We stumbled upon this spot at random, and were glad that we did!
We showed up around noon on a weekday, and while it was empty when we arrived, it filled up quickly with folks who were there for work lunches--besides our table, everyone else was dressed in business attire. There were no other tourists, and only one of the small handful of employees spoke any English.
Setting: 5/5
It was in an alleyway rather close to the water, but far enough that tourists didn't stop by. The interior was quiet, comfortable, and well decorated with tomatoes, peppers, and packages of pasta hanging on display and with a fairly clean restroom in the back. (We guessed that some of these were actually real, since who would buy fake tomatoes for decoration if they are wrinkly and drying?)
Food: 5/5
Among the things we ordered were an appetizer of fried assorted seafood (with shrimp, baby octopus, and fish), an octopus salad, seafood risotto, a ragu pasta dish, and a grilled squid.
The fried seafood was solid. Well fried, but not overly cooked. The baby octopus was similar to chipiron in Spain, which I greatly enjoyed.
The octopus salad was absolutely delicious. The octopus was fresh and perfectly cooked, giving the meat a great texture and sweetness.
The seafood risotto was fantastic as well, cooked in a well-made seafood broth and with plenty of shrimp, mussels, and at least three kinds of clams.
The ragu dish was a miss. While the pasta was made well, the sauce was overly salty (though we realized that was often the case in Italy.) Overall, this dish was nothing special.
Our favorite dish was the grilled squid. The squid was incredibly fresh, and as such, had a great, sweet natural flavor to it, which we in the States aren't used to, since almost all of the squid we have access to is frozen. The squid was grilled well, and the combination of the sweetness from the squid and the char from the grill was absolutely phenomenal.
(We also ordered two of their daily lunch specials, which came with a pasta dish, a main dish, and a drink. For the most part, this was nothing special.)
Service: 4/5
At first they were very slow to wait on our table. It took a bit of an effort to flag down a waiter for water and to give our orders. I'm not sure if this was because of the language barrier, because we were foreigners, or because we showed up before the lunch rush. Eventually, they became more attentive, and by the end of the meal, the one English-speaking waiter became very friendly with us.
All in all, this was low-key one of our better meals in Italy. Glad we stumbled upon this place! read more