Puglia Restaurant List -- comments?
 

Here are some of our restaurant picks for our week in Puglia in late June. Clearly, we can't eat at dinner at all these places, but will hopefully hit some for lunch, too.

f anyone wants to comment, or if anyone thinks super-advanced reservations are necessary, please do!

Cucina Casereccia (Lecce)

Fornello da Ricci (Ceglie Messapica)

Cibus (Ceglie Messapica)

Osteria Del Tempo Perso (Ostuni)

Il Frantoio (5 km north of Ostuni)

Ai Portici (Matina Franca)

IL RITROVO DEGLI AMICI (Martina Franca)


Ristorante Pizzeria Da Tonia (Cisternino)

Macelleria Demola Vincenzo and Arrosteria del Vicoletto,   (Martina Franca)


La Rotonda (Monopoli Area and Polignano a Mare area)

Da Tuccino Contrada Santa Caterina (Monopoli Area and Polignano a Mare area)

Emmanuele Rizzi (Matera)

Le Botteghe (Matera)

Il Terrazzino (Matera)

Masseria Barbera  


ANTICHI SAPORI   (Montegrosso)

Osteria Corteinfiore, (Trani)

Taverna Portanova (Trani)

Trattoria Da Miana (Trani)






Good list. I've been to many, but there is one particular restaurant that continues to elude me as they have been closed in September: Fornello da Ricci, outside Ceglie. That one is near the top of my own list and the reports I've read have been consistently good.

Il Frantoio outside Ostuni is a masseria hotel. I think they only do their famous multi-course meals on certain days depending on demand. So you need to inquire. I would not eat there if it is just an "ordinary" meal.

Rizzi in Matera is a food store with a room in back where you can taste his local cheeses and meats. It is on the tourist map and when I was there the entire place was filled with a group from Louisiana. I don't remember any cooked dishes, so you can conceivably buy a few cheeses and meats and try them on your own. I am not denigrating it in the least, but not sure that I would give up another meal in Matera to eat there.

You have to book weeks in advance for Antichi Sapori. Have your hotel do this; ask them when you book the room.

Hi Dina,
this is a good expensive list :D

Honestly, it's hard to have bad food in Puglia :)
You've list the biggest/famouses restaurants of my region, but it's simple to find small and delicious "osterie" in all the places you are. Is it right Ekscrunchy? :D

So, my advice is to ask to people on the streets where to have lunch.

Vito

Ciao Vito! Of course, you are correct about the osterie. There are so many restaurants that foreign tourists will never find because many of us go to the same "big name" restaurants. But you can help us find the lesser-known places! Did I tell you that I had an astoundingly good pasta con ricci di mare at Da Renzina in Savelletri, thanks to your recommendation of that restaurant?


I am planning my own trip for September and would love to hear your recommendations. I hope Dina will not mind if I ask you here if you have any ideas for great eating near these towns:

Lizzano (TA)

Ugento (LE)

Torre Canne (BR)

Many thanks, Vito!

Yes, thanks for the great advice.

I'm sure it would be great to start a "restaurant thread" for puglia....

would love to know about some of the "less famous" and also maybe less expensive :)
osterie!

Hi Ekscrunchy,
are you thinking to be an apulian? :D
I'm happy to listen that you visit Puglia every year and I'm proud to write some advices.

Another tip if you want...
A new, tipical and cool restaurant near Fasano is open: http://www.tripadvisor.it/Restaurant...si_Puglia.html really a nice place!

Near this restaurant there is also a little bar (I don't remember the name) with delicious "panzerotti" and a very nice location (an ancient small building with no roof on the top!)
http://tinyurl.com/6mgwpmn

And so...
Lizzano (or better Marina di Pulsano) and Torre Canne are small location really cool in summer and with a beautiful sea. This places could worth a visit only if you like the sand & the sea.
Ugento and Marina di Ugento are located in the bottom of Puglia, so you need hours of driving. This could be a problem in the summer-weekends.
Ugento is a small town with a few attractions to visit, but Marina di Ugento has a beautiful sea and lot of (expensive) accomodations.

