Sora Margherita

This spit-and-sawdust, hole-in-the-wall trattoria offers one of Rome’s great local dining experiences. Tables are crammed into a couple of narrow rooms, and the din generated by 20 simultaneous conversations, with orders shouted over the top, is quite bewildering. Sora Margherita is not for health freaks, and if you’re on a diet, forget it; but no one argues with serious Roman Jewish cooking at these prices. The menu of classic pasta and meat dishes includes a great pasta e fagioli (pasta and bean stew) and ossobuco (veal shank) washed down with rough-and- ready house wine. Dessert consists of home-made crostate (jam or ricotta tarts).