Where (Not) to Eat in Rome: Checco er Carettiere

Type of cuisine: traditional Roman

Last visit: march 2026

My rating: 4.5/10

Address: Via Benedetta 10, 00153, Rome (Trastevere)

Phone: +39 06 581 7018

Web: https://www.checcoercarettiere.it/

Price: €€€/€€€€€

There is a photograph, taken in 1982 outside a Trastevere restaurant, that contains more twentieth century per square centimeter than most museum walls. Five men stand against a nondescript Roman wall: Muhammad Ali, Sergio Leone, Robert De Niro, Gabriel García Márquez, and Gianni Minà, the italian journalist who had somehow, through a cascade of increasingly incredulous phone calls, managed to assemble them all for dinner. Leone called De Niro a fijo de 'na mignotta for trying to sneak off without him. García Márquez, calling from somewhere in Rome, opened with "you probably think I'm a son of a..." before inviting himself. The restaurant was Checco er Carettiere, and the meal was ordered by Filippo Porcelli, the owner's son, because Leone, who ate there virtually every day, simply told him "A Pi', pensace te". That photograph still hangs on the wall.

Checco er Carettiere has been in Via Benedetta since 1935, when Francesco "Checco" Porcelli, a wine carter from the Castelli Romani, and his wife Diomira turned an old osteria called "Der Burino" into what would become one of Trastevere's most celebrated tables. Trilussa used it as his second office in the 1940s; Fellini, Morricone, and Leone made it a fixture of the Dolce Vita years. Today the restaurant is run by the third generation of Porcelli women, and the walls are still covered in photographs that tell the story of ninety years of Roman cultural life.

The history is real. The legend is earned. The food, unfortunately, is not.

Carciofo alla Giudia. The technique is right, the shape is right, and the color is more or less right, but the taste betrays it: this artichoke was fried in oil that had seen too many artichokes before it. There is a stale, heavy undertone that sits on the palate long after the last crispy leaf is gone. A properly fried carciofo alla giudia should taste clean and almost shockingly light despite the deep frying. This one doesn't. (My rating: 5/10).

Saltimbocca alla Romana. The prosciutto was dry and chewy, the veal beneath it overcooked to the point of becoming fibrous. What should be a delicate, almost ethereal dish turned into a test of jaw endurance. The sage was present more as a visual garnish than as an aromatic element, and the wine sauce, if there was one, had evaporated into irrelevance. Served with roasted potatoes that were acceptable but unremarkable. (My rating: 4/10).

Coda alla Vaccinara. This is the dish that should tell you everything about a Roman kitchen's soul. A proper coda alla vaccinara is slow-cooked for hours until the oxtail surrenders its collagen into a rich, dark, deeply flavored tomato sauce with the faint sweetness of celery and the warmth of cloves. What arrived at my table was a plate of meat in a generic tomato sauce with no discernible depth, no complexity, and no sign that anyone had spent the necessary time on it. It tasted like it had been prepared in bulk and reheated with the resigned efficiency of an airport lounge. (My rating: 5/10).

The setting remains atmospheric: the dark wood paneling, the framed photographs, the white tablecloths, the unhurried pace of a proper Roman dinner. The service was polite. But atmosphere is not food, and memories of Sergio Leone ordering amatriciana at his usual table cannot season a dish that has lost its purpose.

Checco er Carrettiere is not exactly a tourist trap: we are above that level. This is an authentic Roman trattoria, and visitors, especially those coming from abroad, might easily indulge in the illusion that they are receiving a proper meal of traditional Roman cooking. They are not. The ingredients are real, the setting is genuine, the recipes are correct on paper, but the execution falls well below what a quality kitchen should deliver nowadays. This is a restaurant that has been dining out on its own legend for decades, a place where you pay for the privilege of sitting where greatness once sat, while eating food that greatness would no longer recognize. For anyone who actually cares about eating well in Rome, the recommendation is simple: look elsewhere.

Checco er Carettiere Via Benedetta, 10, Trastevere, Roma Open daily, lunch and dinner

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