Review: Plaza Premium First Lounge Rome (FCO)

This is the TFM Plaza Premium First Lounge Rome review.

Plaza Premium is a lounge brand that has been around since the late 1990s and it offers over 135 lounges in over 30 countries, so this is a brand that’s quite well known.

That being said, most travellers, including a lot of frequent flyers, probably haven’t come across a Plaza Premium First Lounge, and that’s understandable because, at the time of writing, there are only 10 such lounges in the world.

Bangkok, Dallas-Fort Worth, Hong Kong (x2), Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Macau, Phnom Penh, Rome, and Vancouver are where these lounges can be found with this lounge in Rome only opening in December 2025.

So, what’s the difference between Plaza Premium and Plaza Premium First?

Well, the Plaza Premium First Lounges are designed to be a cut above the other lounges that Plaza Premium offers with better dining options, better décor, more personal service, and a quieter, more relaxed atmosphere (generally speaking) being the key differentiators.

Plaza Premium First Lounge Rome – Location

The lounge is located in the Schengen area of Terminal 1 at Rome Fiumicino Airport (the A gate area).

At the time of this visit, signage pointing the way to the lounge was quite hard to find, so I recommend following the signs for the Prima Vista Lounge and you’ll find the Plaza Premium First Lounge next door to that.

The path that I took (there is a second path as well) was via this door …

… which is in the area where the routes to the A1-27 and the A61-83 gates diverge.

The lounge is on a floor above the main concourse and you can access this floor via elevator or stairs at this entrance.

Plaza Premium First Lounge Rome – Access

There are various ways to access this lounge:

• Anyone can pay €70/person for 2-hour access*.
• If you have access to the regular Plaza Premium Lounge through a paid Priority Pass membership or a membership you enjoy courtesy of a credit card, you can pay a €32 fee to upgrade to this lounge*.
• Select airlines will send their elite members to this lounge (e.g. Oneworld Emerald flyers traveling with Iberia in any class get access with 1 guest).

A good thing to note at this point is how friendly and helpful I found the staff manning the check-in desks at this lounge.

On this trip I was traveling with Iberia but not on a boarding pass that showed my Oneworld Emerald elite status, so granting me entry wasn’t as simple as scanning my boarding pass and welcoming me in, and as far as I could tell, this was the first time the lounge staff had to deal with a situation where a person’s carrier + elite status grants them entry, but the information on the boarding pass doesn’t.

This didn’t deter them, however (I’ve never encountered lounge agents so determined to let me in!), and they found a way of scanning my boarding pass, then my Finnair Platinum Card (OW Emerald card), and then overriding the “computer says no” issue.

Genuinely, these guys were among the nicest lounge agents I have ever encountered and this was a very positive start to the visit.

*Infants under 2 years old are free. Children between the ages of 2 and 11 get 30% off.

The lounge

The whole lounge covers around 700 sqft/65sqm of indoor space and the first area of the lounge you’re likely to notice is to the right of the check-in desks. This is the “quiet area” which is completely sealed off from the rest of the lounge by a floor to ceiling glass wall and electric sliding doors.

You’re not allowed to bring food into the quiet area (there’s a small snack and water station at one end of this area) and, obviously, you’re not allowed to do anything in here which may disturb other guests, so this was instantly one of my favorite things about this lounge.

My love for this area grew significantly when another lounge guest felt it appropriate to walk around the other areas of the lounge while facetiming someone on speakerphone (I’m not a violent man, but I do think that some kind of physical punishment needs to be handed out to idiots like this).

Moving slightly further into the lounge you’ll pass a counter with complimentary snacks and pre-poured non-alcoholic cocktails.

On this visit the drinks were:

• C Booster Sunrise (orange, grapefruit, pineapple, ginger, chia seeds, and grenadine)
• Rasp Plaza (raspberry, thyme, cranberries, and tonic water)
• Aloe Whisper (white tea, aloe vera, cucumber, coconut water, lime, and mint)

As soon as you’re past this counter, you’re into the main body of the lounge where you’ll find seating areas (for relaxing/working), areas for dining, and a manned bar.

Most seats in the relaxation/work areas of the lounge have good access to power outlets with 2-pin European style outlets for AC power as well as USB-A and USB-C ports.

As importantly, the large windows on both sides of the central lounge area let in a lot of natural light, so that, combined with the fact that the lounge hasn’t been filled with furniture, gives the space a bright, airy and comfortable feel.

At this point I should point out that there are two dining areas in this lounge.

One you can see above and is for people dining from the complimentary buffet and the all day dining à la carte menu, and the other is a premium dining area with a different à la carte menu with pricing.

I’ll discuss the dining options in a little more detail in the next section.

Elsewhere in the lounge, there’s a small outdoor terrace (which was closed during this visit), a family room, a nursing room, a gaming room and, apparently, a VIP room which I didn’t see.

The lounge also has a single shower room which looks nice and will be big enough for most people’s needs. I didn’t manage to get a picture of it as when I saw it, it had just been used and I didn’t have time to wait for it to be tidied up – I had a flight to catch.

Plaza Premium First Lounge Dining

The buffet and all day dining à la carte menu

Included within every guest’s visit is a small buffet and food from a small à la carte menu.

