Chef Ruben Bondì knows that Rome's Jewish restaurants serve some of the best food in the city. Here are his picks in the historic Jewish quarter.

In 2025, millions of pilgrims and tourists are flocking to Rome and the Vatican City, the historic seat of the Catholic Church, in honour of the Jubilee year. But less than a mile from St Peter's Basilica, Europe's oldest Jewish community is thriving – and continuing a rich culinary tradition dating back to when Jews first settled in Rome in the 2nd Century BCE.

For Ruben Bondì, an influencer chef and member of the city's Jewish community, the tradizione giudaico-romanesca (Judaeo-Roman tradition) is not just a subset of Roman cuisine; it's one of its cornerstones.

"Jewish cuisine is the true Roman cuisine," says Bondì, famed for filming his cooking videos on his balcony in Rome's Monteverde neighbourhood. "Our food is very poor and simple. But it's incredibly flavourful."

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(Credit: Maurizio Fiorino)

Ruben Bondì is a Roman chef and food influencer whose cooking videos have earned him more than four million followers on social media. In 2023, he published a cookbook on Jewish Roman cuisine, Cucina con Ruben.

Developed over the centuries and influenced by waves of Sephardic migration when Jews were exiled from Spain and Portugal over the 15th and 16th Centuries, Roman Jewish dishes are often fried and typically feature almonds, artichokes, sour cherries, cod and preserved fish. Among these are some of the Eternal City's most beloved recipes – expressly kosher yet iconic throughout largely Catholic Italy – from carciofi alla giudia (fried artichokes) to stracotto (braised pot roast). Today, they can be savoured in the string of Roman Jewish restaurants clustered near the southern banks of the Tiber River, in what was once the city's Jewish ghetto.

"Every family has their own recipe, their own way of making a dish," Bondì says. "Food is a strong presence in my home. Every Friday, before Shabbat, my grandmother would prepare the same thing – typical [Jewish] dishes like concia di zucchine [marinated fried courgettes] and abbacchio [roasted lamb] with potatoes."

But behind the delicious recipes and family traditions is a tragic history. As a target of persecution throughout history – from 1st Century CE purges by Roman emperors Tiberius and Claudius to almost three centuries of ghetto confinement under Papal rule from 1555 to 1815 – Roman Jewish identity was forged in response to oppression, and its food is no exception.

"In the ghetto, Jews were forbidden from trading, and this influenced many of our dishes," Bondì says. "Like how ricotta cheese is hidden in our tarts [so] the Pope's Guards wouldn't notice. Or our famous fish soup [brodo di pesce] made of sardines, was because we weren't allowed to buy prized fish, only anchovies and sardines."

Today, Rome's former ghetto – sandwiched between heavily touristed landmarks like the Roman Forum and Campo de' Fiori marketplace – is a picturesque, lively Jewish quarter of meandering cobblestone alleyways, bakeries and restaurants, but it still emanates the joy and pain of its roots.

Here are Bondì's top ways to savour Rome's hidden Jewish soul.

Located at the Jewish quarter's heart, near the Tempio Maggiore synagogue and Porticus Octaviae – the 1st-Century BCE ruins of an ancient Roman portico that eventually became a fish market, and the neighbourhood's symbol – Ba'Ghetto is just about as quintessentially Judaeo-Roman as it gets... with a twist.

Don't get your artichokes off-season

While artichokes may be the undeniable star of the Roman Jewish kitchen, Bondì recommends visitors only consume the vegetable when it's in harvest. "Avoid getting........

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