Nannarella — Restaurant in Rome

The owner of Tonnarella also owns Nannarella, and Tonnarella is a much busier place than this one. I opted for this place instead. I have tried Nannarella twice, and here’s all you need to know before deciding.

It is located on a quite crowded street, and so is the restaurant.

You generally have to wait 30–70 minutes for a table. However, there are two queues: The first one is for couples (two people), and this line waits in front of the restaurant it’s fine. The second one is for more than two people (3, 4, etc.). In this case, they write your name on a reservation list and call your name when it’s your turn. However, there is no physical queue for this.

I have been there both with two people and with four people. The first queue never created a problem, but in the second case, they didn’t call my name even though I waited over 45 minutes and confirmed I was still on the list. They had crossed my name out without calling it. After some insistence, the staff told me they rewrote my name and that I would be seated first when a table became available. I agreed, but then they almost gave the table to other customers while we were still standing there for 75 minutes! I interrupted and said we were in line, and thanks to another staff member’s approval, we were finally seated. It was exhausting.

We tried lasagna, pesto pasta, four-cheese pizza, and their wines. The lasagna was flavorful and creamy.

The pesto pasta was absolutely perfect, with a fresh pesto sauce.

The four-cheese pizza was good, but it can be very dry if you eat it alone — it should be paired with something fresh because its taste can be too dense.

The red wine was a little sour and fruity but left a pleasant finish.

The service was awful, and ordering was difficult. We waited much longer because of the crowd and the limited number of staff.

If you plan to go as a couple and don’t mind the crowd for some tasty meals, it’s a romantic and nice place to eat. But I don’t think it’s a good option for more than two people, as the experience can be...

If you’re looking at this review then you’re probably wondering if it’s worth venturing out here for food. Let me start with a few things:

This is an area where a lot of people like to come out for food and drinks. The area is packed with liveliness so you can definitely hop around and go to a variety of places for snacks, drinks, and even a little shopping. There’s also tons of restaurants here so you have choices.

There will be a line unless you’re early. At around 6:30PM, our wait for a table of two was about 30 mins. By the time we had our first bites, I would say the line was about 2.5x the length that we had seen earlier. That being said, they work super fast here and turn tables really quickly. Definitely not like some of the laidback cafes you might be used to if you’ve been jumping around in Italy.

Now onto the food: the calamari was decent, could use a calamari sauce or something to accentuate it, but very fresh and tasty. Also a very sizeable portion - a mistake we made as it was larger than we anticipated. The pizza was well made, again decent portion, and fresh. The pasta is where they shine. It was cooked to perfection, and the sauce was so good. The carbonara is one of my faves, though my partner suggests that it may be on the salty side (I didn’t mind).

Now onto their drinks - their Aperol spritz is delicious! They give you a healthy portion and use a sweeter Prosecco. I had a few myself.

Service was also super attentive and quick. Again, it helps to keep their line down and turn tables quickly, but it’s also great that everyone is super friendly and helpful.

Overall, if you’re going to come here for dinner, come earlier, or you’ll be in line for a while - at that point, try some of the other local spots. The bar next door is also super busy, but seems like a cool place to hang out. Come for the pasta, then go and enjoy the area.

Note: there are no reservations here and it’s first come first serve. If you can get there at 6pm or earlier, you’ll be in...

It’s a very bold thing to say that Nannarella is the best food in a city simply full of exceptional dining but, there! I said it! Come and fight me!

Having walked the feet off ourselves, Himself and I turned up like two hot, exhausted, starving wolves and were shown to a lovely table right under a fan by our charming waiter, Habib. He was very knowledgeable about the menu and explained very gently to we two Irish eejits that, sadly, artichokes aren’t in season in October. We should have been mortified but Habib was great fun and had a neat way of being everywhere all at one but also there, just when we needed something. Clearly the magic of Rome is at work here.

We were dreadfully greedy, and had starters (fried mixed selection for Himself, bruschetta for me) and I chose Habib’s recommendation of the pasta Nannarella which was just delicious. I’m working on a new and somewhat serious Aperol Spritz addiction, so I had one of those, and we barely spoke all through the meal, it was so yummy.

There was a simply delightful moment when one of a group of young American tourists, deep in a story, said ‘Oh My God!’ a little loudly, much to the amusement of a table of priests and religious brothers nearly. Oh, it was just deliciously funny! Isn’t that Rome, though? All exuberance and joyful delight in eclectic company.

We committed the sin of gluttony by adding two of the most deliciously light tiramisu to our meal (we were stuffed, we didn’t need it) but we plan to do penance in walking tomorrow so I think we might be okay, there.

All together, an exceptional meal, in very enjoyable surroundings and for a reasonable price. Himself is already hinting that we should go back tomorrow and I don’t see why not. Very heartily...