On this visit, the buffet included the following hot items:

• Turkey breast
• Calamari slices with peas and mint
• Supplì al telefono (crispy, deep-fried rice croquettes mixed with rich tomato meat sauce and a molten mozzarella center)
• Cacio e pepe supplì (croquettes stuffed with a creamy blend of arborio or carnaroli rice, grated Pecorino Romano cheese, and freshly ground black pepper)

While the chilled items included:

• Vegetarian Quiche
• Savoury Maritozzi bun with Pecorino cream and honey
• Savoury muffin with olives, zucchini & béchamel
• Bomboloni (soft fried doughnuts filled with pastry cream, jam, or chocolate)
• Sfogliatella (Italian pastry from the Campania region with a crisp, layered texture)
• Banana bread
• Glazed chocolate muffins
• Blueberry muffins
• Mini Fruit plates
• Milk cream with tonka bean, star anise, pistachio and red currant
• Citrus infused Babà (a small, individual yeast cake saturated in syrup infused with rum) with lemon chantilly cream

If there were any salad options, I didn’t see them.

The all day dining menu (on offer between 11:00 and 21:00) included the following:

• Oriental Dim Sum – steamed dumplings filled with chicken and vegetables, served with beetroot-marinated soy, sesame, and honey.
• Rustic sun with cherry tomatoes – Ricotta and spinach ravioli with cherry tomatoes and a balsamic vinegar glaze.
• Bangkok Breeze – Thai-style jasmine rice with vegetables, shrimp, and coconut milk.
• Signature pizzas – from the classic Margherita to the spicy Calabrese and creamy zucchini and stracciatella.
• Sweet Finale – a rotating selection of desserts prepared by the pastry chef.

The buffet looked ok, but had that been all that was on offer (food-wise) €70/person would look very steep as an entry fee.

Fortunately, the all day menu added more color and variation to the lounge’s complimentary food selection and while I wasn’t at all hungry on this visit, I did try one of the pizzas (with a glass of wine) and it was very good.

Premium dining

If you choose to go for the premium dining option, you get a dedicated area in which to sit and you get access to a different (paid) à la carte dining menu. On the day of this visit, this was what was on offer.

Appetisers

• Venetian Whispers – savory cream puff with anchovies, potato and saffron velouté, and balsamic pearls – €8
• Golden Silence – confit egg with parmesan foam, black truffle, and orange zest – €10

First courses

• Wild Serenity – Cavatelli (a traditional, rustic Southern Italian pasta shaped like a closed shell) with duck ragù and fresh sage – €14
• Roman Elegance – Tonnarelli (a traditional Roman egg pasta similar to spaghetti) “cacio e pepe bianco” with chestnut honey – €12

Main courses

• Nordic Glow – citrus-glazed salmon with spring onion foam and blueberry crumble – €16
• Tuscan Reverie – veal cheek braised in Morellino di Scansano (Italian red wine) and chocolate, with buttery fondant potato – €18

Desserts

• Espresso Kiss – soft mascarpone mousse, served over a roasted coffee bean reduction and a scoop of zabaione cream homemade ice cream – €6
• Exotic Passion – passion fruit bavarois, coconut dacquoise, mango coulis, white chocolate crunchy glaze – €6

In this lounge, some wine and beers are complimentary, but a lot are not and it’s not always obvious which are and which are not included in whatever you paid to enter because all the alcoholic drinks are served by the lounge’s bar staff. It’s always best to check with the staff before you order if you want to avoid a surprise.

At the time of this visit, these were the price ranges for the non-complimentary standard wines (pricing is by the bottle):

• Whites: €25 – €60
• Reds: €30 – €125
• Sparkling/Champagne: €28 – €110 (Laurent-Perrier Rosé is the most expensive)

There’s also a separate wine list of more premium wines (which, obviously, you also have to pay for) and at the time of this visit, this included these options (prices by the bottle):

• Barolo Scavino 2021 DOCG (Piedmont, Italy) – €62
• Amarone Masi Costasera 2020 DOCG (Veneto, Italy) – €65
• San Giovenale Habemus 2022 IGT (Lazio, Italy) – €85
• Chassagne Montrachet Morgeot Premier Cru Louis Latour 2021 (France) – €125

Based on the prices I’ve seen for these wines online, this looks to be surprisingly good pricing, so this lounge isn’t adopting restaurant-style markups (the average markup appears to be no more than €10).

Better yet and something else that isn’t obvious is that some of the wines on the menu are actually available by the glass and not just by the bottle and this applies to the more premium wines as well (the lounge uses the Coravin system to keep the wines fresh).

Again, prices aren’t displayed so you’ll have to ask if you want to find out, but the prices aren’t ridiculous – I tried the Habemus (which was a very good blend of tempranillo and two other grape varieties), and a glass of that (at a guess, it was a 150ml pour) cost €15.

In summary

I really like this lounge. Possibly not enough to pay €70 per person for it, but if I was traveling with Joanna and we didn’t have complimentary entry courtesy of the airline we were flying and our airline status, I would consider paying to upgrade from the regular Plaza Premium Lounge (€32/person).

The complimentary food and drinks on offer are better than what you’ll find in a lot of European airline Business Class lounges (the buffet is average but the à la carte options save the day), and the premium food and wines appear to cost less than what you’d pay for worse in the airport terminal. That’s a good start, but that’s not what I’d be paying for.

Aside from the one idiot who thought it was appropriate to use his speakerphone to video chat with some female in front of whom he was clearly preening (lounge staff everywhere need to be told to put and end to this), the lounge was calm, peaceful and tranquil, and that’s the sort of environment I like to be in before spending countless hours on an aircraft.

There were no kids running around, no babies were crying, no one was talking loudly on their phone (and you have the quiet zone to escape to if they are), there were no drunk businessmen making a nuisance of themselves, and there wasn’t a never ending series of flight announcements either.

To all of that add the great staff (at the check-in desks and inside the lounge) and you have a pretty good formula for an airport lounge. Not a formula worth €70/person, but one that’s worth the upgrade fee.