2 Best Restaurants in Esquilino and Environs, Rome

This family-run hole-in-the-wall has been in business since 1890 and specializes in one thing and one thing only: porchetta, the slow-roasted pig that the town of Ariccia in the Castelli Romani is famous for. Alessandro, the fifth-generation proprietor, slices it thin and slaps it on a sandwich roll. For vegetarians and the pork-averse, there are cheese-and-veggie sandwiches.

Pigneto is full of hip restaurants and bars now, but Necci is the neighborhood's original hangout, the haunt of famed director Pier Paolo Pasolini, who grew up in Pigneto when it was still a rough-and-tumble working-class area. There's a full menu of pastas and other Italian fare, but the servers won't bat an eye if you just want drinks or a small bite; it also hosts wine tastings in its recently discovered, 1st-century-BC hypogeum. Inside, a white-and-orange color scheme gives off a mod 1960s vibe; outside, a street-art-style portrait of Pasolini overlooks a large patio where people eat and drink from morning till night.