Pizzeria Il Montino — Restaurant in Pisa

Seems to be popular with locals as well as tourists. Slightly odd division in ordering options which for once actually seems to benefit the tourists rather than the locals - you can either sit down and get table service or queue up at the counter to order then grab any free space at the same tables. Why you would do the latter and incur the long wait and seemingly not that different prices baffles me. I just lazily sat and got table service, and had happily worked my way through several courses and a couple of beers while the lady sitting next to me, who seemed to be a local, looked on enviously, waiting for her husband who was in the queue to order at the counter. I typically prefer counter service but here table service just seemed a far more streamlined operation.

As for the food, Pisa is interesting culinarily as it is at a crossroads between Liguria and Tuscany. In a more upmarket restaurant here you might find more Tuscan cuisine, but in a place with "street food" leanings like this pizzeria it definitely felt a lot more Ligurian.

I started with the Cecina (in the menu listed as"torta di ceci", but which I know as farinata or socca (or even caldi caldi in nearby Carrara), very much a Ligurian dish, and had a Proustian moment. Then a second starter (I was hungry!), the slightly odd "mozzarella condita" which seemed to be fresh mozzarella with a cooked tomato sauce (like a pizza base sauce perhaps?) on top. It took a couple of mouthfuls to get over the slight surprise at this but then I started to like it.

For my main course I had a pizza with mushrooms and artichokes. This was again a style of pizza I would associate more with Liguria than Tuscany. The thick, focaccia style base, and the tangy, salty tomato plus the complete covering of mozzarella (presumably you get this from grated rather than sliced mozzarella) are actually kind of reminiscent of some American pizza styles - a distant cousin of Chicago's deep pan pizza perhaps, and presumably there was extensive immigration from Liguria to that part of the US. I find this style of pizza is nice for a slice or two but after that it starts to get a bit overwhelming.

Nice atmosphere out in the courtyard even though a did feel a bit guilty that I seemed to be getting any food and drink much more quickly than the...

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review of Montino Osteria-Pizzeria, Pisa 🇮🇹

Some meals are delicious. Some are memorable. And then some — like what I experienced at Montino Osteria-Pizzeria — feel like a rite of passage. Tucked away in the heart of Pisa, this wood-fired haven came highly recommended by the person I’m renting from, and it absolutely lived up to the hype.

Let’s talk about the star of the show: cecina. I had never tried it before, but now I’m wondering how I’ve lived this long without it. Cecina is a thin, golden flatbread made from chickpea flour, olive oil, water, and salt — then baked in a blazing wood-fired oven until it’s perfectly crisp on the edges and luxuriously soft in the center. A dusting of black pepper is all it needs to make your eyes close involuntarily on that first bite.

Oh, and did I mention it only cost 2 euro? That’s not a price — that’s daylight robbery in your favor. A dish this iconic, this flavorful, this transportive — for less than a cup of coffee? It felt like Pisa was giving me a warm, golden edible hug.

Sure, the wait was long. But the air was thick with the scent of toasting chickpea batter and smoldering olive wood — a perfume that made time stand still and hunger turn into poetry.

Montino isn’t just a place to eat. It’s where Tuscany whispers its secrets through flavor. Don’t miss it. Don’t question it. Just go — and order the...

We stopped at Pizzeria Trattoria Il Montino while visiting Pisa and tried their famous chickpea flour flatbread called cecina, which is made with chickpea flour, olive oil, and salt water. It was really good, warm, simple, and crispy on the edges, but after watching the pizzas come out of the wood-fired oven I truly wish I had ordered one instead. The oven itself was amazing and the man behind the counter, who only spoke Italian, told us through our guide that the fire inside has not gone out since the late 1800s and that the dome is still the original to the location. He even said it is the oldest wood-fired oven still in use in Italy, which made the experience feel so special and authentic. The pizza looked absolutely incredible and I could tell it would have been worth every bite. I really wish we had stayed in Pisa for another day so I could have come back to try the pizza. If you are anywhere near Pisa, definitely stop by for a slice of history and what looks like some of the best...