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    La Cicala e La Formica

    4.3 (63 reviews)
    ModerateMediterranean, Italian
    Closed • 12:00 pm - 3:30 PM, 6:30 PM - 10:30 PM

    La Cicala e La Formica Photos

    LA CICALA E LA FORMICA ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Casual
    Intimate
    Romantic

    Recommended Reviews - La Cicala e La Formica

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    Clara T.

    We came two times and the owner is really nice and sweet, really not pushy and eager for new clients. The food is excellente and the drinks are always cold. The staff is nice!

    Primi della tradizione amatriciana
    Brian K.

    Nice, cozy, restaurant to enjoy an evening meal. Staff was good, with an older gentleman as our waiter, who was super friendly and a little funny. They understood our English way better than our rubbish attempt at speaking Italian. Food was great! Both of us had a pasta dish, shared a salad and an appetizer. House wine (by the glass) was pretty good too. Very relaxed atmosphere inside; street side dining could be a bit loud day or night with the amount of traffic through the area.

    Amatriciana
    Danielle S.

    This place was recommended by a friend living in Italy. My husband and I are both Itlaian but from a different area. The food was excellent and the host great. He recommended a taste of a Amatriciana and a pasta with butter and Alici. Both were great. The Amatriciana among the best we've eaten, with a delicate but defined taste of guanciale, cooked a bit on the crunchy side as I like it. We also tried a gateu and a Parmigiana. Gaetano explained all the dishes and the local.ingredients he sources and that he was so proud of.

    Entrance to the restaurant

    We were staying at the Grand Hotel Palatino on a tour, and left on our own for dinner one night we checked out nearby restaurants. This place is only one block behind the hotel. The ambiance was fantastic. Don't know if they do it every night, but tonight they played jazz from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, etc. Interesting artwork and wine displays on the walls. We had the Caprese salad, Bruschetta with anchovies, Spinach Ravioli, and Rigatoni Carbonara. Each was very good, the Carbonara especially stood out since it was so much better than a penne Carbonara we'd had the night before at a restaurant close to the Colosseum. For dessert, we had a tiramisu and a pistachio ice cream. Both were outstanding. Service was good, we had no problems communicating even though we speak only English. If we had any more time in Rome we would definitely eat here again. If we can ever return I'd be delighted to visit it again.

    Best risotto I've ever had - zucchini and blue cheese. Wow!
    Dolores S.

    This was a wonderful find! We had an excellent dinner here with the best bread in Italy! The service was warm and gracious and it felt very homey inside the restaurant. Enjoyed the food a lot. Amongst other delicious dishes, I had a zucchini and blue cheese risotto which was amazing, one of the best dishes I had on this trip, and I am now in a delicious carb coma. The tomato and mozzarella bruschetta was very tasty too. We shared the bucatini, the sauce was flavorful and delicious, the pasta was silky and tasty. Wine was great and reasonably priced and we used the Yelp coupon with no problem at all. Great dinner right next to the hotel, just what we needed after a long day of sight seeing.

    May not look like much from the outside, but trust me, the staff care about your dining experience and the food is wonderful. First, FORGET your American expectation for service ...... there is ONE chef in the kitchen and EVERYTHING is cooked to order; AKA, made fresh. I know this because I took advantage of a pasta making class (which is AWESOME). The DOWN TIME is meant for YOU to connect with one another. If you are in a rush/hurry, it might help if you simply inform the wait staff ASAP. This place is usually very busy, therefore, staff may be a bit overwhelmed. I've been eating here since 2006 and make a serious effort on EVERY Rome trip to eat here multiple times. GREAT value for the money. (I'm the female in the solid black top on the back row)

    Mary Anne G.

    I had dinner at this restaurant on my first night in Rome. A month and a half later, I ordered the same meal (pork steak with potato chips). Be sure to get the red house wine! It's the best red wine I've ever had!

    This is what we got....
    Karen J.

    Ok... I'm gonna just post some pictures so that you can see what the review photos looked like and what we actually got.... now... we did ask for veggies instead but that wasn't the problem...

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    4 months ago

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    1 year ago

    Great spot - we split several dishes -shared them all - carbonara was a standout! The ambience was intimate but family friendly.

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    3 years ago

    Food was amazing. We had the caprese, the ravioli and the special gnocchi with blue cheese. Service was friendly and attentive.

