Amare • Alla Guardiola — Restaurant in Castheddu/Castelsardo

Splendid location for a late summer Sunday evening.

Sophisticated, quite 'cheffy' food. Red mullet was filleted, stuffed and put back together with its tail and a pistachio crust to look like a whole fish, served with a delicate thin scamorzo sauce. Clever and good.

Nice touch to bring a complimentary amuse-bouche of salmon teriyaki, but it backfired a bit as the fish was overcooked. More hits than misses in the mixed fish antipasti selection, some very good, though the caramel sauce on one was best forgotten. Smoked salmon was excellent.

Lovely bread and breadsticks della casa.

We were upsold an unnecessary caponata - the only vegetable side dish available - which would have swamped the delicate flavours of our mullet and sea bass dishes. Ended up just eating it afterwards.

Service from the staff was fine, but the performative head waiter would not be to everyone's taste, to say the least. He was strangely reluctant to bring out the wine list, which runs to many pages of champagnes and wines from mainland Italy, but with a paltry selection of Sardinian wines - half a dozen each of reds and whites, which was 'out of date' - the only Sardinian white available was a Vermentino with a hefty €35 price tag. We read elsewhere that this restaurant has just been taken over by people from Pavia in mainland Italy - looks like they brought their wine list with them. They need to invest in a proper range of Sardinian wines to succeed at this level.

We paid €145 for two courses, wine, water and coffee for two people. Pricier than da Toti but in line with the best...

Amare restaurant is not even close to what La Guardiola was. I miss what it was before at every level. The new owners, probably originally from northern Italy, haven’t understood that we love the Island of Sardegna for the local dishes and local people. They excluded both from the restaurant. The even have the nerve to exclude one of the most known and delicious Sardinian dessert, Seada,

(Seada is a Sardinian savoury dessert which can be served with sweet toppings.)

I personally felt unwelcome and singled out! I went there by my self. They ignored me for almost 45 minutes. Once at the table I had to beg for a bottle of water and a menu. They quickly remarked I was there without reservation and I had to wait. Very rude and unprofessional. The staff looks overwhelmed and unhappy.. They run around disorganized and making sad comments about the clients. The tables are so close to each other you cannot have a private conversation. The wine list is a thick Encyclopedia with the very few Sardinian wines listed at the end of the book….the ones I ordered were not even available. The appetizer and entree I ordered were bland. Obviously I do not know the whole menu to be able to comment further.

You cannot pay the bill at your table. I had to stay inline like you would do at a fast food. 😂😂

Last but not list the bathroom is...

We went there based on high rating and amazing view. Location of the restaurant is amazing, view is great but you can see it without visiting the restaurant. What surprised us was service, some of staff were really nice, some just plain rude.Prices there are high, what would be justified if experience was great but after waiting 1 hour for antipasti and more then 1,5 hour for main course without any explanation you feel a bit lost. Food was ok but similar level as in any other trattoria around. After, there was a long line to pay at the counter. We get some discount because it was raining and restaurant is not really prepared to keep all tables dry. We saw that there were tables that had an amazing time and staff was attentive but we didn’t received the same, not sure why but not...