Vito

<OFF TOPIC>
Ekscrunchy,
could I ask you an opinion? :)

I'm thinking to setup a small business, a different way to discover Puglia.
I'm considering to be a turist-guide like a "personal trainer", a new way to visit a place. I believe that the very plus-point of Puglia is the "way of life".
In your opinion and considering your experience could be a good business? There may be people willing to use this service, this strange kind of tourist-sitting?

Vito

P.S. I speak English and Spanish

Hi Dina
I have eaten at 2 of these places, Osteria Corteinfiore, (Trani) I had a very nice lunch. Very special and well presented. Trani is a fishing town and what was served was the Italian version of sushi. I liked it very much.
Il Frantoio (5 km north of Ostuni) is an "experience" I was on a bicycle tour and arranged through them. The proprietor is prone to theater in his presentation and it was schmaltzy in its own way but each course was more delicious than the next and it was all vegetables grown there. I would go back to both of these places in a snap.
Buono Appetito

Vito: I'm not sure I have any good advice for you, except to give you encouragement. If you do a search here, or online, for guide services in Tuscany, you will find hundreds. And on this forum, there are posters who do trip planning for others for a fee. They do not advertise here since it is against the policy on Fodor's, but they do advertise on SlowTrav.com. But even these trip planners appear to have limited or no experience in Puglia.

So I think, given the increasing interest in Puglia as a destination for English speaking tourists, that there would be a market for some kind of service that would provide a deeper look into life and culture than the average guided tour might offer. (Most of the people posting here who have taken tours to Puglia seem to have taken either biking or walking tours). Anything food/wine-related might be a start.

But beyond that general comment, I really do not have a good idea of how to proceed. Would you want to discuss a bit more about what exactly you had in mind? How could you develop a plan that would attract tourists to the area, and to your services? I think you ought to start a new thread about this so that more people might find it and join in....

thanks, ahotpoet!

vito -- we will be close to Torre Canne and LOVE the sand and sea. do you have a lunch or beach recommendation there?
thanks!

ttt

Dina I took another look at your list: La Rotonda is in Torre Canne.

I hope Vito will respond with more.

My sister stayed at Torre Maizza last fall and was gushing about a restaurant in Torre Canne that she got on a recommendation from a worker at Torre Maizza. I will ask her for the name, but I remember that it was not La Rotonda.

This Torre Canne restaurant was recommended to me by a staff member of the same hotel but we never had time to eat there:
http://www.ristoranteforcatella.it/




Also, if you like crudo/sushi, you could check out this place in Savelletri:


http://www.pescheria2mari.it/





Also:

http://www.borgosanmarco.it/files/Itinerari_eng.pdf

Hi Dina,
near Torre Canne there is the restaurant that I told above (Il Cortiletto).
Torre Canne out of summer could be boring, so the bests place to have some fun and food are Ostuni and Cisternino.
Also Ekscrunchy's advices are good (and experienced! :D). Savelletri and Forcatella are very small towns on the sea, with good food but no english-spoken ^__^

Vito

Ekscrunchy,
thank you for your interest :)
Maybe a standalone post only for my idea could be useful ... mmhmm...

Vito

Thanks all for this great thread on where to eat. It will come in handy as my planning progresses.

Vito: Is Il Cortilleto the one on the main road SS16 in Speziale?

Across from the Latteria/Caseificio Crovace?

Vito, we'll be there in late June -- so will love some sand and sea. And I have been learning Italian and would happy to practice it.

okay, that's great to know about LA ROTUNDA!

thanks so much. lots of great info here!

Yes Ekscrunhy,
Il Cortiletto is in "contrada Speziale" ;)

Vito

Thanks, Vito! I've passed there many times and wondered about that restaurant. After you recommended it, I looked it up online and was surprised to see that it is listed on TripAdvisor as the #1 in Fasano!

