Trattoria Enoteca Campagnola — Restaurant in Naples

Restaurants in Italy

Food is very important in Italy. Restaurants are clean, tidy, and their kitchens are attentive. There are cloth napkins almost everywhere on the tables. For the best dining experience, it is necessary to stay away from places with food pictures as a menu in the touristic areas. These places are more expensive on the main tourist routes, more expensive than the good places I will mention below, and are breathtakingly unsuccessful. To eat the best food, it is necessary to find some of the back streets, places that local people use daily. We can compare this to our artisan restaurants. There are many Michelin-starred venues in Italy, these venues offer unique dining experiences. Places to eat come with a few different styles and names:

Ristorante's are places that are more expensive than others, have better service, and have more special food.

Trattoria are the places where you can experience the local environment, which is smaller than the ris bititer and has less variety on the menu.

Osteria (also called Hosteria for tourist attractions, close to the word host) are the smallest type of restaurants with only a few varieties of daily meals and locally-specific house wines.

Pasticceria is the pastry shop we know, savory sandwiches and small pizzettas can also be eaten here.

Paninoteca is a bakery, but you can find a variety of sweet and savory pastries.

You can find delicatessen products and their menus in Salumeria. Here you can make a sandwich with fresh bread and use it for a picnic. Sandwich shops are especially famous in Florence.

Gastronomia is where some more traditional pastries or stews are sold.

Enoteca is the name given to wine houses, usually when a glass of wine is taken, there is also a buffet food treat.

Agriturismo are places in the form of Osteria that offer a very good dining experience, where meals made with natural products can be consumed in a farm.

Taverna is a very noisy, crowded, but very entertaining place with a little music in addition to the food culture.

Of course, all of these may be places that are similar to each other in some way, showing the characteristics of the other, even if the name is different. Among the examples of places given below, Angeli & Demoni is a luxury restaurant, but its name is mentioned as Hostaria in terms of marketing strategy. As the best tavern to be found in the Naples region, I recommend La Taverna Del Re Leone in Pozzuoli, the seafood menu there, and the place's own white wine.

Most restaurants in Italy are very strict about opening times. Lunch is served between 12:30 and 15:30, and dinner after 19:30. I do not recommend the venues that are open outside these hours.

It will always be good to do the necessary research on where to eat and go on the internet. Pastry carbonara in Rome and tiramisu in Pompi, polpette, ragu, pizza and house wine in Naples, seafood and gnocchi in Sorrento, steak in Florence, pasta with bolognese sauce or lasagna in Bologna, milanese in Milan Pasta with sauce and coffee in Starbucks (to see the difference), rabbit and pici pasta in Sienna, fish kebab in Rimini must be tasted. While traveling by car, one should enter any village / town and eat at a restaurant in the square, after the meal, amarro or limoncello should not be refused, and the taste of Italian cuisine should be enjoyed...

We visited this place whilst nearby having read all the positive reviews. We walked in just before 8pm on a Saturday night and received a seat straight away, I'm told we were very lucky not to have to line up! Based on reviews and being quite adventurous eaters, we ordered from the waiter's house recommendations.

For starters we had anchovies and zucchini flowers, and received some mozzarella toasties too after being misheard. The anchovies were a real highlight - fresh, zingy, slightly spicy and the perfect way to start a meal. The zucchini flowers were undercooked, with a mostly soggy Tempura batter and luke warm middle. The toasties were surprisingly nice and not oily despite having been deep fried. The latter two were €2 each. We also had the house wine for €5 per half litre, which was very nice.

For mains we had a rigatoni dish which was sold to us as being the local version of lasagne, and the seafood spaghetti. Both were beyond average, and most definitely the worst food we've had in Italy. The rigatoni looked like a pasta bake with cheese, canned tomato and peas. Unfortunately it didn't taste any better and was completely stodgy and with quite an off-putting flavour and texture. Unfortunately the worst dish was the seafood spaghetti. Whilst the seafood, made up of mussels, vongole and clams, was perfectly cooked, the pasta was chalky and still at least one full minute from being al dente. What made this worse was it was very clearly packet pasta, so the crunch and flavour of it was very unpleasant. Unfortunately the sauce for the pasta seemed to be just a combination of lightly salted seafood stock and pasta water, with the only reprieve being a few cherry tomato halves scattered through the dish. The waiter was very disinterested in the feedback and suggested the pasta wasn't to 'my countries' palate. Sadly, I think with an extra minute on the pasta, a more acidic tomato based sauce and a wedge of lemon, this dish could have been great.

I would highly recommend for those visiting to steer clear of the pasta dishes here, as their proteins seemed to be cooked...

Don't miss it!!

Nice place, very friendly staff and amazing food!!

You can easily recognise this place by the line outside its door from people waiting to enter and enjoy their lunch or dinner.

We had dinner here and it was the best meal I had during my 10 days stay in Italy.

The staff was very friendly and especially our waiter who was very helpful explaining the menu and suggesting dishes. Me and my boyfriend decided to have exactly what he suggested and we were right! The food was absolutely amazing( we had bracciola all ragu, try it and you will not regret it), the portions more than enough and in very friendly prices!

So, if you visit Naples, don't miss it! You may have to wait a bit to find a place but it deserves it!

Tip: If you like eating late, try at around 22:00. If you are lucky you will not have to wait at all, we waited just...