves the pastry so light and crisp.