La Locanda Gesù Vecchio

This is a pasta trattoria, and two dishes are the reason to come:

• Pasta e patate con provola: mixed pasta cooked with potatoes until creamy, finished with smoked provola and grated parmesan. Michelin and Gambero Rosso both name it.
• Ziti alla genovese: ziti dressed in the slow onion-and-beef sauce that has nothing to do with Genoa.

Pasta e patate is a poor dish turned cult order. Gambero Rosso's description of the classic method: a base of carrot, celery and onion, diced potatoes, broth, a few cherry tomatoes, mixed pasta shapes and provola, then a rest off the heat until it is thick enough to eat with a fork. If the version in front of you is soupy, it has not rested.

Around them, Gambero Rosso lists mozzarella in carrozza (fried in bread), bean and escarole soup, eggs in purgatory and salt cod in a casserole. Michelin adds crisp fried baccalà on escarole cream and a lemon caprese cake with house limoncello. There are plenty of choices for vegetarians and for coeliacs.

The trattoria does not publish its menu or prices online, and no review we could read in 2026 printed a price list, so we will not guess one. What we can say: Michelin places it in its lowest price category (one euro symbol), and a Bib Gourmand means Michelin judged the cooking good value. Craft beers and wine by the bottle are on the list. Expect a trattoria bill, not a restaurant bill, and ask for the day's specials.

Phone +39 081 461 3928. Michelin notes that the trattoria handles its own bookings and that a booking and punctuality are essential. At dinner, choose the 7 p.m. seating if you are tired and hungry after sightseeing, or the 9:30 p.m. seating to eat at a Neapolitan hour. You may be seated at number 26 or at number 4; Michelin describes the two as one trattoria in character.

If you cannot get a table, Tandem's first branch is on the same street at number 51, and serves pasta with ragù and genovese without the booking fuss.

The trattoria is close to Santa Chiara, Gesù Nuovo and Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, which makes it an easy lunch on the decumani walk.