It's no Olive Garden. But my sister visited Rome last year and is still raving about this place.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/voglia-di-pizza-roma-3

Order like you're an Italian from New Jersey, that is, ask for "managawt", "prozhoot" and "gabagool" and see if you get a blank stare. If you don't get a blank stare, your server is from south of Naples.

Back to seriousness, for the kiddies and adults -

While it may sound silly and touristy, you have not been to Rome unless you have gone for gelato in the evening, when the Italians are out for the nightly "passeggiata", at the place right near the Trevi Fountain. And they've finally taken down the scaffolding.

Trust me on this. The gelato is far more important than the three coin toss.

Great informal place in Trastevere. I've been to Rome a few time and it seems the sweetspot moves all the time. Where it was Piazza Navona it then moved to become Campo di Fiori. When I was there last summer the best neighborhood to hang out in was Trestevere. Just a great neighborhood to wander around away from the tourist hoards.

Also behind the Colosseum and across from Notre Dame's Rome center is a small sandwich place called Pane and Vino that make a very good sandwich. It's quiet and not too far of a walk from Basillica San Clemente.

Not being a "foodie" myself in the sense that I don't try to find the quintessential (i.e. fabulous but fabulously expensive) dining experience, and typically just walk in to "this looks like a good place" restaurants when traveling, it's really not hard to find a good place in Rome to eat, at all, almost anywhere. And the offerings are, well, Italian food like you're familiar with. (Now, you can find, say, Chinese food, too, but I don't know about you, I don't tend to look for that in Rome any more than I'd look for Italian food in Hong Kong)

There are regional specialties in Italian cuisine, of course, and it may surprise some to learn there are dishes Americans are familiar with that in some regions of Italy are hard to find (good luck in trying to find classic Neapolitan pizza in the north outside of a big city, for example). But Rome is pretty cosmopolitan in that aspect. You can find Milanese, Florentine, Bolognese, Neapolitan, Sicilian, you name it, somewhere in Rome and often under one roof. And as I said, you don't have to look hard at all.

Invariably, though, whenever I have talked with people who have also been to Rome about eating, the location seems to trump the actual restaurant name. In other words, people talk about eating at the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the via del Corso etc., where there are multiple restaurants. It's kind of hard to go wrong.

And as always, and I'm dead serious using this cliche because it's true, when in Rome . . . you know the rest.

One thing you won't find - pepperoni pizza. It's seems pepperoni doesn't exist in the mother country. Peperoni (sic) that you see on pizza menus are little light colored green peppers that here in the US of A are called pepperoncini.

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Dinner: Trattoria da Luigi is the “food home” of the St. Mary’s College Rome Program and is recommended by the long-time (now retiring) program director, Dr. Prebys. It is traditional Roman food. Piazza Sforza Cesarini is the address officially: on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II at Vicolo Cellini, a small side street. There is a little green space, fenced, piazza with a statue of Sforza Cesarini in the middle. Da Luigi’s is just off the street to the left side of the green space.

Pizzeria Baffeto, the original place in the medieval quarter of the old Campus Martius, is popular but good: http://www.pizzeriabaffetto.it/index.asp

Pizza rustica/“rustic pizza” for lunch: On the Corso del Rinascimento. The place is simply called “Pizza Rustica." You order the thick crust pizza—a Rome specialty—individually by the amount/size you want. They are used to tourists, and the prices are very reasonable. Probably around 4 or 5 Euros per person plus a water or soda. You can get it to go and keep walking or sit and eat it.

Gelato, 2 places, one is on the way to the other: From the Pantheon doors: The space—with the obelisk and fountain—in front of the Pantheon is called the Piazza della Rotunda. Go diagonally across the piazza to the Via del Panethon. Continue straight walking onto the Via della Maddalena. The first gelato place is on the left and is called “Della Palma.” If you keep going straight another block or two and then turn right on Via degli Uffici del Vicario you will reach the more famous (and busy) “Giolitti.” At either place, you go to the cashier and pay first for your gelato. Then you take the receipt to the gelato counter and tell them what you want. You should hand them the receipt with a small tip: 50 cent Euro coin (or 1 Euro coin if you are generous). Ask for your order with “panna” = cream. I personally prefer “Della Palma” but “Giolitti” is the much more famous place.

