Rosati
Paolo Fugali, a Sicilian pastry chef, took over the kitchen at Rosati on Piazza del Popolo in April 2022 and reworked its breakfast and fresh pastry on mother yeast alone.
Why go
The Rosati brothers took over a small latteria (a dairy bar) on the corner of Piazza del Popolo in 1922 and turned it into a bar. It became the café of Rome's writers and painters: Elsa Morante, Alberto Moravia and Pasolini talked here, and so did Schifano and Fioroni, painters of the Piazza del Popolo school (Gambero Rosso, 2022). Daria Reina, the founder of the Roman boutique Chez Dede, comes for the square itself: you can indulge in a bit of Fellinian Rome—a nod to the dreamy, cinematic world of Federico Fellini films—with views of Piazza del Popolo and the Pincio
(The Relisher, 2024).
Come for the pastry. Daniela Persico ate here on three visits for Dissapore in 2023. She found the leavened pastries rather elegant in execution and good in taste,
though the semi-wholemeal croissant was a little flat.
She called the puff pastry with cut strawberries and custard remarkable
and the shortcrust tartlet with fruit better still
(Dissapore, 2023).
Reina's aperitivo order is "a classic old-style Americano when I go (even though it's during aperitivo hour), and I love it" (The Relisher, 2024). Persico liked the snacks that come with the drink, especially the vol-au-vent, "often indigestible and stale elsewhere, here pretty and pleasant to eat." Nobody brought her a list of wines by the glass, and one wine came described only as white and Italian, so "it really is hard to know what wine you are drinking" (Dissapore, 2023).
Expect to pay for the table. In 2013 Il Messaggero reported a customer charged 17.55 euros for two espressos and a bottle of water at a table (Fanpage, 2013). The Hideaway Report's editor called the prices predictably high — some might say ridiculous
in 2018, while Persico called them consistent in 2023.
Expect visitors around you. Persico found the Italians sporadic and a little hurried
across her visits. Laura Itzkowitz of The New Roman Times prefers Canova on the opposite corner: my favorite is unequivocally Canova
(The New Roman Times, 2024). The Hideaway Report's editor has always been loyal to Rosati and gives the reason to stay late: As the evening wears on, the ratio of Romans to visitors tilts progressively toward the former
(Hideaway Report, 2018).
Order this / avoid
- Drink: an old-style Americano at aperitivo, Daria Reina's order (The Relisher, 2024).3
- Order: the shortcrust tartlet with fruit, Daniela Persico's pick of the pastry (Dissapore, 2023).2
- Order: the sfogliata (puff pastry) with strawberries and custard, for Persico (2023).2
- Order: the vol-au-vent with an aperitivo, for Persico (2023).2
- Avoid: the semi-wholemeal croissant, for Persico (2023).2
What locals & experts say
- Gilles Pudlowski, the French restaurant critic (2021):
Dishes, pastries and coffee, all very well made, are served at any hour of the day and (almost) of the night.
4 - Daniela Persico, Dissapore (2023):
Rosati has a fine, elegant and refined allure that carries into its pastry, its coffee and its savory food. It is certainly not, however, a place for research or innovation.
2
Good to know
- Hours: Pudlowski found it open every day from early morning to late evening in 2021.
- Booking: the restaurant serves Roman dishes at lunch and dinner and takes table bookings through Rosati's own site.
- Service: attentive but not quick (Persico, 2023), in white jackets (Pudlowski, 2021).
- Toilets: Persico found them awkward, with no provision for disabled guests (2023).
- Where: Piazza del Popolo 5A, on the south-western corner of the square. Phone 06 3225859.
Verdict
should-visit — Take a terrace table on Piazza del Popolo for a fruit tartlet or an Americano at aperitivo. You share the square with tourists and pay for the seat.