The best restaurants in Carloforte picked by Gambero Rosso. Where to eat in south-western Sardinia

Welcome to Carloforte, the only town of the island of San Pietro, in the south-western part of Sardinia, where culinary art blends with the breathtaking beauty of the seascape. This charming fishing village offers ravishing panoramas; it’s also an extraordinary food and wine destination, full of places that know how to delight the most demanding palates.

Carloforte’s authentic cuisine in Sardinia

The best restaurants in Carloforte charm visitors with their authentic and genuine cuisine, strongly rooted in the local tradition. Here the sea provides the most delicious treasures, and fresh fish dishes (such as soups or tuna specialities) are a must. Carloforte cuisine is more beyond the sea: seasonal ingredients, local products and a love for traditional recipes.

The best Carloforte restaurants chosen by Gambero Rosso

Da Andrea al Cavallera

Restaurant. The one run by the Rosso family is now a valid island reference born about fifteen years ago by the will of Andrea, who still runs the business today with his wife Maddalena and son Cristiano. It is located inside a historic building from the 1920s furnished with simplicity and elegance, and the focus of the menu is obviously red tuna, served in a myriad of versions including raw, tartare, carpaccio or tataki. For the rest, spaghetti with tuna roe, lasagna carlofortina with tuna and pesto, paccheri alla carbonara di mare (seafood carbonara), and fillet of sea bream in guazzetto with clams and red prawns. Well-stocked wine cellar with Sardinian and other labels. Caring service on point.

Da Andrea al Cavallera - c.so dei Battellieri, 25 – 0781807638 – ristorantedaandrea.it

Al Tonno di corsa

Restaurant. One of the city's historic addresses, in a secluded location in the middle of the alleyways, with several dining rooms and two private terraces overlooking the rooftops. It’s run by Secondo Borghero, a chef, connoisseur and lover of local gastronomy and traditions, and the author of an authentic cuisine of flavour and value. His son Enrico moves skilfully in the dining room. The menu is a hymn to Carloforte and its tuna, and follows the seasons of land and sea. Impossible not to start with the “antipasto misto” of the house, then cassulli (gnocchetti carlofortini with tuna ragout and pesto), cascà (the local, strictly vegetarian couscous) or bobba (a velvety soup of dried broad beans and vegetables). Among the main courses, always tuna served in different ways (including belù, tripe) or other local fish dishes. To finish, delicious cheeses or homemade desserts.

Al tonno di corsa - via Marconi, 47 – 0781855106 – tonnodicorsa.com

Da Nicolo

Restaurant. Over the years, the Pomata family's restaurant has built a reputation worthy of the island's finest food and w institutions. An elegant and well-kept space, enhanced by the charming dehors overlooking the Battellieri seafront, where the service is always helpful and professional. The menu features dishes that reflect the local culinary tradition interpreted with excellent technique and touches of flair: octopus Nicolo style with soy water and balsamic vinegar on chickpea panissa alla carlofortina, knife-beaten bluefin tuna tartar on buffalo mozzarella stracciatella and caper powder, linguine Nicolo style with our tuna in oil, capers, olives, pecorino cheese and lemon zest, crispy suckling pig cooked at low temperature and its reduction with potato pie and myrtle powder, spiced bluefin tuna royal with potato millefeuille and lime mayonnaise. Winery with a national flavour.

Da Nicolo - c.so Cavour, 32 – 0781854048 – ristorantedanicolo.com

Pomata Bistrot

Bistro. Antonello Pomata, from the same Pomata family as above, runs the bistro. The location is neat, with seafaring tones and defined by friendly, welcoming service. For the pizza, the preference is for a quality selection of flours used (wholemeal and multi-grain) and a slow leavening process of 72 hours that makes them fragrant and digestible. Baked strictly in a wood-fired oven, the pizzas acquire a beautiful crispness and fragrance, which can be perceived by each bite. The toppings carry the signature and inspiration of the Pomata family. Not to be missed in summer is the courgette, lemon and tuna roe, and a must-try is the Nicolo, in which noble parts of red tuna enrich the dough and give it meaty, marine flavours. In addition to the pizzas, some dishes always bear the family signature.

