Tips to Choose a Good Place to Eat

Places to eat in Italy are characterized by different names. A ristorante is a more full-service and formal restaurant. A trattoria is usually more causal, commonly family-run with regional home-style dishes. An osteria is very similar to a trattoria but is sometimes smaller and with counter service. An enoteca sometimes has simple food like sandwiches or antipasti, but the focus is on wine selection. Sometimes a pizzeria has additional menu choices beyond pizza. Most bars have a selection of simple sandwiches

We usually opt for looking at places off the main pedestrian path. The main street usually has places to eat that are geared to tourists and are more expensive. Generally speaking, walking a few blocks away from the main street sometimes can be rewarding in finding more authentic places and less expensive pricing.

Another usually great option is to drive out of town into the countryside. While driving in country roads, it is easy to find a trattoria by just driving around or using a mobile map. In this case, since it is off the tourist pathway, the popularity and quality more closely correlates to the number of cars seen.

We avoid places to eat that have an long list of menu choices as well as tourist menus. Generally speaking, shorter menus are associated with quality and freshness. A fixed fancy menu can be a bad sign. It is better to find places where the menu is printed out daily on one sheet of paper or written on a blackboard with chalk. If you see items crossed out that are no longer available that day, it is another good sign. If there is not a printed menu and the choices for that day are conveyed only verbally, that is another very positive sign. Finally, we avoid places that have menus with multiple language translations. The best places frequently have only menus only in Italian.

When walking by potential places to eat, we look for locals that are eating there. Many places have outside seating, so this is easy to do. Being full of people does not mean much as it could be due to many tourists choosing a particular place due to its central location. Instead, we focus on looking for everyday Italians and try to note which places are the most popular.

Listing to the conversations of people eating can be helpful. If we hear nothing but English or other non-Italian languages, we steer clear. Hearing primarily Italian being spoken is a strongly positive sign.

One thing that is important is that locals typically eat at a much later hour than we do in the U.S. So many places to eat are deserted when they open at 12:30 pm for lunch, but about an hour later they can be completely full. For dinner, it is even more pronounced. We’ve frequently been the only ones present when the place to eat opens at 7:30 pm, a few locals start to trickle in at 8:00 pm, but by 8:30 pm  it is completely full.

We have found online reviews to be helpful sometimes, and other times highly misleading. Online reviews can be invalid. There is a bias for writing reviews that are negative since people are less likely to take the time to write a review after a positive experience. Also, reviews written by tourists sometimes are influenced by expectations and not necessarily reflective of authentic Italian cooking.

Our approach is to talk to a local and ask. Easy ways to do this are in a bar when having a morning cappuccino. Sometimes striking up a conversation with a shop owner after purchasing something. We try to find ways to get recommendations from the Italians that are living in the particular area.

Michelin stars mean nothing to us. In fact, we personally feel that many restaurants that have high Michelin star ratings are what we call “foo-foo” restaurants. By this, we mean portions are typically small and expensive. The focus seems to be on being artistic with food presentation and creative variations in preparation that sometimes can be good and other times not so much. When we see a picture of a plate in a review that has all types of artistic designs and swirls, we usually steer clear.

In Italy, it is common for a dinner to take a minimum of two hours, sometimes even three. Typically, the table you get is yours for the entire evening. The different courses in a meal are brought out sequentially, one at a time. The experience focuses on being relaxed, social interaction, taking the time to enjoy eating and drinking. You usually will not be provided with the conto (check) until you ask for it. Therefore, speed of service usually has no correlation with quality. In fact, there is probably an inverse correlation.

All the tips above are general guidelines. While useful for selecting a new place to eat, we have found many excellent and favorite places that might violate one or more guidelines. One favorite trattoria in Spoleto is right on the main pathway. So we use the tips above as guidelines instead of rigid rules.

Finally, Italy is a place of so much beauty that is possible to sometimes get amazing photographs by simple closing your eyes and pointing a camera in a random direction. The same for food. Most places to eat are very good and it can be hard to make a bad choice. 

Buon appetito!