Another option for lunch or for a snack is to go to Pascucci's on Via di Torre Argentina. It is a long-time "hangout" for Saint Mary's College Rome Program students. The doorway says "Frullati Pascucci." The best item to order would be "una bomba" which is a cream-filled pastry and a strawberry "fragola" frullati = smoothie.

Wife and I loved it and others that have gone felt the same:

http://www.ristorantespiritodivino.com/4/

Milano's pizza:

Good pizza. Lunch special is a good deal. Attendant lady doesn't speak English very well. Will go back.

Cici

Usually have a decent experience at CiCi's restaurants, but I really did not enjoy the inappropriate music selection played over the speakers. I mainly tuned it out until I started hearing some music I don't think should be played in mixed company. Very limited pizza selection on the buffet. Also, something has changed about the salad dressing and my mom mentioned that she missed the old salad dressing.

Olivio di Gardegne:

The Olive Garden is my youngest child's favorite place to eat here in Rome!
Cheese is one of my favorites but the OG seems to be very heavy on the cheese sauces and I always ask for light sauce on my meals.
The waiters are super friendly and professional!

those people must be rich.

Watch out for the effects of the battered Italian economy, though. Reading lots of Economist/Bloomberg stories about degradation in workforce skills:

We had a gift card, so decided to start our New Year's Eve with a delicious meal from an always dependable stalwart. We had a shorter wait than we we told we would have, but enjoyed a glass of wine at the bar and enjoyed watching the talented, efficient and entertaining bartenders. We were called to our table before finishing our wine, but settled the bill at the bar and proceeded to our table, taking our glasses with us. However, this was where the last day of the year became an endless nightmare. Server Josh started out the night apologizing, which he ended up doing about twenty times, but brought us our waters and spilled some on the table, apologizing again and said he would be back to clean it up, but it was still there when we left the table later. I craved a peach Bellini, and my wife ordered another glass of pinot grigio. Josh brought me a dark pink frozen drink, and we both tasted it and agreed that it didn't taste peachy, but thought it was just their recipe. Two sips in Josh came and said he brought me the wrong drink and whisked it away, quickly replacing it a few minutes later with the correct Bellini. (I thought he should have left the first one and comped it, but that's not what he did.) The salad bowl and breadsticks were delicious, as always, and my wife asked Josh for more salad. I had skipped lunch and was really hungry, so I ordered the Tour of Italy so I could have a taste of three of their more delicious entrees. Each dish: lasagna Bolongnese, fettucine Alfredo and chicken Parmigiana were all tasty as usual. My wife pronounced her smoked Mozzarella chicken pasta a hit, but the requested salad refill did not come until after we were both done with our entrees, so we rejected that. We waited forever to get our check when the salad was turned down, and when it came, Josh had charged me for the glass of wine I had already paid for at the bar and had brought to the table with me! Then it was another 20 minutes until we got the corrected bill! Two days later we were in Tennessee and my wife went to get her credit card and she did not have it. She did some online research and discovered that OG Rome was the last place we had used it, and she called the manager and he had it. Seems Josh's final act of bad service was not returning the credit card to us with the final bill. The manager was nice and said that Josh was new and that he would send us a gift card to make up for all of the mistakes. (That was over a week ago and we still have not received the gift card.) We did retrieve the credit card upon our return to town. Happy New Year! Wonderful food--the worst service ever! If we get the promised gift card I may award one more star.

