Best Romantic Restaurants in Rome

Fantastic new steakhouse and an elegant and refreshing addition to downtown Rome.

La Scala is one of our favorite Italian bistros for special occasions. The food is always consistently good and the service is great. We’ve been there 6 times and it never disappoints.

We were traveling and I chose this restaurant on a whim. We were pleasantly surprised when we realized it was part of the Hawthorn hotel we used to stay at when our daughter was in college. We quickly noted that the place was full of larger groups of people seated on couches and other cozy spaces for hanging out. The atmosphere just seemed friendly. Our waitress, Lisa, quickly let us know we were in for a treat. She had moved to the area from New York and considered the food as good or superior to other fine restaurants. We hoped she was right! We started with an Old Fashioned and some Brussels sprouts. My husband still makes the best Old Fashioned, but the Brussels sprouts with the fried pork belly and the perfect touch of chipotle were some of the best we’ve tasted. We split a wedge salad and then I had the braised pork chop served on polenta with a lovely vegetable medley of Brussels sprouts and carrots — delicious! — while my husband ordered the salmon — also quite tasty but not as good as mine! Is any meal complete without something sweet at the end? Not possible according to my husband!!! He ordered the chocolate chip lava cake, which was more of a chocolate chip “blondie” with ice cream. Still very good, but not what we expected. But overall, we had a wonderful dinner and were very pleased with the excellent service we received — never too much but enough to feel “seen.” We won’t hesitate to stop there again if we’re in the area! Oh! And the portions were so large we have plenty of leftovers for a nice repeat meal!