Il Pirata Ristorante, Lounge Bar, Beach Club - Praiano — Restaurant in Praiano

Freshest seafood you will get on the amalfi coast. Prepared and cooked with a level of care that is seldom seen. This is how it should be done!. There's a lesson here for everyone serving food to guests. Get the best ingredients and prepare them with total respect. It's the ultimate act of kindness and respect to your guests. Awesome anchovies fried with a hint of batter and you know they change the oil every day not a hint of nasty rancid flavours. It felt like the anchovies jumped from the sea (down the coast in cetara) and on to your plate, with a brief detour to the batter and the hot oil. Served with an intense sweet zingy lemon, had me asking why is this kind of experience so hard to find. Food wise it shouldn't be, but it is so rare... but add to this the fact that you're sitting right on the rocks of the fabulous amalfi coastline and you know that you are not just having lunch you're having an experience you'll remember forever. So that's just one dish... The pastas continue the trend... perfectly cooked with elegantly balanced flavours... and then you hope that the wine list is not limited to the usual suspects and industrial or half hearted attempts... and you'd find that the selection is like everything else here ... The result of fanatical attention to detail... amazing how many of my favourites from around Italy were present, and the selection of local Campania wines was mind blowing such that you could close your eyes and point randomly to the page and be sure of an amazing wine experience. Seriously it's that good. And if you happen to point to something that won't be optimal with your meal... very unlikely... The amazing Gianni will be sure to steer you to the very best pairing and you will trust immediately that he is not trying to sell you something but knows that the best thing he can do is to optimize your experience with out regards to the usual pressures of cost. This is the true mark of a great maitre'd! ... he knows that your dining pleasure is his ultimate goal. He will even prepare the dishes you want to taste just to share as two separate smaller elegantly presented portions ... This is how it should be... in the end we returned for dinner because of this kind of care and attention and we will be back. All the staff seem to follow the same mood real people like Giovanni from the locality who love what they do and care for the basic conviviality presented ... these guys are a credit...

I don’t normally write reviews, - but this experience couldn’t go unnoticed. The bar/lounge service and staff were great (which is honestly the only reason I’m giving this place a star). However, the dinner service my husband and I received was the RUDEST we have ever experienced.. and we live near New York, and have had our fair share of wonky services. Let me start off by saying that I asked our waiter who was an older gentleman about which white wine he recommends, and he looks at me and barks “you tell me, just tell me” I was shocked - who does that? Then, as we’re ordering the waiter is looking around talking to other guests and completely ignoring things we are asking him in regards to recommendations. My husband and I looked at each other wondering if we should say something to him but we didn’t want to be rude so we just ignored it. I don’t know if he had something against us.. I sure hope not, but it definitely seemed that way. I tried to shake off the experience and enjoy our meal which was hard to do but the food itself was OK. I think for the price, you can get so much better in the heart of Praiano. If you’re visiting for the first time, and want more than mediocre food, I would save your money and go to any of the other wonderful restaurants that have friendly staff, good service, and tasty food. I would never recommend this place to anyone due to the service alone. It...

Yep, the other 1 star reviews on here reflect the true experience for this place. Beautiful view of course, but it’s just become a mega tourist trap (thank Insta/tiktok I guess). A red flag is walking in and seeing the other 50 Americans/Poms/Canadians/Aussies smashing through their camera reels getting ready for their TikTok upload while their partner stares blankly in the distance, LOL. Cold and tasteless meals, fish pasta dish that actually made me gag (straight from a can?), soapy tasting beer (how hard is it to ‘make’ a peroni, that is less than €1 in the local shop from a bottle, to not taste like dishwater?), wine glasses with lipstick on them from the last poor sucker who’s been there… and it’s pricey - even for Amalfi. The staff are clearly all either seasonal workers who are days away from moving onto the next tourist spot- or heading back to their home land - or people who despise tourists. Also, copping €30 to sit down at a table with a view is a joke. We gave up and ate around 3 bites of the mains that were inedible, left them unfinished. I’m another dumb Aussie who came to Praiano knowing it would be pricey and touristy… but Il Pirata is truly the worst food experience after many weeks moving across Italy in 9 different cities. The bazillion 5 star reviews are standard for these kinda places, all paid bots leaving fake reviews. There is better out there, even for...