RAVELLO--Dining with a View??
 

Not being very familiar dining scene in Ravello (Cumpa Cosimo is my standby) I am seeking tips on restaurants with top-quality food, and a lovely view where I can dine with friends who place a high priority on views.

I've read decent reports of Da Salvatore but am unfamiliar with that, and with the various hotel restaurants.

Would prefer the food to be as regional as possible, and not overly fussy.

Any experiences with the dining rooms at the various hotels? What about the restaurants in the nearby town of Scala? (We will have a car)

Many thanks!

Does prune juice have to be on the menu?

We loved the food at Villa Maria. Their view is good if you are able to dine al fresco.

I ate several meals at Da Salvatore because I was staying there (they have sweet, cheap rooms downstairs with tiny balconies). The menu veers a bit toward creative -- I vividly recall a carpaccio of salmon with orange juice, not lemon juice, which I loved, but which is surely a deliberate declaration of independence in the Amalfi. It is a family-run restaurant, and if the grandfather is still alive, he makes the limoncello, and it was outstanding, the best I tasted along the coast.

My only point of comparison in Ravello is with Cumpa Cosimo, which didn't sing when I was there, but I think that was a feature of the particular day, when the restaurant felt overwhelmed by a big party. All the food I had at Da Salvatore was zingingly fresh, and I wasn't unhappy with a single plate of my several multiple course dinners. While I was there, they were building a pizza oven, which surely has long since been completed.

They have an outdoor shady terrace plus an indoor space with floor-to-ceiling windows. I don't know how this compares with the luxury hotels. Da Salvatore sits on the lowest level of Ravello, below the piazza, clinging to a bluff facing the sea. Perhaps the views from the luxury hotels include vistas of Ravello or its gardens that are nice to include. I don't know.

Unless things have dropped off dramatically, I don't think you would feel gastronomically deprived at Da Salvatore. Were I going back to Ravello, and my only choices were Cumpa Cosimo and Da Salvatore, I would eat at Da Salvatore for lunch and Cumpa Cosimo for dinner, since I enjoy eating outdoors on a nice day, view or no, but I see little point in going to Ravello for lunch if not for the view. There are probably better lunches to be had in places along the coast or in the hills other than Ravello.

Thanks to the 3 of you.

Marija: The routine calls for certain beverages are to be consumed before breakfast.

Zeppole: Special thanks. I do remember your previous mentions of Da Salvatore and so thought of that place for one of our meals there. We are staying 3 nights in Ravello (the views..) and if it were up to me, I would probably eat all meals in another town, but I fully expect to be outvoted on that issue. The salmon does give me pause, however, but I am sure that there are more simple local dishes on their menu, and on most menus in town.

What about the hotels? While I want to avoid anyplace stuffy with convoluted dishes, some of the hotels must have good dining rooms...and views. Not interested in anyplace where we have to be too gussied up for dinner, though. My friends might want to have one "special" dinner, especially since this will be towards the end of the trip..

With 3 nights in Ravello, I'll bet you can win the argument for at least one evening meal in Cumpa Cosimo, especially if the mist rolls in and the views vanish (and the air is chill). The salmon carpaccio at Da Salvatore was really great, and I doubt that many of the restaurants in the most popular towns of the Amalfi are using local seafood. (I know!) My recollection of Cumpa Cosimo was that they didn't offer much in terms of foods of the sea, and perhaps that is why.

If your dining dictator is not averse to a pizza dinner one evening, you might ask around town if Da Salvatore's has any merit, and that might be a way of avoiding the aggressively creative. (I also had the impression Da Salvatore had plenty of meat, or maybe I just remember the spring lamb we had, which was very good.)

I'll only add that when I was in Naples last year, my Neopolitan landlady, whose daughter plays violin in the summer Ravello music concerts, had nothing but nice things to say about Serra and its food. But she didn't name a restaurant, and she didn't mention views, and I have no personal experience of the village.

I enjoyed two dinners at the Hotel Parsifal. Wonderful views, fresh and simple food, and not at all stuffy. But I know your palette is much more refined than mine so I hesitate to make a strong recommendation.

I strongly second the recommendation for Villa Maria (restaurant open to non-residents for both lunch and dinner, but not for breakfast), for the cuisine, view, refinement of locale, and background classical music.

Sorry for typing Serra instead of Scala, eks, but that is what I meant.

ekscrunchy,

The restaurant at the Hotel Graal would also be a very good choice. The restaurant has a large and pleasant terrace with The View, and the inside dining room has the same view (without, obviously, overhanging the cliffs as the terrace does).

The food is very, very good: fresh and first-rate ingredients. Overall, a reliable choice in my experience.

The Hotel is a 5-minute (or less) walk from the main piazza, about 50 yards downhill from the bus stop.

Don
Owner ... Don Topaz Travel

ekscunchy:

We had lunch on the terrace of the Palazzo Sasso last year. Fantastic view, beautiful hotel.

Thanks again to all who responded. An additional question:

Does anyone know how long it takes to reach Scala from Ravello, both by car and on foot?
(There is a restaurant in Scala that sounds interesting, either for a lunch or dinner...)

From what I've read online, the last bus from Scala to Ravello leaves well before the end of dinner hour, so that would nix traveling by bus...please correct me if I am wrong on this. The dates will be during the last week of this month...

Agree with Bob on Villa Maria. Loved the food and view. www.villamaria.it/restaurant-ita.aspx

Ekscrunchy:When is your trip? I am waiting for another of your wonderful reports!!!!(and starting to think of a second visit to the A.C.) Enjoy!!!!

Check viamichelin (which has an on-foot option), but I think its about a 1/2 hour walk. When I planned my 2007 trip to the area, I considered trying to dine at a restaurant I read about in Scala - I don't remember its name. As you say, there wouldn't have been a bus option after dinner, and I wasn't sure I would want to walk those roads at night. I was glad I decided not to try it: The day-time walk I took from Ravello to Amalfi followed the roads in parts, but there were no sidewalks, and there were more than a few occasions when I had less time than I would have liked to get off the road as a car sped around a corner. At night, you would, of course, have more advance notice of an approaching vehicle from its headlights, but even with a flashlight, I find it hard to move off a road into unlit vegetation at night and I don't like doing so when I know I could be close to a drop off. Just my view, though, and there might be sidewalks or decent lighting on that stretch - I don't know. Hope that helps.

Usually a restaurant is happy to call a taxi for you if you don't want take the walk. Once, in an off-the-beaten track restaurant on Lago di Como, the restaurant owner drove me,

You might find this useful

http://bellavventura.blogspot.com/20...ferent-in.html

Thanks again! Diving into the prickly bushes to avoid the oncoming cars might negate the pleasures of a good dinner! But the blog posted by Z. does make it sound like an easy walk. I will investigate when there. The restaurant Da Lorenzo sounds very good, and it has a view.

I plan to be in Italy the last two weeks of this month, driving up the coast from Lamezia Terme to Amantea and Maratea, to the Cilento, and finally in a few spots in the Amalfi Coast area. So stay tuned, JE Lopez!! And thank you.