Happy Thursday, everyone! I hope you’re doing well and staying cool through this crazy heat wave we’ve been having here in Ontario. I love the summer heat, but it’s been a little much even for me lately. Here’s hoping it cools down soon!
Last weekend, I shared a guide to the charming seaside town of Sorrento, where we stayed while visiting the Amalfi Coast. (If you missed that post, be sure to check it out here!) Today, I’m going to be sharing some of my favourite places to eat in Sorrento. We didn’t spend too much time in Sorrento itself – it was more of a ‘home base’ while we explored other towns on the Amalfi Coast – so this will be a short but sweet post. Actually, as I mentioned in my last post, one of my only regrets of our Italy trip is that we didn’t budget for more time in Sorrento itself! It really is a wonderful destination on its own. Oh well, I guess that’s just an excuse to go back someday!
Here are my favourite cafés and restaurants we visited during our stay in Sorrento:
Caffetteria Cappuccino – This casual café is a great place for grabbing breakfast or a quick snack. It’s located on Corso Italia, the main shopping street of downtown Sorrento. The café is small and doesn’t have an indoor seating area, but they have a cute sidewalk patio with cheery yellow tables and chairs. We enjoyed two cornetti – one plain and one cream-filled – and two amazing hazelnut cappuccinos. (Seriously, I think this was among the best coffee of our trip!) They serve plain cappuccinos too, but I highly recommend getting one of the flavoured ones. If hazelnut isn’t your thing, you can choose from pistachio, white or dark chocolate, or even Oreo (unconventional, yes… but I’d try it!) In addition to cornetti, doughnuts and lobster tails, Caffetteria Cappuccino also sells gelato and some decadent crepe/waffle creations that come topped with fruit, icing sugar, and even chocolate sauce – if you’re in a ‘dessert for breakfast’ kind of mood!
Fauno Bar – Located right on Piazza Tasso (Sorrento’s main square), this resto-bar is quite literally at the heart of the city. You can dine indoors, but I recommend sitting outside on their sprawling sidewalk patio – it makes a great spot for people-watching! Although we came for breakfast, Fauno also serves lunch/dinner dishes, which you can order at any time of day. (One of the most fascinating things we noticed on our trip is how North American concepts of breakfast food vs. lunch/dinner food don’t really apply in Italy. It wasn’t at all uncommon to see people drinking wine and eating pasta at 10am!) Tania and I were a little more traditional with our breakfast choices and ordered our standard cappuccinos and cornetti. One thing that really stood out to me at Fauno Bar was the size of the cappuccinos. In Italy, coffee and espresso drinks tend to be on the smaller side (at least compared to what we’re used to at home, with Venti-sized Starbucks being the norm!) At Fauno, the cappuccinos were quite large, which was a nice surprise. The cornetti were large too, and very yummy! I got a cream-filled cornetto with a cherry on top, and Tania went with the hazelnut. Fauno boasts an entire display case of truly decadent-looking desserts, from glazed fruit tarts to caramel cheesecakes to giant sugar-covered bombolone.
La Cazzarola Trattoria – Located on one of Sorrento’s many small shopping streets, this charming restaurant immediately beckoned to us with its bright and cheerful décor. (As I’ve mentioned before, I really am a sucker for red-and-white checkered tablecloths!) The interior is also beautiful, with its vibrant red-and-blue palette and quirky pendants shaped like lemons and chili peppers. This restaurant is actually where we ate our last supper in Italy, so of course, we had to order pasta. Tania got the spaghetti and meatballs, and I ordered the Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina. (Gnocchi is one of my go-to pasta orders, and turns out it’s also Sorrento’s signature dish!) The gnocchi was really delicious – I enjoyed it with bread and a hefty dose of parmesan. Comfort food at its finest! Although we were too full for dessert, La Cazzarola also has a bakery case with cakes that look almost too pretty to eat.
Trattoria Da Emilia – This delightful seafood restaurant was where we had our best meal in Sorrento, and quite possibly one of the best meals of the entire trip! We had just returned from a long day trip to Positano, and ended up getting back much later than anticipated (I’ll be writing about that experience next week!) It was around 9 at night (much later than we normally eat) so, tired and hungry, we headed down to Marina Grande to find a place to eat. Marina Grande is a beautiful historic fishing village with lots of waterfront restaurants specializing in – what else – seafood! We chose Trattoria Da Emilia because its patio had such a gorgeous view, and we were lucky enough to be seated at a table right on the water. We ordered a liter of wine to share (practically a steal at just 10 Euros) along with fried calamari and eggplant parmesan. The eggplant was rich, cheesy and delicious, but it was the calamari that stole the show! You just can’t beat fresh, local seafood. If you’re looking for a romantic restaurant in Sorrento, I seriously can’t say enough good things about Trattoria Da Emilia: from the picture-perfect seaside views to the guitarist serenading us with his rendition of Volare, I’m sure you’ll be as charmed by this spot as we were.
Ristorante O’Parrucchiano La Favorita – I technically shouldn’t include this spot on my list as we didn’t actually dine here, so I can’t speak to the food… but I couldn’t publish a post about Sorrento’s best restaurants without including it! This was number one on my list of restaurants to visit on the Amalfi Coast, and I’m so sad we didn’t get a chance to experience it for ourselves. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I love restaurants that are particularly beautiful, unique in some way, or have an interesting history – and this restaurant ticks all those boxes! O’Parrucchiano is Sorrento’s oldest restaurant, established in 1868, and their claim to fame is that they invented cannelloni. It’s also easily the prettiest restaurant in town: located in a real citrus grove, visitors dine under an enchanting canopy of lemon trees and twinkling fairy lights. Unfortunately, when we showed up, all of the tables were already booked. We were actually quite surprised, as reservations aren’t the norm in Italy like they are here in North America – at least, not in our experience. We went to some pretty popular restaurants during our trip, and even if they were full, we could always snag a table just by waiting a bit. Not the case here: they told us they were fully booked for the night, so unfortunately it wasn’t in the cards. Of course, I snapped a couple of photos before we left! But lesson learned: if you’re interested in visiting O’Parrucchiano for yourself, be sure to phone and make advance reservations.
Have you ever been to Italy? What were some of your favourite restaurants – or dishes – that you tried there?
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