I should remind everyone here not to place too much faith in the TripAdvisor restaurant and hotel locations in this area. They seem to be confused between Brindisi city and Brindisi province, for example. And they list some restaurants along the coast near Torre Canne as being in Fasano and others as being in Torre Canne. Da Renzina is listed as being in Fasano but it should be under (Fasano di) Savelletri. Other restaurants on the Torre Canne coastal strip are listed under Ostuni.

Remember that there is Fasano (large town) and Savelletri di Fasano (seashore hamlet near Fasano), as well as Speziale di Fasano (rural hamlet outside Fasano) and so on.....double check all the locations on the TA site. I used to write to them to tell them when establishments were listed incorrectly but since they do not make the changes, I gave up.

Dina: This is the restaurant that my sister and her husband loved; on the coast south of Savelletri and near Torre Canne:





http://slowfoodaltosalento.it/

Thanks, eks and vito!
i've added both to my list!!

Now, Dina, don't forget that we need details of where you eat! I'll be following you on a return visit in September, so take extensive notes!!

Do you have the final itinerary yet? If so, can you post so we can dream?? (September feels like such a long way off right now)

i'm working on it.
The problem is i'm finding more restaurants instead of eliminating...

We start in Lecce -- we arrive by train around 2 and use that afternoon and evening to explore the city. Staying in PALAZZO PERSONNE.

Next day, we're going to have a big driving day, exploring the eastern Salento coast, having lunch, maybe see OTranto, maybe sit on a beach for a while, etc. Plan to end up that evening at LA RASCINA.

So with two nights at LA RASCINA, we have a full day and half to explore the nearby towns - Ostuni, Martina Franca, Cisterno, Locorotundo, Torre Canne, etc. They seem to be very close together.

After checking out of La Rascina, we will head to Matera for one night and stay in HOTEL L'PIETRA.

Then we will move on to LAMA DI LUNA for two nights. From there, we will visit Trani and (maybe) Castel del Monte.
Are there any nice beaches near Lama di Luna that you know of?

We then take the train from Bari to Rome. (or we may fly? not sure yet.)

It has been five years since I visited, but I remember vividly the antipasti in a restaurant directly below the Castel del Monte. It was full on a Thursday afternoon with Italian tourists, well I assumed they had travelled to visit the Castle as it exists in the most splendid isolation.
Slowtalk described it as pricey, I dont remember that but then antipasti was great - huge plates of local meats and cheeses, toasted bread and great reds.
I second the experience of Il Frantoio, and see if you can have a tour of the farm in the ancient car.
I miss the food so much, while I love Rome food there has never wowed me as in Puglia.

4 Dina4:

We loved Puglia and as it was said earlier, it's hard to find a bad meal there.

Rather than go thorugh my own list of restaurants here, I suggest you check out my web page on our trip to Puglia. All the memorable restaurants we ate at are described in full:

http://www.travel.stv77.com/puglia/puglia.htm

The Trani area does not have the reputation of having great beaches. This seems to be the recommended beach club in the immediate area:


http://www.marechiarotrani.it/

Typical scene along that coast:

http://albegor.smugmug.com/Vespatour...893417&k=vhXAA

And from the same set of photos (not my own) this is the scene of the landscape near Castel del Monte and Lama di Luna, just to give you an idea; in better weather you could see the city of Andria and the sea in the distance:


http://albegor.smugmug.com/Vespatour...hXAA#!p=3&n=20

Thanks so much. It's great to see the photos, eks. you really enjoyed your visit to castel del monte, right?

patricia, thanks for the restaurant tip. do you think that it would be easy to find? is there just one way up?

steve- i came across your blog a while ago and really enjoyed reading it!! i've already taken lots of notes.

SSSTEVE-- just found your web site blog of your puglia visit today-- it is so seriously good!!! thank you so much for sharing-- and only wish i'd found it earlier!!
kawh

KAWH:

Have you checked out the "mother page"? Lots more trips to Italy, and other places.
The link is at the bottom of the Puglia page (and below as well.)

http://www.travel.stv77.com/

Bookmarking.
After following dina to Istanbul, I may return to Puglia, inspired by her example and these great leads. Our Oct 2010 visit was one of my travel highlights of the last 20 years.