Pomata Bistrot - via D. Alighieri, 47 – 0781855361 – luigipomata.com

Where to eat and drink in Carloforte: pizzerias, bars, bakeries and wine bars

Panificio Stagnin

Bread bakery. It was 1951 when Stagnin first opened its doors. It was Maria Moretto who founded this family business, borrowing the name with whom her husband was called as a pipe and gutter welder. Now the company is run by great-grandson Antonio Vargiolu. Here, history is not only because of the year of foundation. Just taste the gallette di Carloforte, a dry bread, made to last a long time, to understand their passion for tradition: this bread was mainly used by ship and boat crews who ate it with tuna, another great preserve of the island. Then there is the focaccia, always fragrant, well-hydrated, savoury, which marks the link with Genoa. Then there is Fainé, the typical farinata made only with chickpea flour. Last, there is lots of space for breads that are beyond the island's strict tradition, from naturally leavened loaves to seven-grain breads, following with breadsticks, ciabatta and michette (small bread rolls).

Panificio Stagnin - via Don Nicola Segni, 72 – 0781854562 – Facebook

Pizzeria da Gisa

Pizza by the slice joint. Here is true street food, very authentic and territorial: the fainé of Carloforte. At Gisa's (Adalgisa Panzalis's business) you can find the right one. It is a thin, fragrant farinata, with its typical greasiness that makes it tasty and delicious. The recipe is the family’s historic one and here everything seems frozen in time. In addition to fainé, Gisa offers pizza, the red one with anchovies. It’s baked in round, ancient, iron pans and served in small, irregular pieces. All to be eaten with hands, through the narrow streets of the small island town. Last observation on the price. More than honest, it also seems, fortunately, to be stuck in the past.

Pizzeria da Gisa - via Roma, 26

Enoteca Nasacca

Wine shop. If you are in Carloforte and feel like wine, you must necessarily pass by Nasacca. You come here to discover small oenological realities, but capable of offering great wines, territorial and long-lived. The range starts in Sardinia, and then proceeds with the rest of Italy: there is no shortage of labels from North and South. Obviously there is also room for foreign countries, with France at the front row. Excellent, the quality of food products.

Enoteca Nasacca - c.so dei Battellieri, 3 – 0781854919 – enotecanasacca.it

Napitia – Gelateria

Napitia is the kingdom of Lorenzo Ingenuo, a master ice-cream maker of Messina origin, who has taken up the family heritage and carried it forward in the name of quality, with a high level of handcrafted produce. Gelato (ice cream) is the main character and is offered in both classic and special flavours, giving space to seasonal fruit, typical products and particular but always focused combinations. The result is of a great balance, the creaminess is impeccable and well blended with the sugar part, never cloying or excessive. An elegant and delicate ice cream, therefore that fully enhances the raw materials. Impossible not to mention the facussa ice cream, a vegetable similar to the native cucumber, very good as an ice cream. Then there’s the type with fruit , which is seasonal, starting with peaches and apricots. There is no shortage of creamy flavours such as chocolate (boosted by orange), pistachio or hazelnut.

Napitia - c.so Cavour, 25 – 3362529017 – gelaterianapitia.it

Bar Napoleone – Cocktail bar

Cocktail bar. Among the restaurants, clubs and cafés, there is one cocktail bar not to be missed. It’s the Napoleone, the realm of Pierpaolo Pili and Giuseppe Leoni, very young barmen who have bet everything on the city's seafront. Their speciality is Tiki, served strictly in the appropriate mugs, but the drink list is wide, and can count on a beautiful bottle shop, with over 40 labels of gin from which can be acquired many cocktail combinations. But that's not all. There’s lots of testing going on here, and there are foams, gelling or flavoured airs, elements of well-conceived creations and not just exercises in style. Fun for those who make them, even more so for those who get to taste them.

Bar Napoleone - c.so Cavour, 4 – 0781854773