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    9 years ago

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    7 years ago

    The food did not match the pictures. Red wine was good but pasta with swordfish and pasta with pesto was meh at the best.

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    12 years ago

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    8 years ago

    Average place. Not very friendly staff but food is ok. Little too touristy. Can't recommend this place

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    Page 1 of 2

    La Cicala e La Formica Reviews in Other Languages

    Review Highlights - La Cicala e La Formica

    “Our breakfast consisted of a pastry (one of the best we had in Rome), eggs, orange juice, and coffee.”

    Mentioned in 13 reviews

    Read more highlights

    44 Osteria Quarantaquattro - Per domenica di Pasqua siamo aperti dalle 12:00 alle 23:00 un buon bicchiere di vino con i piatti tradizionali della cucina italiana.

    44 Osteria Quarantaquattro

    4.5(506 reviews)
    1.4 km•Termini
    •€€€

    My family had the pleasure of dining at 44 Osteria during the summer of 2023, and it was hands down…read moremy favorite meal in Rome. Everything about the experience was superb--from the attentive and friendly service to the exceptional quality of the food. The prices were very reasonable, especially for the level of excellence provided. Pastas were a real standout. Tiramisu was amazing. If we had stayed in Rome longer, we would have definitely gone back. I highly recommend 44 Osteria to anybody who loves food that is visiting the city!

    Service was highly attentive and profoundly engaged…read more Mood was pleasant with dim lighting and music was pleasant. Could hear and be heard. The bread basket was delicious served warm with amazing crust. The pasta was a tad undercooked but was the best tasting sauce ever. The melon sauce entirely new and never seen of heard of before. They took "summer melon" which I was told was cantaloupe. It was cut into 1/8 inch teeny tiny cubes and simmered for a long time until very soft and the sweetness a little washed out. It was sooo good. The braised beef was cooked to perfection, the sauce was delectable and the sides were great. The mozzarella and tomato was amazing too. Perfectly seasoned and the tomatoes were conscientiously sliced. 1000% suggest this restaurant

    Photos
    44 Osteria Quarantaquattro - Our restauran inside

    Our restauran inside

    44 Osteria Quarantaquattro - Tipico carciofo alla giudia, carciofi romani d'eccellenza

    Tipico carciofo alla giudia, carciofi romani d'eccellenza

    44 Osteria Quarantaquattro - Il nostro mini tiramisù caldo freddo, provatelo è la giusta quantità per chiudere il pasto e per la sua bontà ne sarete sorpresi.

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    Il nostro mini tiramisù caldo freddo, provatelo è la giusta quantità per chiudere il pasto e per la sua bontà ne sarete sorpresi.

    Le Tavernelle - Lobster pasta

    Le Tavernelle

    4.5(171 reviews)
    0.2 km•Monti
    •€€

    Our first meal in Rome was here, and I'm so glad it was here. We arrived on Christmas Eve and…read morewanted a good meal. Our hotel manager had suggested another restaurant, but I was apprehensive to try, but did later, more on that restaurant review in it's own post. I rather did what I should have done throughout the trip to, which is to search google for local reviews. This tactic I found to be much better than to trust American reviews for restaurants to visit from Youtube or even here, just because the American touristy taste tends to favor bland or Olive Garden style pseudo Italian. The real Italian taste is much different and something one needs to develop. I was familiar with European Italian food, as I had said before in other reviews that Mexico has better Italian food outside of Italy. Additionally, the good restaurants here in Italy do not open before 7 PM. If it does or if someone that looks foreign to Italy is outside trying to lure you in, it's a tourist restaurant with iffy flavor. At this restaurant my husband had the Lobster pasta and I had the spinach/ricotta ravioli, and we both were beyond satisfied. We also had the artichoke as an appetizer, and trusted the waiter with his suggestion for a bottle of wine. He must have been some genius because the wine went well with our meal. The ambience was cozy and very family oriented, however, the rain outside made it romantic for us. Another key point for this restaurant and it traditional flare was that they brought out the olive oil and red vinegar for our salad and of course olive oil for our wonderful home-made bread. I'm so glad we chose this place for those of us Americans who understand culinary cuisine.

    The service here is so amazing and quick! The atmosphere of this restaurant is very clean,…read morewelcoming, and comfortable. Food is literally so delicious and every single meal I had was unreal. Totally recommend this restaurant!

