Il Gattaccio - Acciugheria & Street Food — Restaurant in Vernazza

Wonderful restaurant, impeccable service and food.

Favorites would be: calamari sandwich, pesto pasta, mix seafood pasta.

The head chef and his waitress (Marie?) were more than kind, they were excellent. We ate there (almost) everyday during our 4-night stay in Vernazza, excluding our last night as they were doing renovations.

As someone who has worked in the service industry, I can understand how grating it must be dealing with the phenomenal amount of tourism not only this restaurant gets but the entirety of Cinque Terre, Vernazza during these summer months.

I personally witnessed several visitors try and ask for ridiculous substitutions or straight up be clueless when entering this restaurant, seeing it fully booked and still demand a non-existent table.

It is a tiny establishment (4 tables I believe) and they do not accept reservations.

To the reviews saying the staff is unkind: they’re not, they’re actually super hospitable if you’re ordering their food and not asking for an item subbed out/in or a food item not on their menu.

It’s honestly quite sad that there are people out there visiting this absolutely gorgeous town and are in such a bubble they can’t string together a few words in Italian to help their interactions go smoother—-it was alarming how many tourists would try to order fish and chips, when there’s literally a fish and chips place across the street 😐 (which the chef would recommend to go to several times!). Please ask for the menu maybe?

All in all, wish we stayed longer as I wanted to try more of the menu! The food was always very fresh and we’ll be dreaming...

New photos added - Restaurant Staff replied on top of my comments and it perfectly illustrated how you will be "well-treated" as a customer: 'Hello, we strongly advise that if you have to go on holiday angry and make the work of others who do it professionally difficult, it is better to stay at home. Greetings the badass staff'. Now everyone would know my comments are way too fair and generous:)

I was there before the opening hour for lunch but the shop is opened with staff inside. But basically no one was bother to come out to tell the customer to wait till when even they saw few of us were queuing apparently.

When we can get in, the chef and the staff always talked so loudly and sang suddenly. I was trying to ask for ordering as few of us have sat a while but no one is serving / taking our order, the staff simply said impatiently that they will be coming to the table for ordering and said that even the table before you have not yet ordered while actually I was the first one to queue.

It takes at least 25-30 minutes to finally have our dish - the food is fair, very fresh seafood but the pasta is so-so, and the whole dish is very salty and heavy. Not bad but it's too so good too especially I don't feel being respected and the atmosphere of the restaurant is not good at all - hearing those voices nearly screaming which actually it's the staff who are talking to each other.

NOT...

Super tiny restaurant with stools for 10-12 people. If you have back issues, it can be hard to sit in these small stools. The chef was friendly and funny. We ordered fried mixed seafood, tuna sandwich and pasta with clam and shrimp. The fried seafood was just ok but the pasta was really good. Seafood was cooked perfectly with a savory broth that you can mop up with some bread. The sandwich was also delicious with a generous portion of fresh tuna. Our friends who were there also liked their dishes. Overall it was a very good meal. When we got the check we found we were erroneously charged for wine and water, when I brought it to the attention of the server she argued at first and we had to explain we don’t drink any alcohol due to religious reasons before she refunded me the €6 for wine but not the €1.50 for the water. I am sure it was an honest mistake but it was weird that she didn’t recall our order when we are one of the 3 parties in the restaurant and didn’t believe us when we mention the mistake. Regardless, it’s always a good idea to check...