The 21 best restaurants in Puglia
Puglia is a region that cooks from generations of collective memory. There's no shortage of fresh ingredients, with sun-ripened fruit and vegetables, an endless sea of olive trees, vineyards and 800km of coast.
Restaurants run the gamut from masseria (farmhouse) gardens, where lunch stretches into evening, seafood shacks known only to locals, family set-ups with nonni mucking in, and chefs who forage samphire before breakfast. All but the fanciest are child-friendly, in that families are welcome, rather than because of special facilities and menus.
All our recommendations below have been hand selected and tested by our resident destination expert to help you discover the best restaurants in Puglia. Find out more below, or for more Puglia inspiration, see our guides to the region's best hotels, bars, things to do and beaches.
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Best all rounders
Taverna del Porto
You're almost at the heel's end here, and Taverna del Porto, in the town where Helen Mirren co-owns a bar, is all about the food and views. Its windows frame the panoramas over the blue Adriatic and along the coast. Don't be fooled by the interior's rustic Greek-taverna looks and scrubbed wooden tables, this is very much rustic-luxe, with breads made on the premises and exquisitely cooked fish fresh off the boat each day.
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- Times
A week on the Amalfi Coast in August for £532pp? Here's how
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This pervasive dining trend is set to wreck my summer holiday
I've just spent three marvellous days in Greece — sun, sea and some great friends, with whom I relished sharing precious downtime. I did not enjoy sharing my taramasalata. Each mealtime our group of six gather would around the same table — either at the hotel where we were staying or in local restaurants. As friends travelling together, of course we did. It was with a sinking heart, however, that I quickly realised we were to share our meals too, thanks to the pervasive — and frankly unwelcome — trend for 'sharing plates'. My joy at perusing each mealtime menu was tempered by the near certainty that my choice would not just be for me, but for all of us. A choice, no doubt, that my dining companions would instantly find more alluring than theirs, and which would fast disappear before my eyes, leaving me to dip into a selection of confusing and dissatisfying alternative mismatched 'bites'. 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