Osteria del Pegno

Our favorite restaurant in all of Rome. I have probably eaten here 20+ times.
The location is magic, just off of Piazza Navona, so you are in the true center, but without the noise and tourist fare.
It’s a small family place, and once they get to know you, they treat you like family too. But even if you don’t speak Italian (my parents don’t speak it) they treat you with respect.
For appetizers try to tortino do melanzane, and buffala with prosciutto.
The Carbonara is the best in Rome. The guanciale is crispy instead of fatty and soft. My boyfriend, a Roman, swears by this carbonara and prefers it over his own mothers.
For me, the tagliatelle dall’mare or vomgole or whatever the pasta with seafood mussels and clams, is called (it changes names depending on what pasta they have) it’s amazing.
Skip dessert, cuz let’s face it you’re stuffed. And ps, they bring you free limoncello and biscotti on the house, if you’re nice. ;)
Vi vogliamo tanto tanto bene!!! grazie per tutto come sempre. Baci Baci, da Nicole (l’americana) e Emanuele Sabatino (il gigante)

Wundervoller Italiener abseits der touristischen Läden. Hervorragende Küche!!!
Hier findet man auch Italiener und nicht nur ausländische Gäste. Gutes Preis-​Leistungsverhältnis.
Da das Restaurant nicht groß ist, unbedingt reservieren. Geöffnet ab 19 Uhr.

My friend raved about it and I saw good reviews so I decided to try. It was a Monday night in August, so maybe they were not happy to work but we literally got kicked out of the restaurant after being rushed the whole time. We got there at 9:45 and were asked to leave at 11:15.
The place is cute, ambiance is nice and good is average. Two appetizers, two main courses, and a modest bottle of wine for 77 Euros… Plenty of places around there that are better!

We found the Osteria del Pegno, after passing on all the places in and near the Piazza Navoa. Their specials looked promising and had tasty sounding items on it, so we took a chance. It was an iffy chance because most of the restaurants we’d passed closer in to the piazza Navona were crammed with people and this one was dead empty (although one young Italian couple came in later.) They had a very extensive menu, with explanations in English, so it was obvious that they get lots of tourists, but I wanted to try one of their specials. I went out to re-​read their special board and ordered tagliarini with fresh porcini mushrooms and ravioli with spinach and riccota. Both sounded good so I had the taglarini and my wife ordered the ravioli. Both turned out to be wonderful — my tagliarini was much better than a similar meal we’d had just last night — and we’d thought that was good. It contained mushrooms that were much fresher and hadn’t been cooked to mush — they were nice and firm. The mushrooms had been sauteed in garlic — LOTs of garlic and olive oil and basil. After I was done with the tagliarini, there was still a lot of oil left on the plate that made for a great bread dip — which was also quite good. The raviolis were simply two enormous raviolis — each about 4 inches square. They were covered in a saffron sauce that had been made with so much saffron the sauce was bright yellow and it smelled really strongly of saffron. Both were very good, but I liked mine better — I’m a sucker for the porcini mushrooms.
We returned for lunch on a weekend and it was very crowded and we were lucky to get a table. We had the same table as before but their specials didn’t include the raviolis so my wife settled for the tagliorini with porcini mushrooms. I was going to try their involtini but luckily I spotted coniglio and made a quick switch. It was coniglio al la Ischia — cooked as is done on the isle of Ischia. It was a half a rabbit that had been cut into thirds and then braised, the brown sauce appeared to be a wine sauce that didn’t have a lot in it but it was decidedly garlic and contained some halved cherry tomatos. I wasn’t initially going to have any wine for lunch, but after seeing the rabbit, I had to go for it — and then I found they had a Barolo by Marchese di Barolo for only E30 — that was the clincher. It was really good. I can’t find rabbit at restaurants in the states so when in Rome… After lunch, we had a café and I then had a lemoncello. After a quick trip down to the toilet, when I returned there were two more lemoncellos on the table. The waitress had brought them by and compliments of the house. How nice!
This is most definitely a place to eat.

While in Rome, I Unilocaled a couple of restaurants and Osteria del Pegno, among others, came up. It got good reviews so we decided to try it out. A-​MAZING!
We started off with a good bottle of red wine (good wine selection, btw!) and Caprese to start, which was really fresh and tasty.
My girl ordered the Spaghetti alla Carbonara and she LOVED it. I got the Fillet with baked potatoes and the steak was perfectly cooked and seasoned.
All in all, it was delicious! Other than that, the atmosphere, lighting, and crowd was just perfect for either a date or a nice out with friends.

I live in Rome and have been to many different restaurants over the years and I am wondering why I have not discovered this wonderful osteria sooner. It is outstanding. No course has been a disappointment. Just had their wonderful onion soup which is a cooler weather treat there. Outstanding. Their breads are delicious and made on site. Pasta is always fresh in my experience. Pegno is now on my list of favorite places to eat in Rome.

We came here for lunch, and overall it was quite good.
Octopus appetizer was obviously overcooked, and the wine we selected was a big miss. However, the pizza and fish entrée we ordered were very delicious. I wouldn’t have minded trying this place out for dinner.
Atmosphere is really charming. Along a narrow, secluded street it feels as if the small restaurant has simply been carved out of the beautiful buildings.

Alle Wege führen bekanntlich nach Rom, aber längst nicht alle zu dieser Osteria. Wie auch — sie ist kaum zu finden!
In dem Gängeviertel westlich der Piazza Navona muss man den Vicolo di Montevecchio suchen (die Via dei Coronari ist bekannter, davon geht dieser schmale Weg ab). Hat man die Osteria dann gefunden, hat man ihn: den berühmten Geheim-​Tipp! Leider ist er so geheim nicht, denn es empfiehlt sich immer eine Tischreservierung, am besten schon einen Tag vorher.
Man kann draußen (bei gutem Wetter) an einigen wenigen Tischen Platz nehmen, ich finde es drinnen aber viel schöner, da bei gutem Wetter ohnehin die Front zum Vicolo weit geöffnet wird.
Die Einrichtung ist sehr geschmackvoll mit ansprechenden Dekorationen. Auch die Tische sind sehr schön eingedeckt. Am besten mit einem Aperitiv-​Drink starten, dann die gut bestückte Weinkarte studieren und die Essensauswahl treffen. Neben wirklich guten Pizzen (gibt es in Italien gar nicht so oft) wird die tradizionelle römisch-​italienische Küche gepflegt. Und die schmeckt hier hervorragend.
Da man hier in Rom und auch noch im quirligen Zentrum ist, bewegt sich das Preisniveau schon im oberen Bereich, ist aber auch nicht überteuert.
Wir hatten uns für einen Romurlaub um die Ecke eine Wohnung gemietet und durch Zufall die Osteria entdeckt. Jetzt geben wir diesen Tipp nur unter der Hand und nur an gute Freunde weiter! Macht es genau so!