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

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?

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?
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! ). 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/