SantoPalato
Sarah Cicolini cooks the quinto quarto, the offal cuts Roman butchery is built on.
Why go
Cicolini named the place for the Taverna del Santopalato, the Turin room the Futurists ran in 1931, and opened in the spring of 2017. The cooking is Roman and Roman-Jewish, built on the carbohydrate and the fifth quarter, and the suppliers she names are farmers and breeders who work the forgotten cuts (the trattoria's own account). Mattia Bazzurri is the sous chef.
After eight years elbow to elbow in Piazza Tarquinia, the room moved to Via Gallia near Porta Metronia at the end of March 2025: about forty covers upstairs, a second room below, the day's menu on a glass blackboard the way the old trattorias chalked it, and a cellar in view (Gambero Rosso, 13 March 2025). Time Out counts it past eight hundred wines (Time Out). Gambero Rosso promoted the trattoria to Tre Gamberi in its 2026 Rome edition, one of two in the whole region, and said the move earned it: the change of premises bought a leap forward in room, kitchen and cellar (Gambero Rosso).
The carbonara came sixth equal of twenty-one when the same guide ranked the city's in 2020, and the house signature is that the spaghetti are left al chiodo, with the egg at seventy per cent yolks brought together over a bain-marie.
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever is on the glass blackboard. Sonia Ricci reports that the day's dishes took more of the menu after the move, on top of the standing quinto quarto and central-Italian recipes. Then read the cellar list, which is the part of this room that does not behave like a trattoria.
- Avoid: Piazza Tarquinia. The old address has been shut since March 2025.
What locals & experts say
- Katie Parla: you will not find
more exciting twists on offal than chef Sarah Ciccolini serves at Santo Palato–her carbonara is pretty spectacular, as well
. She sells paid walking tours in Rome.4 - Gambero Rosso (Sonia Ricci, 2025):
Santo Palato is by now an institution in the city. Booking a table is not the simplest thing, because the waits can be long.
7 - Tyla Shur, introducing Cicolini in The Relisher (April 2025):
The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times have praised Santo Palato for serving some of the best carbonara—and tripe—in Rome. Her restaurant was also featured in Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.
8
Good to know
- Timing: lunch and dinner.
- Booking: essential, and expect to plan ahead.
- Where: Via Gallia 28, Appio-Latino, near Porta Metronia. Half a kilometer from the old Piazza Tarquinia room.
Verdict
must-visit — Gambero Rosso promoted two rooms in the whole of Lazio to Tre Gamberi for 2026 and this was one, awarded on a move that bought a bigger kitchen, a bigger room and a cellar past eight hundred wines. Sarah Cicolini cooks the quinto quarto, and Katie Parla says nobody in the city does more interesting things with offal. It is one of Jeff's saves.