Open Baladin

Fantastic little beer bar with an great tap list and low-key, artsy ambiance.

You're not really supposed to expect much from beer places in Rome, but I decided to seek out a decent beer bar because I was curious and I wanted to bring back some interesting beer for the Friday bottle share at work.

This place delivered on all of that. It's basically the bar for the brewery of the same name, but they have a few in big cities. The brewery itself is in Piozzo closer to Milan and Turin. The tap list was mostly their stuff, but also a few decent guest taps including some impressive things, e.g., Cantillon. My favorite beer was the Xiaoyu fume, which was a smoky, scotch-barrel-aged barleywine and it was fantastic, different and interesting.

The space itself is low-key and artsy with chalkboard art everywhere and a dimly-lit, wood-forward space that makes it feel like a bit of dive, but still cozy and on-brand. They also had some non-alcoholic ciders that some people got and the potato chips were good and clearly a bit thicker cut and likely homemade.

They had a little bottle shop where you could buy a lot of their stuff as well, so I was able to bring home a bottle of the Xiaoyu Fume to share with people.

The only downside was that the service was a bit inattentive. That was fine because almost nobody else was there and I was able to just get up and talk to our server standing by the register and get what I wanted.

Great selections of craft beer in the heart of Rome! They offer a large selection of drafts- I enjoyed the sour. A nice place where you can just enjoy a brew, but they also offer plenty of food options! At lunch time in June, it was relatively empty.
However, as of November they are temporarily closed.

Craft beer from Italy, in a land where wine is water, this place is a good change up. Upon entering the brewery/pub, you see the amazing wall of bottled beers. I work in an Italian restaurant that serves their beer, so I'm excited to try it on draft.

Naztionale is one of their most popular beer and I enjoyed it. Their food menu is very "American" style including cheese burgers, hot dogs, etc. Unless you're really craving that, I would honestly skip it and just have their beer. Not 5 stars because I thought the service was a bit indifferent, I was all excited about getting some swag to bring back to the states and the floor manager was very cold and did not seem to want to help me get different sizes of shirts, etc. I just ended up with a beer glass since it was on the counter. Maybe I caught him on a bad day.

Fun place in Rome - a change from wine. Huge beer selection. Great food selection. Fun atmosphere.

The beers here were excellent, and there was a lively atmosphere both times I visited. On my second visit, I sat at the bar and it took about 15-20 minutes to get someone's attention to order a beer. The servers served everyone else around me and it seemed like they ignored my gaze on purpose.

I didn't take it personally, but it made me not want to stay long. The IPAs are surprisingly good here, so check them out for some good Roman brew!

Barley Wine - 5 stars!
Beer - 4 stars.
Food - 3 stars.

The barley wine makes up for the food. Open Baladin brews a variety of beers as well as barley wines. The beers are decent (nothing to write home about) but the barrel-aged barley wines are EXCELLENT! I highly recommend trying the flight of barrel-aged barley wines in which you choose 4 of their BA barley wines for about 20 euros. Prior to ordering the flight, ask to see the booklet of barley wines they have to offer.

The food was disappointing. The burgers looked great on the menu, but unfortunately I received a burger that was hardly cooked (despite telling the waiter I preferred a burger medium to well done). Further, burgers were not cheap (about 12 euros) which does not come with any sides. If you opt to get food, they have decent chips with various seasonings and dipping sauces that you can order with your drinks.

I suggest saving your money on the food and spending it on the barley wine! These barley wines also make great gifts to bring back home (I brought a 2015 XYAUYU Kentucky Reserve back to the states). Cheers!

Honestly, if you order a burger, preferably the one with bacon and roasted pepper, and the Sidro, it's impossible to not be impressed - and an ABSOLUTE five stars.

The other food was good - but the burger was far superior. Only one of our group of six ordered it because we are American tourists and were trying to be more Italian, but every single one of us is still dreaming about that burger.

Every beer we tried was excellent but Sidro was the favorite (an Italian Cider - not too sweet).

Great air conditioning spot for R&R in the middle of a hot Roman day and service was excellent. This was an unexpected treasure.

On our way back to our hotel we decided to check out Open Baladin for a beer or 2. We had just ate so we didn't have any food. It wasn't very busy so we had our pick of tables.

They have a lot of beers (theirs and guest taps) to choose from, which is nice. They're all separated by style. My husband and I both had an IPA. It was good, but not great. Next I had a sour beer by Tilquin. It was delicious as always.

It was so nice to stop in to a place that somewhat reminded us of a brewpub in the states. We enjoyed visiting and would stop in again!

I didn't think it would happen, but after traveling in Italy for three weeks I grew a bit tired of pasta, pizza, and wine. Sacrilege, I know. Enter Open Baladin, the epicenter of Roma's craft beer scene, or birra artigianale as they would say in the Eternal City.

Open Baladin has an entire wall and tome of beers from around the world, which made my husband and I very happy (and just a little tipsy.) The food is elevated pub fare, with burgers galore and ultra gourmet chips with fascinating flavors. My husband ordered the licorice ones which I can't say I enjoyed, but their classic ones were perfectly salted and a great match for the beer. I opted for a tartare with beef from Piedmont, which was so decadent and the beef as tender as could be. Gabrielle Bonci, one of Rome's most celebrated chefs is the kitchen manager here, so you know all food is bound to be good.

Very friendly and hip place putting Italian beers on the map.

Would definitely recommend this little gem to anyone wanting to sit and enjoy some beers while in Rome. It's located in a non-descript street that had us second guessing our directions.

Came one night for drinks. I had the Elixir, a delicious beer blended with whiskey. Decided to come back to try there vegetarian meal selections. The falafel sandwich was very tasty, a friend had the veggie burger (also good), the white chips were delicious. The home fries were ok, the BBQ sauce has fish in it so if you're vegetarian, stay away.

Reservations are good but not entirely necessary. Overall, a fun place with great beers.