Gusto (Piazza Augusto Imperatore 9, Rome, on the square facing the Ara Pacis museum and the Mausoleo di Augusto, in Campo Marzio quarter) opened in 1999 as an attempt to create a multi-format food and wine complex that Rome had not previously had: a proper wine bar with a full cheese and salumi counter, an informal pizza restaurant on the ground floor, and a full-service restaurant on the upper floor, all under one roof and all accessible without the specific anxiety that the formal Roman restaurant imposed on casual visitors. The specific Gusto contribution to Roman food culture: it was the first established Roman venue to treat wine with the same seriousness as food, to provide the cheese and cured meat selection that northern Italian cities had long offered but that Rome's restaurant culture had ignored, and to do all of this in a format that was visually designed (the interior design by the Roman design studio Zest was prominent enough to attract design press coverage) without being intimidating.
Twenty-five years after its opening, Gusto remains one of the more reliable Roman dining destinations for the combination of quality, accessibility (no reservation required for most formats), price point (moderate to medium for Rome's food market), and location (Campo Marzio position places it within walking distance of the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, and Via del Corso).
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Gusto Rome: The Formats
The Wine Bar and Cheese Counter
The Gusto enoteca (wine bar and shop) and salumi bar (ground floor, the lower-right section of the building when entering) is the most specifically useful element of the complex for the food-focused visitor: a wine list of 1,000+ labels (primarily Italian, with specific strength in small-producer natural and artisan wines that Roman restaurant lists of the early 2000s were too conservative to stock), and a cheese and cured meat counter that draws from Italian DOP producers and from the specific Roman and Lazio tradition (the Pecorino Romano, the Ricotta di Pecora, the guanciale from the Castelli Romani producers). By-the-glass wine service from approximately 100 labels. Charcuterie boards for one or two from €12-20.
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The Gusto pizza (the Roman-style thin-crust pizza, not the Neapolitan format) is produced on the ground floor in a format that predates the specific pizza-gastronomy revival of the 2010s but that anticipates its logic: quality ingredients (San Marzano tomatoes, fior di latte rather than industrial mozzarella, seasonal vegetable toppings) on the specific crispy Roman crust that is thinner and crunchier than the Neapolitan. Prices €10-15 per pizza. No reservation. First-come seating.
Q&A: Gusto Rome
Is Gusto the best restaurant in Rome?
Not in the sense of Michelin ambition. Gusto has never sought or received Michelin recognition and isn't designed for that category of dining. It is one of the best Roman venues in the specific category of casual, reliable, all-day food-and-wine destination that serves equally well for a quick wine bar stop, a pizza dinner, or a full cheese-and-wine lunch. For Rome, where the casual reliable category is harder to find than the formal excellent, this is the more practically useful quality. The neighborhood (Campo Marzio, west of the Spanish Steps) has several comparable venues. Gusto remains the most architecturally designed and the most wine-focused of them.
