The best restaurants in Puglia, Italy

Until recently, Puglia was southern Italy’s best kept secret. But now, it’s high time to enjoy the edible delights on offer in Italy’s heel
The best restaurants in Puglia Italy
Sophie Knight

Address: Corso Umberto I, 56, 70022 Altamura BA, Italy

Cibus, Ceglie MessapicaEzio Pietro Maria D'onghia

Cibus, Ceglie Messapica

Located in the undulating alleys of Ceglie Messapica’s historic centre, Cibus sits in an ancient 15th-century convent with stone walls and lime-painted arches. The restaurant was brought to life by a husband and wife duo who consider food not only as a source of pleasure but as a way to understand the culture and history of a destination; every dish shows a dedication to exploring different pairing possibilities using the exceptional produce on offer. Cibus has been practising hyper-locality long before the term “zero-mile produce” was coined. Sit under the vines with a bottle of Primitivo and make your way through the antipasti and primi, but save space for the rabbit porchetta, and finish with a very sticky almond cookie filled with jam, known as biscotto cegliese — best paired with a glass of homemade dessert wine.

Address: Via Chianche di Scarano, 7, 72013 Ceglie Messapica BR, Italy
Website: ristorantecibus.it

Osteria Caroseno, Castellana Grotte

If you head to Castellana for the underground caverns, make a stop at Osteria Caroseno for dinner. The dining room is exactly what you might expect from a local eatery, thick stone walls, rustic wooden tables dressed with white linens, and handmade ceramics flecked with colour in typical Pugliese style. Chef and owner Giovanni Longo spent time travelling and working as a chef before settling back into the town he grew up in to realise his dream of opening a neighbourhood restaurant that is rooted in tradition but flirts with innovation. Caroseno is very much a family affair and Nonna Rosetta still plays a part, don’t miss the chicce della nonna, a creamy spinach gnocchi dish, and the spaghetti laced with tomatoes, olives and breadcrumbs.

Address: Via Santomagno, 18, 70013 Castellana Grotte BA, Italy
Website: ilcaroseno.com

L’altro Baffo, Otranto

L’altro Baffo, Otranto

Chef and owner Cristina Cante grew up in the restaurant her father built from the ground up, causing chaos in between tables, cutting vegetables and pressing orecchiette, before finally opening her own seafood restaurant in the historic heart of Otranto. Everything orbits around seafood here, Cante captures the taste of the sea and offers a contemporary take on the recipes she grew up with; her carbonara ai ricci di mare (sea urchin carbonara) has become somewhat of an edible icon in Salento. Put your trust in Cante’s five-course tasting menu (sensibly priced at €65), which showcases the best ingredients available on the day, and pair it with a bottle of locally produced white wine from their thoughtfully put-together cellar.

Address: Via Cenobio Basiliano, 23, 73028 Otranto LE, Italy
Website: laltrobaffo.com

Farmacia dei Sani, Ruffano

Farmacia dei Sani, Ruffano

Located at the entrance to Ruffano surrounded by old palazzi, this family-run restaurant is undergoing a gastronomical renaissance led by Valentina Rizzo. Having worked in the kitchen alongside her mother from the age of 15 before cultivating her skills abroad, Rizzo has returned to Farmacia dei Sani, bringing a new energy to the food offering. Despite having a modern feel, the menu is firmly anchored to regional traditions, punctuated with just the right amount of international influence. Farmacia dei Sani is a modern iteration of the traditional family-run restaurant everyone wants from a trip to Italy, and Valentina has carved out her place as an innovator while respecting the traditions that Pugliese cuisine was built upon. Don’t miss the homemade pappardelle with rabbit broth and rosemary oil, dusted with burnt onion. Before you dive into the wine list try the homemade liquors; their lip-licking negroni is made from direct maceration of botanicals, rather than a traditional mix of gin, bitters and vermouth.

Address: Piazza del Popolo, 14, 73049 Ruffano LE, Italy
Website: farmaciadeisani.eu

Sophie Knight

La Zie Trattoria, Lecce

Dubbed ‘The Florence of the South’, Lecce leans into tradition like no other region of Puglia. Locals take pride in their home-style cooking using locally foraged ingredients and wear their allegiance to centuries-old recipes like a badge of honour. There’s one way of cooking a recipe, and if you’re doing it differently, you’re doing it wrong. La Zie is what you might imagine eating in a nonna’s dining room to be like; the walls are filled with random paintings and photos of celebrities, the floor is a mosaic of patterned tiles that must have seen decades' worth of patrons, and the tables are covered with chequered tablecloths. In the kitchen, owner Anna Carmela Perrone and her all-female team roll thimbles of orecchiette every day, plating it up with fresh herbs, her mother’s sun-dried tomatoes and her aunt’s olive oil. La Zie is romantic in its simplicity, go hungry and make your way through the menu of classics, and don’t be surprised if you’re sandwiched between foodies from New York as well as locals, this trattoria is no longer a secret.

