What to Eat in Vatican City in 2026: The Best Food and Drink

The Vatican has no restaurants of its own beyond the canteen for employees, but the food geography immediately surrounding it is specifically Roman and specifically good. The Prati neighbourhood between the Vatican and the Castel Sant'Angelo is where the neighbourhood restaurants for Vatican workers and residents eat: cacio e pepe (pasta with pecorino and black pepper), coda alla vaccinara (oxtail braised in tomato and celery), and the Roman Jewish kitchen that runs through the city's restaurant culture in suppli (fried rice balls), carciofi alla giudia (deep-fried artichokes), and fiori di zucca fritti (fried courgette flowers stuffed with anchovy and mozzarella). The bars near the Vatican serve a Roman espresso that is the daily baseline for a city that drinks coffee with the seriousness of a second religion. Frascati and Castelli Romani white wines, from the hills south of Rome, are the local table wines. That's where it gets good.