Description: When in Rome, you would think of traditional places to eat serving pizza, pasta etc. However, there is only so much of this you can eat and seeing as I had never been to a Hard Rock Café before, we decided to go here for lunch one day.

The Hard Rock Café, Rome is located on Via Vittorio Veneto. This can be reached from the Barberini metro stop. When you leave the metro station, instead of heading south towards the Trevi Fountain, head north and it is only a short 5 minute walk away. The streets leading up to the Hard Rock Café have flags and signs all over so there will be no getting lost to worry about. This was actually one of the easiest things to find in Rome and we didn’t even need to use a map.

Before we got there, I didn’t really know what to expect. The restaurant wasn’t very impressive looking from the outside but inside was a whole other story. When we arrived, we were told that there was a 40 minute wait for a table and were given a pager to let us know when ours was ready. I really liked the way that this was done as it meant you could either head outside the restaurant and sit in the sun or go and get a drink at the bar and it meant that the entrance area wasn’t clogged up with people. We decided to head to the bar and get a nice cold drink as it was seriously hot outside. Being served by an American man was slightly confusing but then I realised that the staff here was a mix of American and Italian which was quite nice. I had a coke, which I was told had free refills if I ordered food later, and my boyfriend had a beer. These came to around €12 which I didn’t think was bad considering I was going to get free refills on mine.

It only took about 20 minutes for us to be seated so it was nice to not have to wait as long as we had expected to. The restaurant was extremely busy at the time we got there but I could see it was slowly clearing out due to it being about 2pm instead of bang on lunchtime. After being seated, we were given menus and asked if we wanted more drinks. We were given a good 10 minutes to look over the menu before being asked if we were ready to order – which we weren’t. The menu has so much to choose from that I just couldn’t decide what I wanted. The menu offers classics like burgers and fries, steaks and chicken but also salads and pasta. In the end, I opted for a cheeseburger while my boyfriend had a chicken burger.

While we were waiting for our food, I had a chance to look around the restaurant. The whole time, music was playing and televisions were showing live performances from over the years. Covering the walls was memorabilia from singers and bands which I found so interesting. On the wall behind us was an outfit worn by Elton John. The atmosphere in this Hard Rock Café was fantastic and although there was music playing, it only enhanced my experience here. I didn’t find the music too loud or annoying and it didn’t put me off from having a good time.

I couldn’t wait to tuck into my food once it had been brought to our table. The fries looked extremely hot and fresh while the burger was mouth-watering. The burger was huge though so I had to cut it in half and cut into it rather than just eat it normally. The burger was lightly seasoned with salt and pepper which gave it a better taste than any other burger and with three slices of cheese on top, it was delicious. The burger was cooked to absolute perfection with it not being overcooked or too dry. It was slightly moist on the inside while a bit crispier on the top and bottom. This really was one of the best burgers I have ever had and to be honest, I was expecting it to be quite bland and average. My boyfriend really enjoyed his meal too although after trying mine, he wished he had the same as me.

Hard Rock Café, Rome also has a gift shop selling a variety of Hard Rock Café souvenirs and memorabilia. As cheesy as it is, I did buy a t-shirt while I was here. This cost €27 but I did buy a men’s t-shirt as I wanted it to sleep in. The ladies t-shirts are slightly less expensive. Other items on sale are things like keyrings, hats, sweat pants. Hard Rock Café also has a collection of pins available, some being limited edition so the prices of these vary depending on what you choose. I don’t think I would have bought anything other than a t-shirt but now I can’t wait to go to another branch and get another one.

For both of our meals, my refillable coke and 2 bottles of beer, the bill came to just over €30 which I thought was extremely reasonable. The food was piping hot when it arrived and tasted great. The portions were also quite large so I don’t feel as though we over paid for anything. The bottles of beer did cost quite a bit more than my coke though so refillable soft drinks are definitely the way to go if you ever go to a Hard Rock Café. I really enjoyed going to this restaurant and would definitely go to another one in other cities. Although it’s not a typical Italian restaurant, it is still worth visiting.

Address:
Hard Rock Cafe Rome
Via Vittorio Veneto 62 a/b
Rome 00187, Italy

Hours:
Restaurant:
Sun - Thurs 12:00PM - 12:00AM
Fri - Sat 12:00PM - 1:00AM
Bar:
Sun - Thurs 12:00PM - 1:30AM
Fri - Sat 12:00PM - 2:00AM
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