By the way, now it's June 14th and we still haven't heard anything from the manager....go figure! Will never darken this doorway again!

it looks like this story has a happy ending, though:

5.0 star rating 9/30/2014 Previous review I know I reported on June 14 that I would never darken this door again, but hanging over my head all summer has been the need to see why the manager has not responded to my review and comments. So last Sunday night my wife and I printed out our "Yelp!" review and stopped by to see the manager. We were greeted by Rebecca Marshall, who introduced herself as a "traveling manager" who is brought in by the company to correct things that were wrong. I handed her the previous review and she was absolutely appalled that she did not know about this. She invited us to have dinner in the front dining room near the bar, which is our chosen place to eat there anyway, and during the rest of the night, although she was doing some employee reviews in another part of the building, she came by to check on us regularly all during our meal to make sure everything was satisfactory. She was friendly, warm, approachable and professional in every way, and I hope the company realizes the kind of employee they have in her. The service was also impeccable. Adric was assigned to our table and I thought he had been brought down from server heaven! He told us he had eaten everything on the menu in the five years he has been here, and we knew that he knew everything there was no know about any questions that we had. Again, we felt like we were right at home and we had long conversations with him about the restaurant and the community, as we shared a common interest in theatre and performing. He was absolutely the BEST server we have ever had. The food as always was outstanding. We started with the crispy asparagus, and the citrus aoili that accompanied it was mouth watering and perfectly brought out the flavor of the vegetable. As always we couldn't get enough of the delicious salad served family style and the hot breadsticks, but I limited myself to one because I knew what was coming. Yes, I ordered the Tour of Italy once again, my favorite, and each dish: fettucine Alfredo, baked lasagna and chicken parmgiana were so tasty. I noticed that it seemed the portions were a bit smaller, and for this I was grateful--most of the time I could not finish it! But since this was lunch and dinner, I did finish it all and my wife did something that she rarely does--finished all of her large portion of chicken parmigiana. We were so pleased also to meet the new general manager, Matt Raftery, and he stopped to talk to us for a quite a long time as well. He and Rebecca both were so friendly and warm, and I feel the the OG Rome is now going to blow away all of the competition with their new attention to service and the food getting nothing but better and better each time we go there. Matt informed me that he was familiar with my review, assured me that Josh no longer worked there, and neither would anyone else who caused customers to write such reviews and stay away for months. We were both so impressed with both the managers and with Adric, and now can't wait to come back. Everyone who stopped by our table all night, including other servers, encouraged us to try the pumpkin cheesecake, but by then we were so stuffed we couldn't even think about eating anything else until the next day! This time our two hours at dinner was well spent, joyous, delicious, and attention to us was unparalleled. Thanks to all who made this such a great night--we left Adric a more than well-deserved tip for our perfect comped meal, which made up for the horrors of Dec. 31st. Okay, yes, we will be back now, and often. This is the way a restaurant should be run! And the reason why the manager had not responded to us since that night is because he is no longer there! Thanks to corporate for realizing a change needed to be made. It worked!

and even a happy epilogue!

5.0 star rating 11/7/2014 Previous review The hits keep a comin'! This time Mareesa provided the excellent service. I ordered angel hair spaghetti with spicy meat sauce and meatballs from the "build your own meal" section of the menu. My wife as usual had the stuffed chicken--she always orders anything with sun-dried tomatoes and artichokes, her two favorite items. All were spectacular. Neither of us ate the breadsticks but took them home, and I could not eat all of my spaghetti, so that went home too. The salad as usual was plentiful and delicious. I also had a taste of a sample of Moscato which is not my favorite but it balanced pretty well with the pasta. Since it was my wife's birthday we took a rare exception and ordered dessert, the amazing pumpkin cheesecake we had been tempted by last time. Couldn't eat all of that either since we were stuffed but took it home for a snack on another day. Apparently my fame as a Yelper has spread, because as we were finishing our meal, three different people came up to me and asked if I was Wendell: managers Justin (not sure about the name but very nice) and Michelle, and one server, Sarah. Apparently the general manager Matt and manager Rebecca had shared my review of 12/31/13 with the staff, and they wanted to meet me. I felt like a real star! Michelle, who is a "production manager" (I think!) said that she knew Josh and all the points I made were right on and is the reason why he was fired. She was so personable and an entertaining conversationalist (as well as beautiful, but don't tell my wife I noticed that. As I always say, it's okay to look at the menu as long as you don't sample the main course ;-) Several servers gathered to sing "Happy Birthday" with a lit candle on my wife's cheesecake (which was not complimentary but it rarely is these days.) I guess fame is fleeting after all 8-}