La Tavernetta — Restaurant in Martina Franca

The restaurant is situated in one of the narrow streets leading from the main piazza in the centro storico. It is quite small. We visited on a Saturday night and fortunately we had reserved a table.

The menu has an extensive selection of local dishes and some traditional Italian fare. Visited in a group of 4. We had antipasti for two, all local dishes including vegetarian, meats, cheeses and also some squid salad. A good selection, all freshly prepared.

For main courses we chose beef and lamb all of which was cooked to perfection accompanied by salad and vegetables. All the food was cooked to perfection and tasted excellent. There is also a wide selection of deserts.

The restaurant has a very good wine list with all wines very reasonably priced. Between us we had a bottle of red and a rosé, both excellent.

The service was professional, friendly and prompt. One or two of the waiting staff spoke English if required, although menus were available in English.

Martina Franca is a lively, busy town and this restaurant...

Overall the food was good: delicious gnocchi and tasty well-balanced tiramisu (that they serve semi freddo). It was also the first time we got served bruschetta in place of the usual black olives. Nice.

Although the gnocchis themselves were great, the ricotta sauce was more watery than creamy but maybe that's the way it's meant to be? One more thing: for a caprese aficionado, I was quite disappointed by the lack of taste of the tomato and mozzarella appetizer.

The service was friendly and fast, and the food is pretty cheap too for the amount you get, even though some things could be improved in...

Welcoming and accommodating staff served us large and varied antipasti, which consisted of perhaps ten items...the cheese was amazing and the vegetables and local meats were delicious.

A type of ravioli stuffed with eggplant--yum, then a platter of grilled meat...lamb, sausage, liver, other innards, pork rolled with cheese...(Meat was a bit salty for my taste, so I recommend you eat it with greens.)

The restaurant managers invited us into the kitchen to witness their unique manner of roasting the meat using a special charcoal-burning oven. So interesting.

Thanks to the kind people at...