Langosteria Paraggi — Restaurant in Santa Margherita Ligure

Amazing place and atmosphere, staff is quick and keep an eye on everything. Service is high quality standard. We are used to go to good restaurants, but the food unfortunately didn’t impress at all, and for this we think was overpriced even for the area. We put 3 stars overall because we wouldn’t come back.

The cocktails we had were tasty (vento d’estate), but since they cost 20 euros we thought they would be nicely presented.

We felt the menu needed some description of the dishes, since not all clients (us included) feel comfortable to ask everything to the waitress. Sometimes a creative description give you the appetite

We had oysters (those were perfect) and a second dish as main course, that honestly was a bit disappointing, not with taste, apart from the chok pai that came with the fish and was just kind of grilled and had no sauce, or olive oil for example.

The dish is to be ordered by min 2 people, so you automatically imagine that if it is for 2 people the quantity should be proportional, but was not the case unfortunately.

Maybe we were just not lucky with the choice of the main dish, but we found was way too simple (and too little) for the price.

The dessert menu was another thing that didn’t appeal so we didn’t take anything

For the atmosphere and the quality of the service that was offered, we were expecting also a more creative and more visual menu

In short, if you prioritise top service and environment this place is for you. Otherwise there are restaurants offering a tastier (or more appealing) menu charging half...

Underwhelming everything

I had expectations aligned with the high rating of the restaurant, had to book in advance.

Arrived 7 minutes ahead of reservation time, looking not too shabby with my super-model wife. Got the worst table in the house, after 5+ minutes of staff bickering got upgraded to the 2nd worst table.

The cocktails felt too sweet, too much sugar. The raw seafood was good but not great. The special of the day €50 pasta felt, again, conspicuously too sweet, and the pasta itself was from a supermarket. Cooked fish and pasta felt lacking character or flavour.

After returning to the hotel, I learned from the local staff that the restaurant had recently changed the chef. It felt to me that the new chef was over-using sugar to sugarcoat over his lack of cooking skill, both figuratively and literally.

Normally, i feel higher energy when leaving a good restaurant. Being in this restaurant felt exhausting, for some reason, which is difficult to pin and write down. I left this restaurant feeling super-tired, with the kind of tiredness i hadn't experienced before. This must had been that sugar they generously gush into meals and drinks wearing off.

The restaurant feels underwhelming in every regard. I can only recommend my friends strongly against visiting this restaurant.

The restaurant's ambition is way out of proportion relative to its cooking skills.

Its high rating cannot possibly be anything more than a sham, a rip-off for unsuspecting tourists, not a place...

Like for any restaurant of a certain level, I am reviewing the whole experience, including the cost.

The quality of the ingredients/raw material is excellent. (in this case seafood).

The quality of the cooking is good but average, especially considering how they market themself as. Dishes are simple (which is often better) but very plain, uninteresting. Appetizers were ok but the primi and secondi were grossly under par.

I found the cost pretty outrageous, especially considering we had negotiated a set menu days before; just not up to the whole experience. Of course the unique location drives the price here, but when you are paying Michelin star prices you expect at least some respect: appetizers where cheaply made, we were served as a primo basically the same dish we just had in the appetizers, just presented differently. The secondo was a giant oven baked branzino, served without any vegetable of any kind.. you just baked something for 1.5 hour and could not cook some potatoes or vegetables? for $200 Euros it feels like being ripped off.

Table and service are excellent. The prime location as well, nothing to say.

In general I would not go back, you can eat similar qality for less than half, and if you want to spend that kind of money there are plenty of restaurants that would do...