Il Monazzero di Teresina — Restaurant in Sorrento

One of my FAVORITE dinners we had in Italy! It was incredible to sit and eat our meal on the water; the restaurant is clean, well-lit, and has some fun, coastal decor even in their outdoor seating. EXCELLENT vibes for a chill, yet lil fancy dinner 🙂‍↕️

All our apps were so TASTY: the caprese salad used the freshest tomatoes and olive oil, the mussels were cooked to a perfect buttery texture (and were also well seasoned), and our fav appetizer, the grilled octopus, had a perfect char that complimented the not-too-rich sauce that adorned the plate. This spot does seafood REALLY WELL so I would DEF recommend getting fish here!

For dinner, I got the Fisherman’s Risotto and MAN it did not disappoint. The rice was well-seasoned, buttery, and CHOCK FULL of generous seafood (mussels, clams, and prawn). They were so generous with the portion! I also sampled the pesto gnocchi: if you like pesto, this one is full of fresh herbs to accompany the fresh potato pasta. The pacchieri with squid was also tomato-y and briny in the best way; the squid was not overcooked and mopped up the salty sauce well. Lastly, I didn’t try, but my mom got the spaghetti with eggplant melanzane and said it was seriously good, so I’m gonna take her word for it :) Side note: awesome that this place has a vegetarian friendly pasta dish like the eggplant spaghetti!

After sufficiently stuffing ourselves with such tasty pasta and seafood, I gotta say, some of the best parts of the meal were the friendly staff who checked in with us throughout our dinner! The servers also gave us an additional app (fried dough balls that were surprisingly light and airy!) just for fun! Would 1000% recommend Il Monazzero di Teresina if you are staying in Sorrento; what a...

Mixed experience: some dishes were great, but in other cases we are still convinced we were served frozen seafood. Risotto, for instance, came with clams that still had ice in them and with stone cold mussels.

We pointed this out to the professional and nice waiter who talked to the chef and then reported back: clams were cooked when fresh, then fast-frozen ("abbattute") so to preserve them... we pointed out that this means that the seafood was pre-cooked and then congelato, since you don't need to freeze seafood cooked the day of service... the poor guy could only ask if at least the flavor was good.

Unacceptable the owner's behavior, who - instead of coming to speak with us - went complaining to his friends having dinner in another table saying that some people don't know what they are eating.

No discount on the bill (instead of sending back the risotti we were nice enough to have them heated up properly), which was way too high given some of the products used in the restaurant. Not so convinced about the source of the frittura either, which didn't look anything like the ones featured in other reviews and whose "pastella" didn't taste anything like the one used in the fried zucchini blossoms (which were exceptional).

Do yourself a favor. If you are in Marina Grande just go to Nonna Emilia or Porta...

Absolutely delighted with our experience at this restaurant. We were sat quickly as a table of 6 started off our meal with wine and ended the meal with shots of lemon cello. The staff was helpful and checked on us frequently. Location was great right next to the water so we could hear the waves.

We must have tasted half of the menu and every single dish was perfect. Delicious flavors, not overly done. Fried seafood was perfect.

A few dishes included spaghetti with mussels, spaghetti with burrata, spaghetti nerano, fried seafood, fried squid and shrimp, spaghetti vogoli with lobster, squid and potatoes, tartufo blanco and nero (blanco was better of two), and tiramisù.

Very happy we ended our time in Sorrento with an amazing meal....