Restaurant in Rome, Italy
Colosseum views, Michelin star, €€€€ — book it.
Aroma earns its Michelin star and €€€€ price with a rooftop terrace that faces the Colosseum directly and a menu from Chef Giuseppe Di Iorio that covers classic Roman cooking, Campanian influences, and more creative territory across four tasting menus. The à la carte-from-the-menu format adds flexibility rare at this level. Book at least three to four weeks out — this is one of Rome's harder reservations to secure.
Four tasting menus, one Michelin star, and a rooftop view of the Colosseum directly ahead of you: Aroma earns its €€€€ price tag if the setting is part of what you are paying for. Chef Giuseppe Di Iorio's menu spans classic Roman cooking, Campanian influences, and more creative territory, so there is enough range to satisfy a table with different priorities. For a high-occasion dinner in Rome with serious cooking and a location that no other starred restaurant in the city can match, this is the booking to make. If pure culinary ambition with no regard for the view is your priority, Il Pagliaccio or Idylio by Apreda are harder to unseat. But for occasion dining where the room and the skyline are doing real work alongside the food, Aroma delivers.
Aroma sits inside the Palazzo Manfredi on Via Labicana, and the lift from the ground floor delivers you to one of the most arresting dining positions in Rome. The terrace faces the Colosseum head-on, with the Domus Aurea visible to the right and a fragment of the Victor Emmanuel II monument in the distance. The terrace is covered during winter, which means the outdoor setting is available year-round, not just in summer, and that practical detail matters when you are booking months out for a November or February trip.
The cooking under Giuseppe Di Iorio is built on a Roman foundation but is not constrained by it. The four tasting menus, including a dedicated vegetarian option, give the kitchen room to move between tradition and invention without making the menu feel unfocused. Crucially, individual dishes can be selected from those menus à la carte style, which removes the all-or-nothing commitment of a fixed tasting format and makes Aroma more flexible than most Michelin-starred tables in this price tier. If you want to eat two or three dishes and let the view do the rest of the work, you can do that here. That flexibility is rare at this level and makes Aroma a more practical choice for mixed groups or guests who find a seven-course format a hard sell.
The editorial angle worth understanding before you book is how Di Iorio's sourcing shapes what ends up on the plate. The Roman-Campanian axis that runs through the menu is not a branding exercise: it reflects an approach grounded in specific regional produce. Classic Roman dishes appear alongside Campanian-influenced preparations and more freely creative options, and the tasting menu structure is designed to show that range in sequence. At €€€€ price positioning, you are paying for produce sourced with intention, not for volume or novelty. That trade-off is the right one if the quality of the raw ingredients reads clearly in the finished dish, which is the question that a single visit answers and a written portrait cannot.
For context within Italy's broader fine dining picture, Aroma holds one Michelin star as of 2024. That places it in the same tier as a wide range of serious Italian tables, from Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico to Dal Pescatore in Runate, but it is a different kind of restaurant from both. The Colosseum view is a differentiator that no amount of cooking technique replicates, and Aroma's positioning leans into that honestly. If you want to understand where Rome's leading end sits relative to Italy's most decorated kitchens, Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, Le Calandre in Rubano, and Osteria Francescana in Modena are the reference points worth knowing.
Within Rome itself, the comparison set includes La Pergola at the three-star level, and at the one-star tier, Acquolina, Storie d'Amore, /gu.stà.re/ oltrecucina, and Il Ristorante Alain Ducasse Roma all compete for the same occasion-dinner budget. Aroma's differentiator in that group is explicit: no other restaurant in the set gives you the Colosseum at eye level while you eat. Whether that warrants the price premium over a technically sharper kitchen elsewhere depends entirely on what you are celebrating and who you are bringing.
Google reviewers rate Aroma at 4.1 across 1,396 reviews, which is a reasonable signal for a restaurant at this price point. A 4.1 at €€€€ with significant volume suggests the experience lands consistently, even if it does not generate the uniform enthusiasm of a smaller room with tighter control. The view attracts a tourist audience as well as serious diners, and that mixed room means the energy can vary. If you want the quietest, most focused experience, lunch on a Wednesday or Thursday is likely to be calmer than a Saturday dinner in peak summer.
Aroma operates Tuesday evenings only for dinner on Mondays, then lunch and dinner Wednesday through Sunday. Monday is dinner-only (7 PM to 11 PM). The kitchen opens for lunch at 12:30 PM on Wednesday through Sunday. Booking difficulty is rated Hard: secure a table at least three to four weeks out for a weekday dinner, and further ahead for weekend bookings during spring and autumn when Rome's restaurant scene is at full pressure. The terrace is covered and usable in winter, so there is no off-season advantage that makes the room easier to book.
Dress expectations at a Michelin-starred hotel restaurant in Rome lean formal-smart. No dress code is confirmed in available data, but arriving in anything less than smart casual risks standing out in the wrong direction at a table of this calibre.
For a complete picture of where to eat, drink, and stay in Rome, see our full Rome restaurants guide, our full Rome hotels guide, our full Rome bars guide, our full Rome wineries guide, and our full Rome experiences guide. For global reference points in modern cuisine at a similar or higher level, Enrico Bartolini in Milan, Frantzén in Stockholm, and FZN by Björn Frantzén in Dubai provide useful calibration.
Quick reference: Michelin 1 Star (2024) | €€€€ | Via Labicana 125, Rome | Lunch Wed–Sun 12:30–3 PM, Dinner Mon–Sun 7–11 PM | Booking: Hard, 3–4 weeks minimum.
