Nino

At Nino on Via Borgognona, a few steps from Piazza di Spagna, cannellini beans simmer in a giant glass Chianti flask in the window.

Why go

Gioacchino Guarnacci, called Nino, came to Rome from Castelfranco di Sopra in Tuscany after the First World War with his brother Mario. The two opened a restaurant in Via Rasella and moved it to Via Borgognona a few years later (Ristorante Nino). Nino has been open since 1934 (Turismo Roma, 2025). Maria, Egidio and Anna took it on in 1983. The house says the next generation runs it now. Giada De Laurentiis eats here at least once on every trip to Rome: Nino's a family restaurant that we've gone to — my grandfather used to go to, and my mom goes to. Her family orders the ragù alla bolognese: This is where my love for bolognese started (Tasting Table, 2026). Daria Reina, co-founder of the Rome boutique Chez Dede, is a regular (The Relisher, 2024). She calls it an old historic restaurant perfect for taking a newcomer to Roman life, though Nino's cuisine is more Tuscan than Roman (Air Mail, 2021).

Sara Jenkins, chef-owner of Nīna June in Rockport, Maine, first ate at Nino in the seventies, when her father was Newsweek's Rome bureau chief. She remembers the flask announcing a Tuscan restaurant, though in those years other than the beans and a Chianina steak, most of the food was upscale Roman. She went back with him in November 2019 and found the room all dark wood and white linens. They ordered ovoli buoni (raw Caesar's mushrooms) sliced with celery and groviera cheese, pasta with white truffles and the grilled calf's liver. The food was very good, very satisfying, matching our memories, she wrote. "The shaved raw mushrooms were especially delicious, with crunchy celery mixing with the funk of groviera." They finished on Monte Bianco, the dessert Rome serves from fall to New Year's Eve: sweetened chestnut purée and whipped cream on a crust of crisp meringue (The Art of Eating, 2020).

Elizabeth Minchilli, who runs food tours in Rome, brought Victor Hazan here in 2015 and found that not a thing had changed. She ordered the sformatino di zucchine (a little zucchini mold) with fresh tomato sauce, like the best and lightest zucchini souffle. Hazan was excited to find brains on the menu. Minchilli wrote that they arrived fried perfectly – creamy on the inside and crisp on the outside (Elizabeth Minchilli, 2015).

Expect a regulars' room. Jenkins and her father were no longer regulars, just random foreigners, and were treated brusquely but professionally in 2019 (The Art of Eating). Reina reads the same waiters more kindly: they actually know their job very well and have that efficient ease in service and conversation that ensures an experience of pure enjoyment (Air Mail, 2021).

Order this / avoid

Order: ovoli buoni in autumn, especially delicious for Sara Jenkins (2019).1
Order: the grilled calf's liver, Jenkins's dish since childhood (2019).1
Order: Monte Bianco between fall and New Year, Jenkins's dessert (2019).1
Order: the sformatino di zucchine, for Elizabeth Minchilli (2015).3
Order: the fried brains, Victor Hazan's plate when Minchilli took him (2015).3
Order: the ragù alla bolognese, Giada De Laurentiis's childhood dish (Tasting Table, 2026).2

What locals & experts say

Alexa Della Notte, The American (2008): "Fettucini con tartufi neri was aromatic and delicious, the waiters (the same crew for decades) careful to note that white truffles weren't in season."6
Della Notte (2008): "Caveat emptor: Nino is loud — this is no place for sweet nothings, lest they're lost in the hubbub."6

Good to know

Closed: Sunday, according to The American in 2008. Check before you plan a Sunday.
Price: in 2008 The American put most mains at 15 to 18 euros and a meal with dessert and wine at 40 to 50 euros a head.6
Dress: The American warned in 2008 that the door turns away shorts and tank tops.
Where: Via Borgognona 11, a few steps from Piazza di Spagna.

Verdict

could-visit — Go in autumn for the raw Caesar's mushrooms and the Monte Bianco, in the Tuscan room by the Spanish Steps that has been open since 1934. The chef Sara Jenkins went back after forty years in 2019 and found little changed. Strangers get brisk service.