Armando al Pantheon

Steps from the Pantheon, in a neighbourhood where most restaurants survive on geography rather than merit, Armando has been the exception since 1961. The Gargioli family — three generations now — runs this trattoria with an insistence on Roman tradition that borders on the devotional. The menu rotates by day of the week, following the old Roman calendar: gnocchi on Thursday, baccala on Friday, trippa on Saturday. The carciofi alla giudia are fried to a bronze crispness that shatters on contact, the amatriciana carries the smoky depth of properly aged guanciale, and the room itself — small, warm, decorated with decades of photographs — feels like dining in someone's particularly well-fed family history.