See the comparison section below.
Dinner is the occasion booking, but lunch is the smarter choice if budget or crowd size matters to you. The Colosseum view reads differently in daylight — sharper, less dramatic than at dusk, but arguably more photogenic. Lunch is available Wednesday through Sunday from 12:30 PM, and the room tends to be quieter than a Friday or Saturday dinner service. If this is a once-only visit and the full experience is the point, book dinner and arrive for the terrace before the sun drops completely.
The format is flexible: four tasting menus including a vegetarian option, but individual dishes can be chosen from them à la carte style. You are not locked into a full sequence. The setting — rooftop terrace above the Colosseum at Via Labicana 125 , is the defining feature, and the terrace is covered in winter so it operates year-round. At €€€€ in Rome, expect to pay at the upper end of the city's starred dining range. One Michelin star as of 2024 confirms the cooking is taken seriously, but this is not a purely kitchen-driven restaurant: the location is doing significant work alongside the food.
At €€€€ pricing with a Michelin star, the tasting menus are priced in line with Rome's top tier, but the à la carte-from-the-menu option gives you a genuine alternative. If you want to eat two or three dishes and spend the rest of the evening on the view, Aroma allows that in a way most starred kitchens do not. The four-menu structure, including a vegetarian path, means the kitchen is covering real range rather than a single fixed progression. Whether the tasting sequence justifies full commitment depends on how much the cooking matters relative to the setting for your table, and that is an honest question to ask before you order.
For cooking that takes priority over setting, Il Pagliaccio and Idylio by Apreda are the cleaner choices at the same €€€€ tier. Enoteca La Torre offers creative cooking in a similarly high-end format. Orma Roma brings a fusion angle if the Roman-Italian framework is not what you are looking for. If budget has some flexibility downward, La Palta at €€€ is worth knowing as a country cooking reference point outside the city. For the definitive Rome splurge with a three-star kitchen, La Pergola sits above everything else in the city.
Yes, with a clear caveat. The Colosseum-facing rooftop terrace is among the most visually arresting dining rooms in Europe, and the year-round covered terrace means you are not gambling on weather. The one Michelin star and the flexible menu format make this a credible special-occasion booking rather than a pure scenery play. The caveat: at €€€€ with a 4.1 Google rating across a large review pool, the experience is strong but not flawless. If the occasion demands the most technically precise cooking in Rome regardless of setting, La Pergola is the more defensible choice. If the setting, the cooking, and the occasion all need to work together in one room, Aroma is the right answer.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aroma | Modern Cuisine | From the ground floor, the lift at this restaurant takes guests up to one of the most charming roof-gardens in Rome, where a terrace (covered in winter so that it can stay open throughout the year) boasts views of the Colosseum directly ahead of you, with the Domus Aurea to your right and a glimpse of the Victor Emmanuel II monument in the distance. Chef Giuseppe Di Iorio’s cuisine features classic Roman dishes, hints of Campania and more creative options, all showcased on four tasting menus (including one vegetarian), from which individual dishes can be chosen à la carte style.; Michelin 1 Star (2024) | Hard | — |
| Enoteca La Torre | Creative | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
| Il Pagliaccio | Contemporary Italian, Creative | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
| Idylio by Apreda | Modern Italian, Italian Contemporary | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| La Palta | Country cooking | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| Orma Roma | Fusion | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
What to weigh when choosing between Aroma and alternatives.
Dinner gets the Colosseum lit up, which changes the setting considerably — it's the format to book if the view is part of your reason for coming. Lunch runs Wednesday through Sunday (12:30 PM to 3 PM) and is harder to secure than an evening slot on weekdays, making it a solid option if your evenings are already committed. Both services run the same four tasting menus, so the food case is equal either way.
The lift from the ground floor inside Palazzo Manfredi (Via Labicana, 125) takes you up to a covered rooftop terrace — open year-round — with direct Colosseum views ahead and the Domus Aurea to the right. Chef Giuseppe Di Iorio's menus run classic Roman dishes alongside Campania influences and more creative options, including a vegetarian tasting menu. Monday is dinner-only; all other days offer both lunch and dinner. At €€€€, this is a planned, occasion-driven meal, not a spontaneous one.
Yes, if the setting is part of the calculation. Aroma holds a Michelin star (2024) and runs four tasting menus — including a vegetarian option — from which individual dishes can be ordered à la carte style, which reduces the all-or-nothing commitment of a fixed menu. The €€€€ price range is on par with Rome's other starred restaurants, but few combine that tier of cooking with a direct Colosseum view. If you want the star without the setting, Il Pagliaccio or Idylio by Apreda offer comparable culinary ambition at a similar price point.
Il Pagliaccio (two Michelin stars) is the move if cooking precision matters more than setting. Idylio by Apreda, inside the Pantheon-adjacent Anantara hotel, offers a similarly theatrical room with strong tasting menu credentials. Enoteca La Torre brings a wine-forward approach to fine dining with its own Michelin recognition. Orma Roma skews more contemporary and ingredient-driven for guests who find Aroma's classic-Roman framing less relevant. If value per star is the priority, La Palta merits attention for its depth-to-price ratio.
It's one of the stronger cases in Rome for a milestone meal — a Michelin-starred kitchen, a rooftop terrace covered and heated in winter so it runs year-round, and a view of the Colosseum that's hard to argue with as a backdrop. The flexible tasting menu format (à la carte selection from four menus) accommodates mixed-preference groups better than a single fixed menu would. Book well in advance; the terrace is small and demand for the view tables is consistent.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
