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You've been doing Italy all wrong! Italians reveal the popular dishes you should NEVER order on your Roman holiday and the tell-tale signs of a bad restaurant
You've been holidaying in Italy all wrong!
You've been drinking cappuccinos at the wrong time of day, eating 'fake' Italian cuisine and dining at tourist trap restaurants locals wouldn't touch with a Venetian canal pole.
Help is at hand, though, thanks to Ettore Bocchia, executive chef at Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni on Lake Como, Lorenzo Nigro, head chef at Archway restaurant in Battersea, and the ‘mammas’ from London’s La Mia Mamma restaurants, a small chain where Italian mothers cook their regional dishes for diners.
Here they've revealed the do's, don'ts and definitely don'ts of eating out in Italy.
The worst tourist faux pas
Italian chefs spoke to MailOnline about the rules of dining out in Italy - from social faux pas to spotting tourist trap trattoria. The 'Mammas' from La Mia Mamma restaurants in London, above, even noted that one menu item should make you 'run away'
Lorenzo Nigro (left), head chef at Archway in Battersea, says 'tourists don't always choose the right place to eat', while Ettore Bocchia (right), executive chef at Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, says ordering a cappuccino at the wrong time is one of the biggest 'faux pas'
'Italians typically only drink cappuccino as a breakfast drink,' says Ettore, who points out it's a social blunder to expect the frothy drink at other times of day
Drinking cappuccino at the wrong time
Invented in Italy in 1901, this foamy coffee is a staple around the world. But there is a right way to drink it. Ettore says: ‘One of the biggest faux pas is ordering a cappuccino after a meal or in the afternoon. Italians typically only drink cappuccino as a breakfast drink.’
Ordering spaghetti Bolognese
It’s one of the world’s most popular dishes, but you won’t pick up many fans in Italy if you order it.
Ettore says: ‘Tourists sometimes expect certain dishes, like spaghetti Bolognese or spaghetti meatballs [on a menu] which are not commonly found in authentic Italian cuisine. We simply don’t eat this combination of food. For the Bolognese sauce, we use other types of pasta, mainly egg-based dough such as tortellini, ravioli, cannelloni, lasagna and pastas from the tagliatelle family.'
Lorenzo adds: ‘In Italy, we will have spaghetti as a first course and then meatballs as a main course but not together - that’s more of an Italian-American thing.’
Eating spaghetti with the wrong cutlery – and putting the wrong cheese in carbonara
Italians 'simply don't eat' spaghetti Bolognese (above), says Ettore, instead eating Bolognese with other types of pasta
It’s another favourite, but it’s easy for restaurants to get carbonara wrong, warn the Italian mammas. They say an authentic restaurant would serve carbonara with pecorino cheese and not Parmesan and with guanciale (pork cheek) rather than pancetta (pork belly).
The mammas add: ‘Needless to say - no cream, chicken, mushrooms etc.’ And if you do order spaghetti - definitely never eat it with a spoon, says Ettore.
Overdoing the spices and dressings
Adventurous eaters might proudly pick the most complex-sounding dish on the menu while on holiday. But that’s unlikely to be the most authentic choice.
Ettore says that Italian chefs would never ‘add a lot of spices or toppings to pasta or pizza’. He adds: ‘We appreciate the natural taste of the ingredients. So the simpler, the better.’
The mammas say: ‘We love salads but an authentic restaurant would use a nice selection of veggies, which won't need too many dressings, creams and so on, because you don't want to cover a fresh and amazing quality tomato. Extra virgin olive oil and some salt is more than enough. Less is more, always!’
Ordering a Caesar salad or salad as an appetiser
Speaking of salads, Caesar is off the menu for both Ettore and the mammas. Ettore adds that ‘for us, salad is only a side dish to the main course’ and never an appetiser.
Eating bread with olive oil and vinegar
Love soaking a piece of fresh bread in vinegar and oil before your meal? That’s not the Italian way, say the mammas. A traditional restaurant will welcome guests 'with a bread basket and grissini (breadsticks)’, they explain.
Opting for garlic bread
Garlic bread, it turns out, is not an authentic Italian creation
It’s bad news if you love garlic bread. Ettore says many tourists ‘believe that dishes like garlic bread are authentic Italian creations but these are largely American-Italian creations’.
The mammas say that you’d never find garlic bread served on a traditional menu.
Ordering pepperoni pizza
You should ‘run away’ if you see pepperoni pizza on a menu, say the mammas
It’s a favourite dish for many tourists but you should ‘run away’ if you see pepperoni pizza on a menu, say the mammas.
They say a traditional sausage pizza would be called ‘diavola’ and use a ‘slightly spicy salami’.
Eating fettuccine Alfredo
So what’s the worst faux pas (or ‘passo falso’) of all?
Ordering a fettuccine Alfredo is most likely to earn you some dirty looks from Italian diners.
Lorenzo says: ‘Before moving to London I had never heard of this dish in Italy.'
Ordering a fettuccine Alfredo is likely to earn you some dirty looks from Italian diners. Lorenzo says: ‘Before moving to London I had never heard of this dish in Italy’
Ettore adds that fettuccine Alfredo ‘wouldn’t be eaten by Italians’ who avoid ‘over-the-top pasta dishes with heavy cream sauces’.
How to spot a tourist trap
Restaurants that are open all day
A restaurant that ‘caters for locals will have a break between lunch and dinner’, say the mammas. If somewhere is serving all hours of the day - it’s probably for tourists.
Menus in multiple languages
It might be comforting to see English on the menu, but you could be falling for a tourist trap. Ettore says: ‘Avoid restaurants with menus in multiple languages or with pictures of the dishes’, while the mammas warn to skip anywhere with ‘translation in several languages’.
Large menu
A massive menu of dishes is also the mark of a tourist trap. The mammas say: ‘Opt for a spot with a small menu rather than a big number of different recipes - quality over quantity.'
Too many ingredients
The food should be simple too, say the mammas. They warn: ‘Too many ingredients in a recipe - the less authentic the dish is. Again, in Italy we love to emphasise high quality ingredients.’
Waiter/waitress outside
If there’s someone trying to get you in the door - it’s probably a tourist trap.
The mammas say: ‘Authentic restaurants don’t have ‘buttadentro’ [salesmen at the door] to persuade tourists.' Lorenzo says any staff waiting outside trying to convince you to go in are a ‘big no-no'.
How to choose a restaurant
Lorenzo says: ‘Tourists don’t always choose the right place to eat but follow the trends or the place with the biggest line. The places with the best food will be intimate and go under the radar'
Regional food is a good sign
Look out for dishes celebrating the region you’re in. Ettore says: ‘We, as Italians, would go to places mentioning regional food.'
Lorenzo adds: ‘Always stick to what is locally sourced in the region and try as many dishes as you can.’
Choose a smaller spot
Give the TikTok and Instagram recommendations a miss. Lorenzo says: ‘Tourists don’t always choose the right place to eat but follow the trends or the place with the biggest line. The places with the best food will be intimate and go under the radar.'
Ask a local
Ettore recommends scouring Facebook groups for suggestions, asking your hotel concierge or checking out Conosco un posto (‘I know a place’), an app for hidden gems set up by an Italian blogger.
Do the right Google search
Ettore says: ‘As an Italian, if I wanted to find good restaurants, I would search on Instagram for the keyword "Ristorante" along with the name of the city “RistoranteMilano”.’