Where to find the best street food in Lecce, including pucce, pizzi and rustici leccesi

A Baroque jewel of inimitable beauty, at the table Lecce continues to hand down a poor but very tasty cuisine that makes use of wild vegetables, legumes, blue fish and horse meat. And then an array of street food perfect for enjoying while strolling through the city streets, starting with the legendary rustici. Here is all the street food in Lecce to try.

The best street food in Lecce

Alvino Café

Overlooking Piazza Sant'Oronzo is this ancient café that is also a bit of a city institution. The entrance, with its windows, remains almost identical to what it was in the 1800s. In front, a dehors always crowded, whether for a good coffee on ice and pasticciotto or for a spritz, perhaps accompanied by the typical rustico leccese, among the best in town and baked several times a day. Greedy at all hours, try it for breakfast as well.

Caffè Alvino – Piazza Sant’Oronzo, 30 - facebook.com/Alvino.Catamo/?locale=it_IT

Cime di Rapa Urban Street Food

Cime di rapa is a brand made in Lecce that invests in biodiversity and promotes Italian gastronomic culture, conceived by Vita Basile and Elio Dongiovanni. Born as an educational and social inclusion tool, it has also turned into a container of delicacies, from pizza alla pala to potato pitta, and then bread, artisanal crackers,

Cime di Rapa Urban Street Food – via Guglielmo Oberdan, 55 - facebook.com/cimedirapastreetfood?locale=it_IT

Il Pizzicotto

The decisive element of this pizza is the crispness of the base, with a light and melting interior. This must be why, since its opening in the historic center, success has been immediate. And certainly also for the toppings, from the most traditional to the most creative, always well calibrated and with good compromise between seasonality, territoriality and some yielding to exoticism.

Il Pizzicotto – via degli Ammirati, 14 d - facebook.com/ilpizzic8?locale=it_IT

L’Angolino di via Matteotti

The puccia leccese - soft and "hollow" inside - was born in the 1970s and is already an established tradition in the city. Its characteristics make it a treasure chest for the ingredients, which here at Angolino are territorial, seasonal and well selected. Very good variations are offered, but it is worth having fun composing your own puccia as you prefer - with unlimited amounts of ingredients - indulging tastes and curiosities. A must try, then, the "pezzetti di cavallo, the typical local, slightly spicy stew.

L’Angolino di via Matteotti – via Giaccomo Matteotti, 31 - facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063690577447&locale=it_IT

Mezzo Quinto Cibo di Strada

Right in the historic center, a few meters from the cathedral and in front of MUST, Museo Storico Cittadino overlooking the Roman theater, an address where you can find a concentration of Salento culinary tradition. Horse bits (on a plate or in a sandwich, as local street food dictates), meatballs with sauce or genovese, traditional quinto quarto, parmigiana (Salento style, with batter-fried eggplant) and even orecchiette.

Mezzo Quinto Cibo di Strada – via degli Ammirati, 16 - facebook.com/MezzoQuintoLecce?locale=it_IT

Si.Se Schipa

Indirizzo ormai storico e sempre gremito, innanzitutto per gli ottimi pani e per la pasticceria locale: il rustico leccese è sfornato con continuità così come le pucce e i pizzi, panini arricchiti con cipolle e pomodoro, anche in versione piccante. Il pane del territorio qui si affianca a buone versioni del pane di Altamura e pure la focaccia barese ha un folto pubblico di estimatori. Ottimi anche i dolci, pasticciotti e paste di mandorla in primis.

Si.Se Schipa – via Taranto, 27 - facebook.com/siseschipalecce/?locale=it_IT