Al Dente Spaghetteria — Restaurant in Salerno

KING OF SPAGHETTI ! What fun to be back in beautiful Salerno ! My wife and I arrived here for a 6 day vacation on Thurs, March 27th after a long private limo drive from Florence. Martin our good friend and limo / tour driver dropped us off a short distance from our 4th floor Airbnb on Corso Vittorio Emanuele....the ( mostly ) pedestrian mall which runs the length of downtown Salerno. We intended to revisit most of the restaurants, cafes and gelato shops we loved during our 4 day visit here 18 months ago...and find some new ones ! In fact during dinner that first night at a very good pizzeria one of the staff suggested Al Dente to us...said it was very good. On Saturday we set off along the pedestrian mall and arrived here around 1.30pm to grab some lunch. THE PLACE WAS PACKED OUT ! As soon as we entered the eatery I ran into Mauro the very friendly manager who seated us at a table immediately...the only one in sight. GREAT VIBE ! Everywhere I looked I could see contented diners enjoying their spaghetti dishes. BEER ! Mauro was the right guy to talk to and brought me an ice cold Mastri Birra Umbri IPA with a tall stem glass straight off the bat. VERY SATISFYING ! This was an American style IPA - 6.5% abv and a pleasure to drink . FOOD ! There was an enormous selection on the menu. My wife ordered BACON AND EGG ( Fresh organic eggs, pecorino romano DOP, Norcia bacon, black pepper ) while I decided on TOMATO AND BACON ( Norcia bacon, San Marzano DOP tomato, Pecorino Romano DOP and black pepper ). POPULAR PLACE ! I noticed that every time a table was vacated it was taken straight away. FAST SERVICE ! Our beautiful looking dishes arrived faster than the bullet train. SPAGHETTI HEAVEN ! Our perfectly made meals tasted extraordinary...these guys have got it down to a fine art. We paid the bill and thanked Mauro the cool manager, Veronica & Giuseppe the kind servers....got selfies of course ! Without a doubt we would have come back again but we had a very full schedule ahead of us. ONE OF OUR BEST DINING...

Lovely restaurant with excellent food, make sure you book in advance.

On our first night in Salerno we attempted to go to this restaurant but without a booking we would not be seated so we opted to go elsewhere.

We then booked for the following day where we had a delightful experience. We started off with a bottle of the house white which was nice but nothing to write home about. We then went for a starter which consisted of bruschetta, when we looked at the menu we were a taken a back by the amount of choice, but this was no bad thing. One thing I would add as a very English tourist who has a very basic knowledge of Italian, that the menu is only in Italian so took some Google Translating.

When the starters turned up they were beautifully presented, I opted for the octopus and potato purée which was delightful although the octopus was a little bit overwhelmed by the other flavours from the green beans and the purée. I also tried some of my partners aubergine bruschetta with a parmesan crisp which was also delicious.

We then moved onto the past course where I went for the lobster spaghetti, let my say this was a sight to behold. It was immense, half a lobster coupled with a delicious oil based pasta similar to an Aglio e Olio, this was incredible and highly recommended.

We also got a Aglio e Olio to share just for good measure and this was also delightful. My partner got the olive, lemon pasta and having tried some and having heard her response whilst eating it I can say it’s definitely one to look out for.

Al Dente - Spaghetteria is a lovely place with an open kitchen and good service and I would recommend this to anyone looking for amazing...

Easily one of the best service and pasta we've had in our 3 week trip through Italy!

Warm friendly service from all staff interacting with customers, our very kind and attentive waiter even refilled our water without us asking, and without charging us for another bottle of water. Even though I made the embarrassing faux pas of mistaking their drinking water dispensers for their handwashing station, the same warm and friendly waiter very kindly explained my mistake to me, and he also showed me how their actual handwashing tap was operated by a foot pedal when he saw me struggling to turn on the water.

Food wise, the Amatriciano pasta was perfection incarnate with crunchy Norcia bacon, fresh San Marzano DOP tomato sauce, and just the right amount of Roman pecorino DOP cheese grated into the sauce for the perfect balance between the tanginess of the tomato and the savoury cheese & bacon. Superb pasta that fully deserves all the superlative reviews from other Google reviewers!

We also had the Cozze E Pecorino pasta which was delightfully refreshing with lemon peel and tender mussels, the flavors were again perfectly balanced.

100% would return again the next time I'm in Salerno, honestly one of the best pasta I've had in Italy!

They also have a QR code at each table that you can scan to get the online...