Address: Via Colonnello Archimede Costadura, 19, 73100 Lecce LE, Italy

Sophie Knight

Ristorante da Silve, Fasano

With a light to non-existent digital footprint, Ristorante da Silve feels like a well-kept secret among those in the know. With Silve on the floor and his mother Maria in the kitchen, taking a seat at their table is like becoming an extension of the family for an evening. The small but carefully considered menu is loyal to Fasano tradition while adding its own creative slant; think zucchini flowers and peppery rocket with burrata over cavatelli, fall-off-the-bone beef cheeks, and gelato made with extra virgin olive oil and honey, all rounded off with a chilled glass of Silve’s homemade digestivo made with chamomile and black pepper. The restaurant interior adds to the feeling of dining with a family, albeit one with a taste for nice interiors, making Ristorante de Silve fit nicely into the design-conscious aesthetic Puglia is fast becoming known for.

Address: Via Tinella, 18, 72015 Fasano BR, Italy

Ristorante Albachiara, Savellerti

The coastal towns of Puglia are all about seafood, and where better to feast on the fruits of the sea than sitting at the edge of the Adriatic? This no-frills joint is all about the food, if anything, the plastic chairs wedged into rocks and paper table settings only add to its brilliance, helping you to slide into summer-y oblivion. Expect to join a queue during high season and spend half an hour watching trays piled high with spiny sea urchins being ferried from kitchen to table. Order a bottle of local wine and everything crudo, followed by sea urchin spaghetti.

Address: Strada Provinciale TorreCanne - Savelletri 72015, Savelletri BR, Italy
Website: facebook.com

Everyone at the Table, Altamura

Everyone at the Table, Altamura

Founded by Julie and Francesco (a husband and wife team) a few years back, Everyone at the Table (E.A.T) is a cooking studio in Altamura dedicated to the ritual of eating. E.A.T offers a series of intimate workshops ranging from single-day cooking classes to weekend-long experiences, designed to immerse guests in the food culture of Puglia; expect guided tours around the town of Altamura, where you’ll meet with artisans who bake the bread, press the grapes and tend their flocks, tasting their produce as you go. Having grown up in Altamura, wandering the streets with Francesco and Julie means experiencing the town like a local — to borrow Francesco’s words “we don’t do tours, we do passeggiata”, which is the Italian term for strolling for the purpose of socialising. While the studio may look picture perfect with its raw plaster walls and marble worktops stacked with ceramics, guests should prepare to get their hands dirty and leave with a deeper understanding of Puglian traditions, as well as a handful of familiar recipes to take home. Workshops tend to sell out fast, so keep an eye on their Instagram and book well ahead of your trip; if you can’t book a spot, reach out directly for a customised experience.

Address: Address shared upon booking, Altamura
Website: everyone-at-the-table.com

Rosticceria Antico Borgo di Menga Piero

No trip to Puglia is complete without visiting a no-nonsense rosticceria, and this is one of the best. This classic Italian butcher shop specialises in bombette de cisternino – rolls of pork filled with local cheese – but just about everything is delicious, from the donkey chops to the sausages. Rosticceria Antico Borgo di Menga Piero has remained unchanged for years: diners still choose their meat at the butcher’s counter and take a seat in the rustic canteen-style restaurant while the meat is grilled in a wood-fired oven, the Puglian way. Portions are generous, and prices are honest, so skip lunch and be prepared to indulge your inner carnivore. Book a table whatever the season as this place is popular among both locals and tourists, it’s the kind of place you visit once, and vow to return year after year.

Address: Via Tarantini, 9, 72014 Cisternino BR, Italy
Website: rosticceria-lanticoborgo.it

Sophie Knight

Masseria Moroseta, Ostuni

Masseria Moroseta represents the evolution of Puglia from a rural farming region to a design-conscious holiday hangout. This farmhouse-turned-guest house sits against a backdrop of ancient olive trees on the outskirts of Ostuni, flanked by sea and farmland. The land was once occupied by three different families who lived and worked together, producing olive oil and working the land; today, the small six-bedroom masseria serves a similar purpose centred around connecting guests to the land through food and design. It’s impossible to have a conversation about food in Puglia without Chef Giorgia Goggi’s name cropping up. Her main intention is to showcase the incredible abundance of produce on offer using ingredients cultivated in the Moroseta gardens (with the help of fishermen and farmers where needed). The ever-changing menu is always served on large communal tables to encourage chat among guests, and there’s plenty to talk about: Giorgia plates up six or seven courses using Italian traditions as a starting point before introducing culinary influences from further afield; highlights included handmade cappelletti with duck and kimchi filling, kohlrabi dashi and wild garlic, and beetroot sorbet with whipped lemon ganache, wild fennel and timut pepper. Arrive an hour before dinner to enjoy a glass of natural wine from the likes of Cantina Giardino while wandering around the organic gardens, or even better, stay a couple of nights and indulge in Giorgia’s equally as delicious breakfast. Think olive oil brioche with ricotta, honey, thyme and toasted hazelnuts, bountiful salads of fennel and grapefruit, and delicious pastries made by a Michelin star chef.

