Ristorante Karalis — Restaurant in Santa Margherita Ligure

Came here for dinner during our stay in this lovely town. Made a reservation the day before. Surely a good thing to do, since the place was fully booked on that weekend.

Staff/owner are all very friendly and very helpful. Besides the items on the menu there are some daily specials.

The setting is very nice, very classy. A nice place to dine. Our Bulldog was welcome here as well.

Ordered a plate of Crudo di Mare (raw seafood) and octopus stew for starters. Both very nice items. Fresh seafood and the octopus cooked perfectly. For mains we went for the Rosa Di Mare - a nice pasta dish, filled with nice fish. And a plate of seafood pasta, which we ordered off the menu, but the chef was so friendly to prepare it for us. Everything really nicely prepared with fresh ingredients. And the Rosa di Mare is also a feast for your eyes. Very nicely presented.

With that we had a nice bottle of Pigato, a delicious local white wine.

Didn't have room for dessert. But had to glasses of Japanese Whisky for "dessert". Nice, smooth, flowery.

All in all a very good and and a very good meal. Prices are fair as well. Surely a place to come back to next time in town.

Edit - Revisited after a year:

After having a wonderful dinner last year we came back this spring. And this time we came for dinner twice. And it's still as great as the first time!

Federico made us feel very welcome and at home right away. Even remembered us from last year. A really wonderful host.

We made reservations a few weeks before, because the place can be booked pretty quick. And you don't want to miss out on the excellent food here.

We had once the Fritto Misto and the Veal Carpaccio for starters. Next time again the Carpaccio and also the fried ravioli. All excellent dishes. Fritto Misto has real quality fish and seafood. Fresh, hot and crispy. Fantastic. And the Carpaccio was the best carpaccio I've ever had. Smooth and tender. And topped with truffle/pecorino foam. What a great combination!

For mains we had once the Fritto Misto and also the Pasta with Bottarga. The other time the Pasta with Lobster and the Fregola Sarda. Pasta in this restaurant is always cooked to perfection. A fantastic cook. Really knows what he's doing. Bottarga (fish roe/eggs) is a wonderful item, if you've never had it: try it! I personally love it. Lobster was cooked perfectly, fresh and tender. The Fregola is a specialty from Sardinia, a real nice twist with the freshest of seafood. Another dish surely you should try.

Both time we've had the Laura Aschero Rossese. A light red wine from Liguria, went well with both pasta and seafood. Excellent.

They also got a nice selection of Whisky here. From different countries. We chose that as a dessert, since there was no more room for food. Great stuff!

We really had some great dinners here. A nice, cosy restaurant. And our Bulldog was always welcome as well. We will definitely be back...

My husband and I ate dinner at Ristorante Karalis twice because it was so good we had to go back. The Trenette pasta with a Genova pesto sauce was spectacular. So was the codfish gnocchi with clam sauce. The bread and crackers were special too. The owner, Federico recommended a different Ligurian delicious white wine each night from a local wine producer called Pigato. For main courses, we had whole baked fish boned at the table. The first night we had sea bass with potatoes, olives and pine nuts. The second night we had dorado with mixed vegetables and white wine. The fish was incredibly fresh and cooked to perfection. Ask Federico for the catch of the day. They also serve an amazing amuse bouche.One night it was pumpkin puree with shrimp. The next was a burrata cream with sundried tomatoes. We had grapefruit sorbet and fried ravioli stuffed with cheese, a typical Sardinian dessert. Both were scrumptious. For all this the price was reasonable (2 starters, 2 main courses, 1 bottle of wine, 1 dessert and 1 coffee). It was €103 one night and €110 another. And Federico is a...

These guys treated us like family!! We were lucky enough to share a cooking experience with Federico and Valerio. The meal we made was fresh pasta, the best pesto I ever tasted, fish ravioli, campidanese, tiramisu, and they were sweet enough to add on strawberry Prosecco tiramisu because I’m not a coffee drinker. After learning how to cook these wonderful recipes, (Federico even shared some family secrets on how to make the dish even richer with me🤫) we all sat down and shared the meal together. Valerio opened many bottles of lovely wines. It was wonderful getting to know each of them and learning about the region from which they came from, Sardinia.They truly made our time in Santa Margarita Ligure a memorable one something our family will treasure for a lifetime! The food was so delicious, we had to go back our last night and have dinner there. We sat outside and met their wonderful staff who took care of us. All of our dishes from start to finish were delicious! So grateful Federico, Valerio and Ristorante Karalis was apart of our family’s trip of a lifetime💙The...