The Smartest Way to Eat Well- Student Menus

Now that I've been in Rome for over 2 months, I am starting to feel as most study abroad students feel at this time... broke.  Despite this, I am still determined to eat well.  To save some money I tried staying in a lot and cooking my own meals.  It was fun for a while and I tried some new inventive dishes, but one of my favorite things to do is go to dinner with friends and relax with a nice glass of wine. That's when one of my friends suggested that we start taking advantage of the student menus at local restaurants.  Until now, I haven't paid much attention to the student/tourist menus and usually just ordered exactly what I wanted.  However, I discovered that at many good restaurants you can get an appetizer, pasta, dessert, and glass of wine for only 10 euros!!  Some restaurants close to our apartments in Trastevere that offer student specials are Le Fate and Buchetto!  One of my favorite student special menus is at Le Fate!  Every day of the week they offer a fixed student special menu, which includes a type of bruschetta, type of pasta (some usual choices are penne arrabbiata, rigatoni cacio e pepe, and a pesto pasta), a dessert (the tiramisu and ice cream are both really good), and a glass of their house wine!  Although the menu is set for the day and you are not able to choose exactly what you want to eat, I have never had a bad meal there!  The food has always been amazing and the student menu even forced me to try rigatoni cacio e pepe, which has become one of my favorite types of pasta!  So for any students studying abroad in Rome I would highly suggest these student menus.  What you give up in lack of choice, you definitely get back in the amount of money you save!  For example, bruschetta on the original Le Fate menu was around 4 euros and pasta was around 9 euros, meaning that if you just ordered these two on the normal menu you'd have to pay 13 euros.  Students get both of these plus wine and a dessert for 3 euros less!  Moral of the story- the smartest way to eat well is to take advantage of the student menus in Rome!

Interior of Le Fate

Review of Le Fate on Trip Advisor