We stopped in here for a light lunch (not a full pranzo) before exploring Arco Basso and Bari…read moreVecchia. It was relatively empty at 14:00 on a Wednesday. We ordered: Risotto al Taleggio (3/5) -- Risotto with guanciale (pork cheek) and leaks was flavorful but way too salty. 8,50€ Risotto alla Zaffarono (4/5) -- Saffron risotto with speck and burrata was done nicely. 8,50€ Polpettine (3/5) -- Small meatballs in a ragu with bread. 7,00€ Food ............. 3/5 Service ......... 3/5 Ambiance .... 3/5

Our first evening in Bari, and we discover this gem of a place. Though not without flaws due to the…read morefact that the place was slammed from the time we walked in until closing, we would, and definitely will, be going back while here. Despite an obvious language barrier on our part, we got almost everything we asked for. The salad that we ordered was excellent, and plentiful, with plenty of greens, tomatoes and grilled eggplant. You dress it yourself with oil and vinegar out of supplies small packages, which seemed a bit strange to us, but hey, when in Rome. The lovely K and I split the salad, and ate out of the bowl in the middle of our table, as a side plate seemed to be an unusual ask. We also split our pizza which seemed to stymie the staff a bit, it seems almost everyone in place regardless of age orders their own pie. As it was the two of us couldn't tuck away the entire pizza leaving one piece untouched. The pizza was top notch, amongst the best we have had anywhere. The dough was light, and charred beautifully, the simple toppings of mozzarella and tomato sauce wonderful, yet not too much. The touch of the fire burning oven gave the whole thing a taste and texture that would bring us back again and again if we spent any amount of time here. Our only quibble, and it's a little one, was the fact that we never got the glass of white wine asked for after K finished her Spritzer, and the side plate not arriving until the pizza was almost done. Again to put it into context there was a free concert, and the entire neighbourhood closed down to vehicle traffic, so there were people everywhere. The queue at the door was always a significant number of parties deep. All in all a very successful first meal at a very fair price! Eating in Bari for the next two weeks promises to be quite the adventure, and we can't wait! We've now eaten here four times in our first five days. They have to be doing something right to keep us coming back!

We ended up going here due to the ratings and because they had a wide variety of a gluten-free…read moreoptions. I was able to get a steak made perfection with the side of pasta.

I highly recommend this place. We're from New York City and Arizona place is amazing. Staff was…read more great. Food was delicious. Somewhat patient with us.

We visited during the busy season st. Nicolas festival. Wow! It's was PACKED! We waited about…read more30minutes got sat and never was rushed to hurry up. We had salad and an antipasti with prosciutto, soppresata and burrataini. Then a had the octopus . Delicious!!! Ana kept the wine flowing and after our espresso we had complimentary limoncello! Anna and Mario were the best! I highly recommend

We waited in a bit of a queue (in the heat) to sit outside and eat here! It's a popular spot! The…read morestaff was kind and the food was great. It's a great place to people watch! I ordered bruschetta to start as well as a traditional Apulian dish: orecchiette con cime di rapa (orecchiette pasta with turnips and anchovies. The limoncello spritz were divine! Definitely a great place to grab a bite while exploring the old city of Bari!

You know how you get into a routine when you are at home of going to the same places over and over…read moreagain. We are like that a little bit when we travel, and Bari is no different. We have found one place in particular that we've been to for lunch or dinner six times in the 11 days we've been here. Not last night, and boy are we glad we went to La Cecchina, it was possibly the best meal we have had here in Italy. We heard it was a busy place so we got there a couple of minutes prior to them opening, and we were already third in the queue. By 8:30 the place was jammed. After finishing our dinner and leaving at 10:20 we knew why the place is busy. Our opening dish is one we've had before, Orecchiette al ragu con bracioletta which is the famous local pasta with braised meat in a ragu sauce which was outstanding. The chew of the pasta coupled with the rich sauce and the braised beef was outstanding. They did bring us the wrong first, initially they set down Misto Frito which looked outstanding and has us planning another trip to try that. No easy task to get the lovely K to try fish, especially away from home, so dinner was already a win in my mind. The Secondi we chose was Filetto de Maialino con fiche secchi, vincotto e gelato al parmigiana. Pretty wordy stuff for pork tenderloin with figs and a parmigiana gelato. The combination of all the contents of the dish was absolutely amazing. It's something we will try to copy when we get home, but I doubt we'll do it justice. The figsthemselves along with the Demi glacé, sage and the gelato were unbelievably good together along with perfectly cooked pork. Good thing we didn't discover the place the first night we got here, we would have missed out on so many other outstanding places. One of my workmates said the food on this side of Italy wasn't up to snuff compared to the west coast. I'd have to respectfully disagree, the food in Bari and Lecce have been amazingly fantastic.

This is tough. The food was excellent. The service not so good. We ordered the fresh fish, which…read moretotaled half our bill, and they did not know how to properly debone it.