Head-to-Head · Rome
La Pergola vs Checchino dal 1887
La Pergola is Rome's only three-star. Checchino is its 1887 offal institution. Book La Pergola for a milestone, Checchino for Roman cooking.
The Verdict
La Pergola is the only restaurant in Rome with three Michelin stars, held under the German chef Heinz Beck, who has run the kitchen on top of the Rome Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria since 1994. The dining room sits on the Monte Mario hill with the dome of St Peter's framed in the window, and the cellar runs to roughly 60,000 bottles. The dish to order is the fagottelli alla carbonara, pasta parcels that hold the carbonara as a hot liquid until they break in the mouth. The tasting menu runs around 320 euros before wine, jackets are required, and the room serves dinner only. It scores 10 for food, 10 for the room and 8 for value.
Checchino dal 1887 is the other Rome, and arguably the more Roman one. The Mariani family has cooked at Via di Monte Testaccio 30 for six generations, dug into the hillside of broken amphorae across from the old slaughterhouse, and the menu is the quinto quarto, the fifth quarter: the offal cuts the abattoir workers were once paid in. Order coda alla vaccinara, rigatoni con la pajata, trippa alla romana, the dishes this address helped codify. There is no Michelin star and no tasting menu; you eat a la carte, Wednesday through Sunday, and pay a fraction of the hilltop's set price. It scores 9 for food, 9 for the room and 9 for value.
Scores, Side by Side
| Score | La Pergola | Checchino dal 1887 |
|---|---|---|
| Food | 10 / 10 | 9 / 10 |
| Atmosphere | 10 / 10 | 9 / 10 |
| Value | 8 / 10 | 9 / 10 |
Which One for Which Occasion
| Occasion | Editorial Pick |
|---|---|
| A milestone dinner | La PergolaThe three-star kitchen, the cellar and the dome in the window make it the city's clear choice for an anniversary or a once-in-a-trip splurge. |
| Real Roman cooking | Checchino dal 1887For coda alla vaccinara and the rest of the offal canon cooked by the family who codified it, nothing modern competes with the Testaccio original. |
| A serious wine night | La PergolaRoughly 60,000 bottles and a sommelier team built around them; nothing in central Rome rivals the list. |
| Lunch with character | Checchino dal 1887Open midday Wednesday to Sunday, a la carte and unhurried, it is the table to sit at when you want Testaccio rather than a hotel tower. |
| Spending less | Checchino dal 1887A la carte with no tasting-menu commitment keeps the bill far below La Pergola's set price. |
Price and How to Book
The gap in price is as wide as the gap in format. La Pergola's tasting menu is about 320 euros a head before wine and climbs quickly with pairings from that 60,000-bottle cellar; Checchino is a la carte, and a full Roman lunch with a glass of Lazio red lands at a small fraction of the same figure. Read both in full in the La Pergola review and the Checchino dal 1887 review, and see where each sits in the wider Rome dining guide.
Booking favours the trattoria for spontaneity and the hilltop for planning. La Pergola takes reservations weeks ahead through its own desk and the Cavalieri concierge, with jackets required; Checchino books same week and runs Wednesday to Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday. For cuisine context, weigh both against our guide to the best Italian restaurants worldwide and the strongest tasting menus. For occasion fit, compare them with our picks to mark an anniversary and for a business lunch. More match-ups sit on the compare index, including La Pergola vs BACCANO and Mirabelle vs Per Me.