The Secret to Spotting Great Restaurants in Italy

If you’re planning on going to Italy soon, then there are a few things about restaurants that you need to know—namely, how to spot the good ones! There are so many tourist traps, which won’t necessarily serve bad food, but I’m here to give you tips and tricks on how to find the most authentic places to eat!

Restaurant Red Flags

If you see restaurants that check one (or more) of these boxes, chances are that they’re a tourist trap!

Waiters invite you in from the street

If the restaurant is truly a good one, then there’s no need to convince you to eat there.

The menu serves food from all around Italy

Most good restaurants will focus on local food. If you see regional foods from all around Italy, there’s a possibility that the restaurant isn’t very authentic. Here’s a rough guide to the regional foods you’ll see in each part of Italy:

• Rome. Look for cacio e pepe, carbonara, artichokes, and suppli.
• Florence. Florentine steak, pappa al pomodoro, ribollita, wild boar, gelato.
• Amalfi Coast. Mozzarella di bufala, seafood, anything with lemon.
• Sicily. Arancini, cannoli, caponata, granita, anything with pistachio or seafood.
• Milan. Risotto, cotoletta alla Milanese, chocolate.
• Venice. Cicchietti, fritto misto, bigoli in salsa.
• Naples. Pizza, sfogliatella, fried pizza, cuoppo.

Menus with pictures and are written entirely in English

These menus are designed for tourists who don’t know what’s on the menu. If there’s not even a little bit of Italian on the menu, then you know who the target audience is.

It opens super early

Traditional dinner time in Italy starts at 7:00 p.m. at the earliest. Anything that opens at 5:00 is catered to American eating time and is bound to be a tourist trap.

It’s close to a national landmark

This isn’t necessarily a red flag, but it’s much easier to fall into tourist-trap restaurants near, say, the Trevi Fountain, since it’s surrounded by McDonald’s and other such places.

Restaurant Green Flags

Now that we’ve gone over the bad, let me tell you what to look for!

You see lots of Italians eating there

This is my #1 tip. If you stop and hear customers speaking in Italian and see that most of them are local, then you’re golden.

Locals recommend it

This one’s pretty self-explanatory. If the local Italians recommend it, it’s gotta be a good spot!