Carica Bar - Gym Tonic — Restaurant in Praiano

Category: Neighborhood Gem. Our group, except me, was not in a restaurant mood for dinner. We went here because my friend wanted a sandwich, which he had gotten here before we arrived and loved it. We went along, looking for something nonsandwichy to take back to the villa. My secret plan was to herd everyone toward some restaurant we found along the way. When we arrived here, having found two Plan Bs for nonsandwichy take-home food, we were all charmed by the simple setting of 5 tables for two under umbrellas, warm LED lights on each table, umbrellas above, a wrought iron railing, flowering flower boxes, and a huge, beautiful pine tree lighted from below, all on the side of the street opposite the restaurant’s building. A few more tables could be found on the building side of the street and outside the gym next door (hence the restaurant’s name). My secret plan worked and we slid two tables together to accommodate us. There didn’t seem to be a wine list, but our excellent server offered us an inexpensive bottle of Chianti from Montalcino (a great wine and cheese town), and we happily accepted. The menu was simple: only a few pizza choices, a few antipasti, a few pasta dishes, and a few mains, all priced more for locals than for tourists. We started with caprese salads of ripe sliced tomatoes, beautiful over-sized cherry tomatoes, freshly made mozzarella, perfect basil leaves, and drizzled local olive oil. The ladies shared a gorgeous Capricciosa pizza, which tasted as good as it looked (see photo). My friend loved his personal-sized Positano pizza of arugula, tomatoes, and shaved Parmesan. I was torn between ordering the Spaghetti Carbonara (a world classic — see my videos on how to make it, and variations) and the Orata con Pomodorini (sea bass with small tomatoes). I’m so glad I chose the latter: excellent presentation and taste. We ended with great looking little cannolis, mint gelato, and chocolate gelato, all generously served. This was perhaps my favorite meal on this trip. If you want an excellent meal with nice ambiance and friendly service, but without resort prices, give this local gym a try (pun intended). YouTube’s...

A guy who works there is very unfriendly to tourists! He is middle aged, baldish with some hair in the back and drives blue Fiat500. We saw him drive behind us and like every Italian he was impatient and wanted to overtake us, so I let him pass us. He stopped the car and screamed from the top of his lungs that I should hire someone to drive us if I don’t know how to drive (I’m an experienced driver who respects traffic rules unlike Italians from the south for whom the sign “stop” is just a decoration). He continued yelling at me even though he had claimed he was late for work because of me! (Not because he left the house too late). When I tied to explain he told me to “Shut up” and I was just a stupid tourist. A couple of minutes later we learned that he worked in a coffee shop next to our Airbnb. So, it turned out that because of “stupid tourists” he actually was employed. Well, we didn’t go to Gym and Tonic coffee shop because of him. He definitely lost customers and shed and awful light on Italian customer service and culture. The lack of respect to tourists, not to mention women in the South of Italy, is widespread. We were very disappointed to be...

I’d really recommend avoiding this place. We came in for a relaxing afternoon and ordered a couple of smoothies, but they were genuinely awful, watery, tasteless, and nothing like what you’d expect. We politely asked if they could be changed, and to be fair, the waitress was kind and agreed.

But when the bill came, we were shocked to see we were still charged for the original smoothies. We tried to explain calmly, but the man we believe to be the owner started shouting at us across the café. It was incredibly uncomfortable and completely unnecessary, we were just a group of girls trying to enjoy our afternoon.

The whole situation felt really hostile and honestly ruined the experience. We ended up paying just to get out of there. Definitely not somewhere...