    Photos
    Le Tavernelle - Inside dining area

    Inside dining area

    Le Tavernelle - Squid and seabass

    Squid and seabass

    Le Tavernelle - Interior restaurant

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    Interior restaurant

    Tonnarello

    Tonnarello

    4.2(642 reviews)
    2.0 km•Trastevere
    •€€

    First recommendation. If it's nice outside ask to sit outside. If there is a long wait for outside…read moreask to sit upstairs. Like almost every good restaurant in Rome it is pretty busy but they move pretty quickly. The line was long but we only waited about 15 min before we got our table. Once you are seated even though it's busy you aren't rushed. We started with a lettuce and tomato salad and focaccia. Fresh bake focaccia. They also put salt and pepper as well as balsamic and olive oil on the table. I ordered the pasta amatriciano and my wife got the cachio a Pepe. Everything that passed by our table and on the tables next to us looked very very good. I absolutely recommend this restaurant.

    An area we wanted to visit on this trip to Rome was Trastevere. It was evening when we arrived and…read morethere was so much activity, so many restaurants, so many places to stop for a drink. We picked Tonnarello Calisto because of good ratings and because we could sit inside and out of the heat at one of the few indoor tables. Our server Livio took excellent care of us, explaining dishes and just chatting that made us feel welcomed. I ordered their Tonnarello Amatriciana, a tomato based pasta dish with bacon, cheese, and pepper. It was delicious and just the right amount of food for me. The design of Tonnarello noodles worked well with this type of dish. A sample of my wife's tiramisu was a nice ending. We agreed this was a good choice for dinner.

    Photos
    Tonnarello - Outside

    Outside

    Tonnarello - Oxtail meal

    Oxtail meal

    Tonnarello - Carbonara

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    Carbonara

    Al Forno della Soffitta

    Al Forno della Soffitta

    4.6(308 reviews)
    1.7 km•Termini
    •€€

    Super pizza place with a lot of other great stuff on the menu…read more I looked with envy at the other tables who were enjoying spectacular plates of spaghetti with mussels. * * * That said, my pizza was a grand slam home run. Many of their pizzas are quite elaborate With all sorts of exotic ingredients. I went super simple. Gorgonzola. Mozzarella. That's it. Just enough Mozzarella to cut the Gorgonzola and make for a good melt. * * * If you have never had a gorgonzola pizza, you have never lived. Just sayin'. * * * P.S. My lovely wife got a Norwegian salmon pizza. The Norwegian salmon was stacked up high on her pizza As if she was in the World Series of Poker and she was a big winner. I have never seen so much salmon on one plate. After our meal, I made a discreet phone call to the Norwegian embassy in Rome asking them if they still had any salmon left. The woman at the embassy assured me the Norwegian salmon supply was fine. That surprises me given all the salmon that was on my wife's pizza.

    It was a positive Yelp review that lured us to choose this restaurant for our first night meal…read moreafter traveling from USA. So, I felt that I owed a review of my own in appreciation. Being new to Rome, and having walked 20k steps on our first day, there are an abundance of options a for dining. We wanted something classically Rome nearby to our hotel. The Yelp review of this restaurant was sufficiently positive to entice us. Being American, we appreciate the earlier-than-customary dining options. We arrived at 6pm without a reservation. We were seated immediately. The restaurant is intimate and very well staffed. The wood fire oven is front-and-center and the fresh mozzarella is prominent in display. We ordered a bottle of wine ... all options are very fairly priced. This is nice. We started with a Greek salad to share. It was unlike any American Greek salad ... and a really delight. It is early June but the tomatoes and peppers were ripe and crisp and really fresh. My wife ordered the Marguerite pizza; I opted for the Gorgonzola pizza (the effusive review on Yelp was compelling). Both were solid. We appreciate the thin crust and the crisp edged. The center of both, however, was doughy and somewhat undercooked. Looking around ... the restaurant was over 50% full even at this early hour. Most were Americans. We saw a good number of diners with pasta dishes ... and none were left unfinished. Sadly, we don't have any comparisons to weigh (yet). So, I cannot affirm any "best of" citations, it this is certainly a solid trattoria/pizzeria. The staff are attentive and the food served hot and fresh.

    Photos
    Al Forno della Soffitta - Pizza oven

    Pizza oven

    Al Forno della Soffitta - Pizza

    Pizza

    Al Forno della Soffitta - Taken 3/23/2025

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    Taken 3/23/2025

    La Cicala e La Formica - mediterranean - Updated October 2026

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