4 Best Restaurants in Alghero, Sardinia

Slightly off the tourist track but well known to locals, this grotto-like former mill has two long rooms with low, vaulted ceilings and a brisk but cheerful atmosphere. There's a good balance between meat and seafood dishes, the menu taking in everything from malloreddus alla sarda (local pasta with sausage-meat sauce) and fritto misto di mare (fried squid, prawns, and fresh fish) to crusty pizzas. You may have to wait for a table without a booking.

Fresh flowers on white linen tablecloths add color to the bright glass-enclosed dining area of this delightful eatery on busy Piazza Sulis; gold-framed paintings and oversize wine bottles capped in wax add Italian charm—as does the seasonally changing menu of pasta and seafood dishes such as potato-stuffed culurgiones (a ravioli-like pasta) topped with pecorino cheese, dried tomatoes, and wild rocket, and fillet of suckling pig in a Vermentino sauce. Many opt for the three- or four-course prix-fixe menus (€50 and €60), which include a traditional dessert.

A covered veranda by the seafront marks out Alghero's top seafood restaurant, an expansive and sunny room complete with crustacean-filled aquarium. Summer sees crowds of both locals and tourists, many of whom come for the specialty aragosta (lobster) cooked different ways, including with fettuccine or alla Lepanto (with tomato, onions, and orange). In winter, when lobster isn't always available, sample the ricci (sea urchins). For starters, try tagliolini alla ventresca di tonno (pasta with tuna and rocket pesto).

There's always a lively crowd at this backstreet trattoria, where diners pack into three rooms to enjoy the same multicourse set menu of seafood. If this seems limiting, think again—you'll be presented with a range of fresh, delicious, seasonally appropriate dishes (perhaps prawns, squid, swordfish, or sea bass) in abundant portions. The usual formula is: five cold starters, two pastas, two mains, a dessert, and unlimited drinks—all for one price. Lobster is also normally available for a supplementary charge. Service is brisk and good-humored, and reservations are essential.