Ristorante Litus — Restaurant in Cagliari

I came during the closing time, the staff were eating like a family. This is nice. They politely apologize in Italian and asked me to kindly return in 2 hrs when the restaurant will be open again. When I returned, The maître d' welcomed me in, and said thank you for returning. Great service!! I ordered first course, a dish with mussels and clams in pomodoro sauce, it was fabulous! I then ordered Linguini alla vongole (with clams) and Bottarga, which is dried fish eggs (special only to Sardenia and deep south Italy), this dish was fantastic, had I more room in my stomach, I would eat another! I paired with 2022 Funtaliras (half bottle) white wine from the region, what a lovely bottle of white. See photo! This place is a hidden gem, away from all the hussle bustle in Cagliari but just 10 min away. Oh their house cheese cake! Reminded me of cheese cake I get every burthday when I was a boy, I never forget my dad always get me this cake and this one is exactly the same! You could choose to get different sauces on it but I chose...

This was very poor…and I’m fairly sure the staff know it.

We started with clam and mussel “soup” that contained around 2mm of soup topped with cold mussels (5 of which hadn’t opened) and clams. This was followed by a mix of fried fish (we ordered grilled) that were tough as leather and clearly overcooked. To be fair the lime and shrimp pasta dish wasn’t too bad and didn’t appear to be cooked in a very large pot in batches like the other dishes. To top it off the wine was very average and uninteresting. Not once did any member of staff ask if I enjoyed the food, quickly whisking food away and not looking you in the eye.

Look I get it, you are a beachfront restaurant serving a lot of tourists. However with all the fresh fish on hand you could respect the ingredients enough to serve food that tastes reasonable. It wouldn’t take much but you clearly have been getting away with this for so long I suppose it just becomes habit. You have a great location and a bit of effort would turn this round in no time.

Avoid if you...

As a hotel guest of the Hotel Nautilus, you get 10% discount at this Mediterranean restaurant which is near the hotel and part of Nautilus Hotel ownership (right side). As many fellow travelers commented, they seem to be overpriced but they always have a good flow of seating. On our evening the restaurant was half full. The waiter recommended the catch of the day, a 1 kg SeaBass cooked / broiled in a Mediterranean Sauce with olives, wine sauce and potatoes while we ordered some other dishes. The oysters were a temptation, although its not the best season for oysters and they differed in size and texture. I felt the biggest rip-off honestly speaking, not worthwhile the price and overall experience. The mixed grilled seafood platter with tuna, seabream, cuttle fish and prawns and Linguini vongole with mussles were delicious. The service was not very attentive but at least they offered the promised 10% hotel guest discount. Not the value for money we...