Checchino Dal 1887

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Family Table, Over a Century in the Making

Since 1887, one family has kept the same address on Via di Monte Testaccio and the same commitment to a style of Italian cuisine that most restaurants would never dare center a menu around. Checchino dal 1887 is now in its sixth generation, and the story — as Francesco and Marina, the faces of the current chapter, describe it — reads like a Roman fable with very deep roots.

The restaurant sits in Testaccio, the working-class neighborhood that grew up around Rome's former slaughterhouse. That geography is not incidental. It gave birth to the kitchen philosophy that defines everything here: la cucina del quinto quarto, the cooking of the "fifth quarter." When the slaughterhouse workers received offal — the parts left after the four prime cuts were divided among the wealthy — they turned those ingredients into dishes of remarkable depth and character. For over a century, Checchino has been the most dedicated custodian of that tradition.

The Cooking

The menu follows the seasons, and the kitchen makes no apologies for its focus. This is Roman Italian cuisine in one of its most honest and demanding forms — built on cuts and techniques that require both knowledge and conviction. Dishes appear and disappear with availability, keeping the offering alive rather than fossilized. For those who don't eat meat, the kitchen also offers a full vegetarian menu, available every day at lunch and dinner, with options like tonnarelli cacio e pepe, spaghetti with artichoke cream, mint and Parmigiano, and pasta e ceci al rosmarino. Gluten-free pasta is available across all the pasta preparations.

The wine list is serious — running to rare vintages and a 2025 selection that spans Lazio, Piedmont, Alto Adige, Champagne and beyond. There is also an unexpected and extensive rum program: 133 references from across the Caribbean, Latin America and further afield, served at the in-house cocktail bar, CH 18 87.

Recognition and Standing

The weight of Checchino's reputation is not self-declared. In the early 2000s, the restaurant appeared twice in The World's 50 Best Restaurants — ranked 46th in 2003 and climbing to 23rd in 2005 — a period when that list was establishing the global benchmark for serious dining. It is also a member of the Unione Ristoranti del Buon Ricordo and of Locali Storici d'Italia, two Italian institutions that recognize restaurants of genuine historical and gastronomic significance.

Six generations in, Checchino dal 1887 remains what it has always been: a place where Roman Italian cuisine is treated as a living inheritance, not a museum piece.