The restaurants below are the ones I always return to. Their food combines regionality with inventiveness and skill, wine lists are well-chosen, prices are good value, and service is hospitable. Note the new and very good listing in Venice.
LEIVI (LIGURIA)
CA’ PEO
East of Genoa, across the bay from Portofino, on a winding road up a steep hill from Chiavari, is one of my favorite restaurants, Ca’ Peo. The view is spectacular, the cooking excellent without pretension, the wine list admirably well-chosen, and it's all run with effortless hospitality by the Solari family. Melly, the matriarch, runs the kitchen, revitalizing traditional Ligurian recipes, and Franco runs the dining room with efficient warmth, doubling as an expert sommelier (it’s no surprise that Piero Antinori and Angelo Gaja have eaten here, but so has Bob Mondavi). It’s quite comfortable—there are only nine tables, widely spaced, with well-padded chairs. From the kitchen come dishes like eggplant stuffed with aged ricotta, black olives, and pine nuts in basil-tomato sauce, red mullet ravioli, lasagna made from chestnut flour with mixed vegetables in pesto sauce, green macaroni made from borage with rabbit sauce, and breast of duck with caramelized spices and balsamic sauce. If you can manage dessert, try the chestnut ice cream in honey-pine nut sauce flamed with Calvados. Franco’s cellar is a treasure-trove of Italian wine, including vintages in depth of Ornellaia, Sassicaia, Tignanello, several Barbarescos from Gaja, and many other great wines (he also sponsors a competition for the best local wines every year, which he adds to the list). There are also five small suites.
Ca’ Peo, 80 Via dei Caduti, Leivi (Genoa). Tel 00 39 0185 31 9696. (www.capeo.info)
Open Thursday-Sunday lunch, Tuesday-Sunday dinner; closed in November.
LUCCA
BUCA DI SAN ANTONIO
This ancient (1782) restaurant is Lucca’s best, and best-known. The decor is charmingly eccentric, with battered copper cookpots and musical instruments hanging from the ceiling, and architectural prints on the walls. It’s crowded, always bustling. The good news is that the waiters speak English and are very patient about explaining the long menu. The bad news is that they also speak German, French, and are probably learning Japanese, as the world seems to show up here. (The locals still predominate, though—this is where Lucca’s elite meet to eat.) Best strategy: Reserve a table as far in advance as possible, and for as early an hour as possible, It’s worth it—much of the food is traditional and unusual, such as puff-pastry tarts filled with spicy chickpea puree or wild mushrooms (tortina di funghi), or tordelli (pillowy pasta stuffed with beef, pork, sausage and various greens, seasoned with nutmeg), pasta with pigeon or hare sauce, or guinea hen braised with raisins. There’s a wide range of grilled meats, a Tuscan specialty, and desserts are fabulous. The wine list is encyclopedic, very well chosen, not limited to Tuscany.
Buca di San Antonio, Via della Cervia 1-3, Lucca. Tel: +39 0583 5581
Open Tuesday-Sunday lunch, Tuesday-Saturday dinner. Reservations essential
VENICE
VECIO FRITOLIN (new)
A couple of centuries ago, many restaurants in Venice offered deep-fried fish right off the boat, as a cheap and easy take-away. At this attractive, cozy but not cramped restaurant, there is still a dish of frittura di pesce, a mix of various fried fish, and as good as it gets in Venice, but there’s a lot more, all fresh, expertly cooked. Much of the daily-changing fish is grilled, with imaginative vegetables (broccoli flan, zucchini marinated with basil, radicchio and tomato confit, for example). Start with a plate of salt-cod quenelles and sweet-and-sour shrimp on polenta, followed by baked sea bass with fennel cream and olives, or a salad of crunchy mantis shrimp with artichokes and then a dramatic presentation of lobster and eggplant tossed with pasta made with squid ink. The pasta and excellent bread are made on-site. The wine list is well-chosen and long, a showcase of Veneto and especially Friuli specialties, quite reasonably priced. Irrepressibly cheerful owner Irina Freguia is usually on hand to advise, explain, and encourage; she's hospitality in person. (She also operates the splendid café at the Palazzo Grassi museum, on the canal in San Marco.)
Vecio Fritolin, Calle della Regina (Rialto) 2262—actually in the Santa Croce district, near Campo San Cassiano; telephone +39 041 522 2881. (www.veciofritolin.it)
Open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner, closed Monday. Reservations essential.
OSTERIA ALLE TESTIERE
Very small (10 tables), slightly cramped, thoroughly informal, very cheery, welcoming, popular with locals, and my personal favorite. The variety of inventive dishes emerging from the tiny kitchen is astonishing–baked clams with ginger, grilled razor clams with garlic, crunchy sauteed baby shrimp in their shells on creamy polenta, grilled vegetables in a tangy wine sauce, and a variety of perfectly grilled fish; the menu, which is recited by the waiter, changes every day. The wine list is broad and carefully chosen, with a rotating selection of nine fine wines available by the glass or medium or large carafes.
Osteria alle Testiere, Calle del Mondo Novo 5801, Castello. Tel & fax: +39 041 522-7220.
Open Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner. Reservations essential.
RISTORANTE DA IVO
Another favourite, cozy, with whimsical decor and friendly service, notably welcoming; overall, the atmosphere is charming and romantic. There are some Tuscan specialties, like imaginative crostini, grilled game, and Chianina beef, but the Venetian seafood specialties are also sublime: baby shrimp on polenta, soft-shell crab, black cuttlefish-ink risotto, and perfectly filleted fish with vegetable sauces, like John Dory with tomato and olives, or turbot and artichokes in wine sauce. Desserts are simple but delicious. The wine list is extensive, and staff are quite knowledgeable.
Ristorante da Ivo, Ramo dei Fuseri 1809, San Marco. Tel: +39 041 528-5004.
Open Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner, closed in January. Reservations essential.
FIASCHETTERIA TOSCANA
Despite its name, this very popular two-floor restaurant is thoroughly Venetian–gnocchi with scampi so light they almost float off the plate, wholewheat spaghetti with duck sauce, John Dory fillets with a sharp caper sauce, sea bass with clam sauce, turbot baked with cardoons, and frittura della Serenissima, a platter of lightly battered and fried fish and vegetables, rather like tempura on steroids; leave room for the rich ice-cream cassata on dense raspberry coulis. The wine list is all-Italian and quite encyclopedic, with an abundance of very good values.
Fiaschetteria Toscana, San Giovanni Crisostomo 5719, Cannaregio. Tel: +39 041 528-5281.
Open Wednesday through Monday for lunch and dinner. Reservations essential.