Address: Contrada Lamacavallo, s/n, 72017 Ostuni BR, Italy
Website: masseriamoroseta.it

La Locanda Sul Porto, Monopoli

Book a one-o-clock table for lunch and watch the restaurant come to life, stirring with a satisfying Italian hum and the clattering of empty plates. You’ll be thankful for booking when you watch the waiter pacing the restaurant with a biblical-sized reservation book and a phone permanently cradled to his ear. This is a destination for seafood: cornucopian plates of crudo under ice, a bruschetta of scarlet prawns atop chicory and salty sun-dried tomato cream, or pots of scorpion fish and seafood guazzetto. There’s a smartness to the restaurant and a slickness to the service that allows you to sink into your chair and simply watch what’s happening around you, smug with the knowledge that you’re probably the only non-Italian in the vicinity.

Address: Via Cristoforo Colombo, 10/11, 70043 Monopoli BA, Italy
Website: lalocandasulporto.it

Baby Dicecca

Baby Dicecca

Deep in the Mercadante forest, you’ll find a humble wooden kiosk surrounded by a few tables and chairs shaded under a canopy of trees. You’ll also find Vito Dicecca and his wife Roberta, a fourth-generation cheesemaker and the duo behind the cheese bar in the forest. Over the course of a couple of hours, Vito will guide you through a menu entirely dedicated to what he knows best: cheese, all paired with low-intervention wine, normally produced by an old friend. Favourite dishes included a creamy sphere of butter made from three different types of milk served with hunks of Pane di Altamura (which has DOP status), a tomato and olive focaccia finished with a twist of stracciatella, bruschetta of blue goat cheese with pickled onion and capers, and a blue pecorino aged in Primitivo grapes that looks more like a wedding cake than cheese. Every dish is served with an anecdote that takes you back to Vito’s childhood in Altamura or tells of his travels across the globe to India, Thailand, Malaysia, England and beyond. 

Address: Foresta Mercadante, 70020 Cassano delle Murge BA, Italy
Website: vitodicecca.it

Primo, Lecce

Primo

This intimate, sleek dining room in Lecce is the best place to experience the most exciting movements in Salento cuisine. Chef Solaika Morocco – the region’s most revered upcoming chef – breathes new life into ancient recipes, using the traditional flavours of her childhood as a starting point before intervening with intricate techniques. Primo earned a Michelin star back in 2021, and Solaika became the youngest Michelin-starred chef in Italy. The ten-course tasting menu and wine pairing offer a strong sense of place, beginning with hand-pulled grissini, a series of entrees each as tasty as the last, Solaika’s signature Parmigiana which folds all the flavour of the cheese crust (everyone’s favourite) into a paper-thin veil of tomato, then there’s the sweetbreads slicked with an orange glaze alongside raw shrimp, and a symphony of other standout dishes. Everything on the menu—including the wine—paints a picture of Salento while adding something fresh to the story and pushing Pugliese traditions into the future. Primo is not the quaint nonna-helmed trattoria that many imagine when thinking of the South of Italy, but to properly understand the region’s food, you have to look to the future as well as the past.

Address: Via 47 Reggimento Fanteria, 7, 73100 Lecce LE, Italy
Webite: primorestaurant.it

Le Stanzie

It’s difficult to put the magic of Le Stanzie into words. It’s the kind of place that’s fit for folklore, with row upon row of chillies hanging from the ceiling, slow-burning fireplaces carved into stone walls and a labyrinth of dining rooms lit by candlelight. The magic of Le Stanzie is so striking that everyone seems to talk in hushed voices so as to preserve the atmosphere — the occasional sound of a phone jolting you back to the 21st century. After the fire next to your table has been lit and wine has been ordered, what follows is a typical Masseria-style feast of vegetables cooked in clay pots, salumi, formaggi, slow-cooked legumes and fennel sausage, followed by generous bowls of horse meat ragu. Nearly everything that arrives on the table has been plucked from the farm surrounding the sixteenth-century farmhouse: its orchards, olive groves, vineyards and vegetable gardens.

Address: SP362 Km 32.900 Supersano - Cutrofiano, 73040 Supersano LE, Italy
Website: lestanzie.com

Bro's TrattoriaPellegrino brothers

Bros Trattoria

The Pellegrino brothers earned a Michelin star for their upscale restaurant a short drive away, but Bros Trattoria is the more casual, nostalgic sibling for those looking for excellent Pugliese cooking, without the pomp or the painful-on-the-pocket finish. The daily changing tasting menu is based on the day’s forage, taking inspiration from the local recipes and culinary traditions of Salento, delivering consistently delicious regional cooking using ingredients grown on their farm just a few kilometres away. Expect plates of comfort food executed to perfection: just-picked vegetables cooked on a wood fire, doughy pockets of charred bread to scoop up garlic cream, hand-pressed ravioli filled with velvety ricotta and earthy spinach, and sage 'cannulate to twist up slow-cooked ragu. Much like the low-intervention approach they adopt on the farm, their wine list offers plenty of natural, minimal-intervention producers. Though the trattoria is pared-back in style, quite literally in the middle of the countryside, there are plenty of small touches that remind you whose table you’re eating at.

Address: Strada Provinciale, 73020 Supersano LE, Italy
Website: pellegrinobrothers.it