Panificio Fiore Bari — Restaurant in Bari

Bread. I could eat it all day and still ask for more. When I travelled in Bari in May I had a "mission" to find the best focaccia in town. You see, I love seeing new places. Raising your eyes for the first time to see an impresive castle or a majestic waterfall, stepping on a beautiful beach, getting lost on the streets of a new town, all this I love. But I strongly believe that when visiting a place you should always try something local. A special dish, a type of bread, a glass of wine. Something natural, most of the times hand made, using local products. So in Bari, after checking the internet to find out local dishes, I wanted to taste the focaccia. I sampled many amazing dishes in Bari but today is about Panificio Fiore's focaccia. Now, for most people focaccia is something that comes to the table like a side dish. But trust me they must have never tasted a piece of focaccia in this place. It is simply amazing. What is more amazing is the fact that the recipe is so simple... You have the bread, the tomato sauce, oil and olives. But trust me, I have eaten two pieces( one piece is fairly large keep in mind) and I was craving for more. That's how good it was. The place, Panificio Fiore, is on a street called Palazzo di Citta at number 38, somewhere in the old town of Bari, and is a small shop filled with local delicacies where I have seen many locals stand in line waiting for the focaccia. The focaccia is so cheap that price does not even deserves to be mentioned but what needs to be said is the fact that one or two slices can keep you full for a long time as you explore Bari. That being said, if ever in...

Ehh... DON'T believe the hype...

I had saved this place as THE location for foccacia, before even leaving to go on holiday to Italy. It was one of my key, must see, destinations. I wasn't even going to get any foccacia before visiting this establishment because I wanted my first proper Italian foccacia to be unbeatable. Well, it was very beatable.

I had the classic tomato foccacia, and it literally just came out of the oven. I got the very first slice of it. I also bought a slice of a potato and ham, and a sausage foccacia. The classic tomato was really pretty disappointing. I'd had two classic tomato foccacia slices from two other places a couple of days beforehand (one in Bari, the other in Polignano a Mare), and both were FAR superior. It wasn't even close. It was a night and day difference. This tomato foccacia from Panificio Fiore was less than half the thickness of the other foccacias, and the tomatoes certainly weren't as flavourful, and there was a complete lack of salt and seasoning. It was very one dimensional. The potatoes and ham and sausage foccacia slices were both nicer than their tomato, but neither were anywhere near as nice as the foccacias I'd previously tried from other places.

Not sure if this was just a bad day at the bakery, but my experience of taste and flavour here was the opposite from the vast majority of reviews. Sadly not worth the wait, the hype, or the...

I visited because the place was suggested to me as one of the two places with the best foccacia in Bari (the other one being Panificio Santa Rita), but left disappointed and not coming back. Foccacia was of poor quality - extremely thick layer of dough which didn't let to enjoy the whatever few things were put on the top. Also, too salty. They might have been named as the place with the best foccacia in the past but certainly don't live up to that standard now. Also, the price was somewhat more expensive than in other places in the Old Bari. I paid EUR 2.5 for 1/4 of focaccia, while, for instance, in Santa Rita a much better foccacia costs EUR 3 for entire foccacia (i.e. 4 such pieces as they give you here). Of course, it's not a big money in general but rather a matter of principle and shows the general attitude of the place to charge more than others for the quality that is lower than in other places. Had bought also a piece of another pie/pasty but was equally...