Taverna Lino Cucina Italiana dal 1947 Mura Vaticane — Restaurant in Rome

This restaurant is located near the Vatican museum entrance, so it looks like a good spot for lunch after visiting the museum, before going to the St. Peter's basilica. However, I could hardly imagine a worse place to visit, for a number of reasons. First, the tables are situated so close to each other that people almost sit back to back. This makes the place feel very uncomfortable. Second, the time it took the personnel to bring us any food, after ordering, was more than fifty minutes! Not a record-breaking delay in my lifetime, but definitely in the top tier and definitely not what I would expect from a place at such location. Finally, after few nice and few more not so nice reminders the food started to come. We first had the appetiser for one person (out of five) then the salad for one person, then the main courses, then the rest of the salads. Most of the delays were due to the fact that the personnel forgot what our order was! At the end, after the enormous delay, the portions were very small. The main course was up to 100 grams, the salad the smallest ever in my lifetime. Anywhere in the world. On the very top of all that the food was almost devoid of taste except for the quattro formaggi pizza, which tasted good. Out of all other dished we didn’t like anything and plainly speaking it was obvious that the traditional techniques and products of the Italian cuisine were not fully if at all employed. For example we had ketchup as a base for one of the pizzas (pizza Napoli), instead of tomato paste! At the end we had to pay the same amount as what normally a family dinner at most Tristaverre restaurants would cost you. Save yourself the misery, eat on foot in the Vatican and then have a nice dinner at a...

We had a wonderful dinner at Taverna after a very long day of sightseeing in Rome. It is very close to the entrance of the Vatican museums, but not a tourist trap like many restaurants nearby. Our waiter, Enzo, was friendly and helpful, and several times he made recommendations or encouraged us to order something different than what we were planning. Each of his recommendations was fantastic! He recommended a porcini mushroom appetizer that we LOVED (no picture) but would not have chosen on our own. He also recommended a side dish (contorni) that had an anchovy sauce (third picture) instead of the grilled vegetables we were going to order, and it was also fantastic. I ordered gricia (first picture) and it was so good, my dad ordered lasagne (second picture) that was good but not amazing, but my aunt ordered a secondi of beef strips with porcini mushrooms that was her favorite meal throughout our time in Italy. I also practiced my Italian a bit in ordering and conversing with Enzo and he was so patient and kind. For great service and delicious food, check...

Should be more than 4.0 stars imo. This restaurant came as a recommendation from our taxi driver (a local) and I’m glad I asked.

Food: Food was very fairly priced for the quality. We only had pizzas. €8 margarita - tomato well seasoned, with a soft dough and a generous amount of cheese. No tasteless dough or overly charred edges, that leaves this as a leftover. Had a few €11-17 pizzas this week in Rome that were nowhere near as good. Again, the salami pizza was top!

Drinks: Only €4 for a 30cl bottle of Peroni - as cheap as you’ll get in the area. It only goes up, from anywhere to €8-9, which is scandalous for a 330ml bottle.

Service: No mandatory service charge, but the waiters looked after our party well and were in good spirits, so leave you wanting to leave a tip. They were wonderful with our girls and you could tell enjoyed looking after their respective tables. Their inviting persona created a warm atmosphere. A...