Dina: Yes to Castel del Monte. It is a pleasant drive to reach the castle, and I would guess that you should allot two hours total, which would include parking and taking the shuttle bus there and back, and seeing the site. do not miss the candy (confetti) store in the parking lot--a branch of one in Andria.

I would try to read up as much as you can before you arrive. I seem to remember that there are tours but getting one in English at the right time might be a challenge. I see on their site that restoration works were scheduled to begin in October, 2011, so you might want to check the progess. Keep in mind that they are open non stop so it is a good bet when other sights, shops, might be closed.


http://www.casteldelmonte.benicultur.../93/the-castle

Thanks for the tips. I have it in our plans.

Dina, I hope u will post reviews when u return. We'll be in the area in September, so looking forward to hearing what u have to say about the places u choose to eat.

I definitely will do a trip report!

Right now, I am focusing on some details....

***During our Salento coastal drive, I'm not sure if we should have lunch in Otranto or on the beach (at a beach club?) in Torre d'Orso, where I think we'll plan to spend a few hours relaxing.

Any ideas?? suggestions??

thanks...

Dina I wish I could help there. when I was at Torre del Orso, in mid September, the beach clubs were shuttered for the season and the town (which is tiny, modern and looked without much charm) also had a look of near abandonment.

Otranto has lots of possibilities but the one I would head for would be one that I've only peeked into, L'Altro Baffo. It seems to get very good online reports and was recommended by my hotel nearby. It is a very handsome place. Not on the water, though.

http://www.laltrobaffo.com/

I will also be looking for your reviews, because my next visit will also be in September!

Thanks!!! I'll check it out. Also curious which sites you like best for restaurant reviews. Chowhound? Tripadvisor?

For Italy, I do look at the TA listings but do not give that site much credence; I pay attention to the reviewer's history because once in a while (not often) you get someone who seems to have a similar food sensibility. I will look at TA reviews written in Italian, but again, make sure that the person has a reviewing history that looks like it syncs with my own style.

But I would NEVER rely solely on that TA site for restaurants or hotels. There seem to be a lot of fake hotel reviews, and many English-language restaurant reviews from visitors to Italy who are clueless in many ways regarding food and restaurants. "X restaurant was so terrible they did not even give us olive oil for dipping our bread!" "The menu said that the price of the fish was 15 euro but on the bill they charged us 35 euro..for ONE fish!!!" So obviously that person's review gets counted in the rankings and skews the whole thing.

I use Chowhound, and also contribute to that site.

I also Google the town and restaurant name, if I have it, and look at any online reviews on Italian sites; I can just manage to get the gist of the language.

I also look at eGullet (not my favorite), and LucianoPignataro (sometimes disappointing in his restaurant picks but great for all sorts of food and product information) as well as English-language blogs of expats in Italy like Katie Parla and others. Once in a while I take glance at SlowTrav.

And then there are these two, for starters:

http://espresso.repubblica.it/food/ristoranti

http://www.iltaccodibacco.it/ (for the South only)

And I have the Slowfood paper guides, and the Gambero Rosso Low Cost (in Italian), and the TCI guides for some regions. And of course the Cadogan and LP for Southern Italy.

I also get some good restaurant recommendations from cookbooks including, for Puglia, Nancy Harmon Jenkins' regional cookbook, which I highly recommend for background reading as well as some restaurant tips.
.
http://www.amazon.com/Flavors-Puglia.../dp/0553066757

And Lidia's Italy has some good but very limited Puglia info, and even some recipes from Antichi Sapori.

http://www.amazon.com/Lidias-Italy-S...2525129&sr=1-1

And of course, Fred Plotkin's culinary bible, and his regional food books. Note to Fred: time to do a real update of the Gourmet Traveler book.

And David Downie, for the regions that he covers, including Liguria and Rome.

Those are the ones I can think of offhand.

What you should be asking me is: Do you ever have time to do anything else other than buy, cook, and read about food!!

I'm amazed and impressed!!

wow, eks.
amazing.
yes, i don't imagine you have time for much else, but we are all very grateful for it!!