The Italian Riviera Restaurants
We’ve compiled the best of the best in The Italian Riviera - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in The Italian Riviera - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
This enoteca and antipasto bar is popular with locals and tourists looking for typical regional dishes, fresh fish, and a lengthy wine list. The owner designed the entire place, right down to the tables and chairs made from anchors and old boats. They also offer terrific sandwiches to go.
Find some of the best food in Portovenere at this airy, affordable, and casual portside restaurant. The menu is typical "Ligure," ranging from meat to pasta with seafood, and also offers farinata, focaccia, and pizza. The turquoise and white decor and benches with pillows for lounging create a playful, relaxing atmosphere.
Perched amid the clustered old houses in seaside Tellaro, 4 km (2½ miles) southeast of Lerici, this small, unpretentious family-run restaurant with wooden tables and plenty of windows has become a foodie destination. The imaginative seafood-focused menu changes often, and the pretty building also houses a small inn with seven charming and comfortable rooms.
Although the walls of Fausto Oneto’s restaurant are covered in original cartoons, and a playground is the main feature of the outdoor seating area, this chef-owner is completely serious about his cooking, which follows the seasons. His own garden provides the freshest possible vegetables, the wine list (ask to visit the cantina) is excellent, and there are lively morning Ligurian cooking lessons. The restaurant is in the hills above Rapallo, a 20-minute drive northeast along the coast from Santa Margherita.
This lively beachfront restaurant, with views of the sea from its windows, has changed names and owners several times, but it continues to have some of the best and most inventive fish and seafood dishes in town, as well as a fantastic setting. The wine list is extensive and ventures well over the nearby French border, with select bottles.
You could easily become a homemade-pesto snob at this restored 5th-century olive oil mill-turned-chic restaurant in the historical center of Finalborgo. The high prices are justified by excellent seafood and meat dishes as well as the pampering setting of clean white, arched and vaulted rooms that foster an air of space and tranquility. The five-course tasting menu is a great way to sample the dishes on offer.
In the local dialect, bontà nascoste means "hidden goodness," a reference to its back-alleyway location and consistently delicious dishes, which include fresh pasta, local fish, and a handful of meat choices. There are only six tables (and a couple more outside in summer), so reserve ahead.
There's usually a crowd of locals congregated at this lively bar and restaurant, often accompanied by their dogs and children. In the morning, tasty brioches start off the festivities and segue neatly into lunch. Alongside the usual range of beers and wines, the bar serves panini made to order and some toothsome pastries, while the restaurant menu has meat and seafood options as well as salads and pizzas.
As the name implies, this place is largely a burger joint. The toppings, however, are not (cheese in this case often means Gorgonzola and burrata). The exceptional antipasti—fried meatballs with cheddar, anyone?—nicely kick off the proceedings. Delicious salads can also be found, as can a fine eggplant parmigiana. Do not miss the desserts—they’re stellar.
If the staggering prices at virtually all of Portofino's cafés and restaurants are enough to ruin your appetite, join the long line outside this family-run bakery where you will find affordable and delicious eats worth waiting for. At this takeaway spot, the focaccia is baked on-site and served fresh, along with all kinds of sandwiches and other refreshments.
The Ballerini family runs a handful of eateries in Sestri Levante, and this cozy former cantina with wood paneling, a fireplace, local maritime memorabilia, and red-checkered tablecloths serves some of the best dishes in town. Using the bounty of the two bays that frame the village, they create inventive tasting menus and standout mains, which, in addition to expertly seasoned fish, include homemade pastas and gnocchi. The wine list is primarily Ligurian.
For a truly Genovese experience, this unassuming restaurant, located in the basement of an old palazzo in the heart of the centro storico between Strada Nuova and the port, is just the place. You'll find some of the best, most authentic food in the city, with a focus on fish, meat dishes (including rabbit), and, of course, pesto.
It bills itself as a pizzeria, focacceria (endemic in these parts), and an insalateria. The pizzas are magnificent, as are their first cousins the focaccia. But if you tire of this, their salads are worth a trip in themselves. Portions are copious here. Enter hungry, exit rejoicing while perhaps believing that you ate in what once was a medieval bank (it probably was).
Imagine having a swell glass of wine (their list is beyond foolproof) in a narrow, highly vaulted hall. The space may date to the 16th century, but some experts would argue it’s earlier. No matter. Their plates of affettati misti (mixed cold cuts with trimmings) are divine. As are their lunches.
There's a steady crowd of regulars at this modern and homey lunch spot and dry goods store on a typical vicolo. The reasonably priced, good-value daily menu follows the seasons, with generous portions of fish and pasta, sandwiches, vegetables, and homemade desserts.
This cozy bistro-style restaurant is popular with locals and visitors alike for its refined, almost elegant menu of primarily seafood dishes, with a few pastas and meats. The decor is Art Nouveau with exposed brick walls and small, square tables.
Located in a former olive-oil mill (the enormous wood grinder still sits in the middle of the dining room), this is a no-frills but fine-food restaurant serving excellent antipasti al mare and homemade pasta dishes. You can eat very well for a bit less than at most of the touristy spots in town.
At this bright and friendly trattoria with a maritime theme, you can dine on some of the city's best pesto and Ligurian dishes in a casual, comfortable setting. The staff are knowledgeable about the region's specialties and the wines on the always interesting menu, and even if you don't order a pesto dish, they'll bring you some to sample before your meal. Fried sardines, a local catch of the day, and seasonal torte (savory Ligurian pies) are menu staples.
There's a warm and welcoming atmosphere at this osteria near Brignole station. Despite the young, enthusiastic staff, it has a reassuringly old-fashioned character, with a setting of chandeliers, bare brick walls, and shelves of wine bottles. The meat-favoring menu features some novelties among the genovese favorites, including pansotti (fresh pasta) with a walnut sauce, reindeer stew, and prawns with cognac and orange. You can sample these and other dishes on the four-course tasting menu (€38), and check out the board of daily specials.
Just a few steps from Porta Soprana and the Childhood Home of Christopher Columbus, this place makes a handy stop for a snack and a sightseeing pause. On street-level is a straightforward café (with some seating upstairs, too) offering sandwiches, pastries, and ice creams, while in the basement (accessed by a separate door) you'll find a cavernous hall where succulent hamburgers and other hot snacks are the main draw. Only the best local beef is used in the burgers, and there's a great selection of craft beers, too. It's always busy, and you may have to wait to put your order in, but the results make it time well spent. There's a second branch at Piazza della Vittoria 36r.
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