Su e Giù — Restaurant in Rome

Finally decided to visit since I have my usual restaurant whenever in Rome and this place did not disappoint! Su e Giù, literally Up and Down, is a charming family run restaurant with classic Roman dishes albeit with a little magical artistic twist.

On my first visit, I tried their in-house creation, Alla Su e Giù, which offers medium sized al dente pasta shells swimming over a rich, luscious tomato sauce with bits of sausage and sheep cheese, generously sprinkled over with fresh arugula. The sauce is thick and nicely acidic, exactly what I was looking for. On my second visit, I tried my favorite Roman pasta, the Amatriciana, which was thick al dente spaghetti over the same delectable tomato sauce but served with tiny cubes of deep fried fatty cheek bacon, I was in pasta heaven! Sadly, the portion size was much smaller compared to other restaurants and it left me wanting for more.

The antipasti selections were also good. The in house antipasti consisted of bruschetta served with absolutely divine sun dried tomatoes and a short, marinated sausage. The suppli was filled with cheese and tomato and beautifully fried. It was the first time I tried the deep fried zucchini flower; I did enjoy it although I wasn’t sure what to make of its taste because I tasted a lot of anchovy even though it was a vegetarian dish; perhaps they used the same frying oil as the deep fried anchovy antipasto thus the taste overlap. The tiramisu was absolutely divine and no meal should end without this! On my first visit, they also offered me some home made cookies which were yummy!

All in, Su and Giù is a wonderful dining option if you’re in the vicinity. The menu is wide, varied and I’m sure that none of the options would disappoint. The only thing better than the food is the service. Both times I came, I felt warmly welcomed as if I was being invited into a family home for dinner. And as every visitor to Rome knows, this city is not known for being super friendly to tourists, so Su e Giù is remarkable in this aspect.

I would return without hesitation. Unless I happen to be very hungry, in which case I would instead go to my other Roman favorite just two streets north which offers an equally excellent amatriciana, huge portions and less costly but with terribly service (hey a hungry man’s gotta eat to his fill!). But if I wasn’t too hungry and felt like being pampered, this would always be my first choice when in...

Went there because it was near our hotel and had a good rating. Restaurant space was a bit cramped, but typical of a small family style restaurant. Ambiance was pretty good, and we were greeted warmly. We ordered the aubergine parmigiana and the carbonara and service was quite fast. The parmigiana was quite good, but the carbonara was not at all what we were expecting; it seemed that the sauce was not creamy from cooking the guanciale fat and pecorino but rather watery egg mixture with guanciale and grated cheese added after. My spouse who loves Italian carbonara took a bite did not eat any more stating it was too eggy and not flavourful enough.

We don’t like complaining in restaurants, but as I had eaten but my spouse hadn’t, and she was the one hungry, after paying our bill, we went to the restaurant across the street to try another carbonara which turned out fine.

Food 3/5 Carbonara 2/5 my spouse wanted to give a 0 overall but as it wasn’t inedible when I tried a small bite, so I’ll give it a 2. It was just not what we expected of an Italian carbonara, and we’ve had many of them. Aubergine parmigiana 5/5

Service 3/5 deducting 2 points because no one asked why the carbonara was not touched, not a huge deal but most restaurants would have asked if something was wrong. Maybe they did notice because they gave us two homemade sugar coated biscuits/cookies. 4/5 Ambiance was decent but the main door needed constant manual closing by the waiter, which with the carbonara issue soured our evening a bit.

Overall 3/5, decent prices, good service, but carbonara recipe not what...

Su e Giù literally means up and down in Italian. This cute little restaurant in a quiet Italian neighborhood near the Vatican has 3 levels, though my favorite is upstairs. If you get there early enough ask for the table upstairs that overlooks the main dining floor.

Daniel, the owner, is warm and welcoming to all that visit. I have been going to this restaurant for years because Daniel is so friendly, and the food is great. His wife makes all the dishes and is equally as warm and friendly as her husband.

The food can best be described as home cooking, delicious home cooking - the kind of meals grandma would make.

The toasted bread with sun dried tomatoes is good but the real star is the sausage that is served with this appetizer. Honestly, it does not look like much when it arrives, but this sausage is soaked in wine for a minimum of 1 hour. It is absolutely delicious, cut into small pieces and eaten with the bread and sun-dried tomato. A true surprise!

Their soups are hearty and homey and served piping hot for those of us that think that the hotter the soup the better it is. For my main meal I just wanted simple pasta, so Daniel brought me spaghetti with red sauce topped with fresh basil. It was just the right amount and perfect with some of their grated parmesan cheese.

The house wine is not fancy, but it just seems to work well with every choice.

I cannot help but give a...