Best Restaurants in Ravello: Where to Eat, Dish by Dish

What eating in Ravello is actually like

Ravello sits high above the Costiera Amalfitana, and its restaurant scene reflects that: small dining rooms and terraces rather than long boulevards of competing menus. The clearest practical split is between panoramic restaurants clustered around Piazza Duomo, Via San Giovanni del Toro and Via Santa Chiara, family-run trattorias in the historic-centre lanes and along Via della Repubblica, and quick-stop food around Piazza Duomo, Via Boccaccio and Via Roma.

One quirk of local geography matters if you are staying up in the town. The stretch of coast road between Minori and Amalfi, known as Marmorata, actually belongs to the comune of Ravello, so a sea-level table there is still a Ravello table. That gives you a genuine choice between eating in the hill town and eating below it on the water.

Menus here lean on fresh fish, seasonal vegetables, lemons and pasta made in house, and the cooking is built around the Costiera repertoire rather than heavy invention. That means the dish you order matters more than the venue's reputation, so read the next section before you book anywhere.

The dishes to order anywhere in Ravello

Start with scialatielli ai frutti di mare, a fresh eggless pasta from the Amalfi Coast that is shorter and thicker than spaghetti and usually dressed with mussels, clams, squid and prawns, parsley and local lemon. It is the single best test of a kitchen's seafood: if the clams are gritty or the lemon overwhelms the fish, order something simpler for your second course.

Parmigiana di melanzane, baked aubergine with tomato, fiordilatte mozzarella and basil, appears on almost every menu and is the vegetarian dish to fall back on when the fish looks tired. For a second course, totani e patate — squid cooked with potatoes, cherry tomatoes and Mediterranean herbs — is a humble, filling plate that suits a cool evening on a hill.

Ravioli filled with buffalo ricotta and lemon zest, often finished with butter and sage or a light tomato sauce, are the richest of the pasta options, and frittura di paranza — a fry-up of small fish from the gulf served with salt and lemon — works as either an antipasto or a main. If you only eat one pasta dish in Ravello, make it one of these two.

L'Antica Cartiera at Marmorata: a clifftop table on the coast

L'Antica Cartiera is the town's clearest example of dining on the water without leaving Ravello. It sits at Via Marmorata 4, on the coastal road linking Minori and Amalfi, arranged on terraces a few metres above the sea with a private cliffside table available for a couple marking an occasion. The kitchen is led by Executive Chef Salvatore De Micco, whose cooking is described as Mediterranean tradition reinterpreted with a contemporary hand.

The venue serves lunch, a separate bistrot service running from midday into the evening, and dinner on the terrace, so you can eat lightly at an odd hour or settle in for the full dinner. It is also set up for private events, with a small private room called La Loggia della Cascata for intimate dinners and celebrations. The menu runs with the seasons, so treat any published list as a starting point rather than a fixed card.

Who it suits: couples and small groups who want the sea right below the table and are prepared to make the trip down from the town. The terrace at dusk is the reason to come, and arriving by boat is an option if you are already on the water. For more addresses where the view carries the meal, see our pick of restaurants with a view in Ravello.

Terrace restaurants around Piazza Duomo and Via San Giovanni del Toro

The panoramic restaurants cluster around Piazza Duomo, Via San Giovanni del Toro and Via Santa Chiara, where terraces look out over the Costiera and menus mix traditional plates with more refined cooking. These are the tables to book for a birthday or a last-night dinner, and the ones to skip if you mostly want to eat well cheaply.

Rossellini's, inside Palazzo Avino, is one of the town's most highly-rated restaurants, built around a polished take on Neapolitan cooking. Book it as a set-piece meal rather than a casual lunch: the setting and service are the point as much as the food, and the bill reflects that.

The honest trade-off is that you are paying for the view as much as the plate. If the terrace matters, book an early dinner so you eat in daylight and watch the light change over the water; if it does not, spend the money on a better bottle or a second course instead.

Family trattorias in the historic centre lanes

Step off the main square into the vicoli — the narrow lanes of the historic centre — and along Via della Repubblica, and the restaurants get smaller, cheaper and slower. Many are family-run, with short menus of the dishes above and house wine from Campania, and the pace is set by the kitchen rather than the next sitting.

This is where to eat if you want parmigiana, a plate of pasta and a chat rather than a staged view. Look for a handwritten menu and a dining room that fills with Italian voices; those signals tell you more about a trattoria than any sign outside.

For a daytime version of the same cooking, our lunch in Ravello guide covers the midday tables where a plate of pasta and a glass of white will not derail the afternoon.

Quick stops: pizza al taglio, panini and fried fish

Around Piazza Duomo, Via Boccaccio and Via Roma you can eat for very little. Pizza al taglio (pizza by the slice, sold by weight), panini filled with local salumi and mozzarella, cuoppi — paper cones of mixed fried fish — and the Campanian sfogliatella, a crisp shell-shaped pastry, all work as a stand-up lunch between wanders.

This is the budget route, and it is genuinely good rather than a compromise: a slice and a cone of fried fish eaten on a wall beats a mediocre terrace lunch. Our guide to the best pizza in Ravello goes deeper on where to find the slice worth queuing for.

If you are after a sit-down pizza rather than a slice, order a proper Margherita in the evening and keep the toppings simple; the wood oven and the dough are what you came for. A spritz before dinner is the natural bridge into the evening service, and our aperitivo in Ravello guide covers where to take it.

Shops and market stalls on Via Trinità for lemons and cheese

Via Trinità and Via Lacco are where the food shops and small market stalls concentrate, selling lemons, cheese, preserves and typical sweets to eat on the spot or carry home. This is the place to assemble a picnic — a wedge of local cheese, bread, a jar of preserves — and eat it in one of the public gardens with a view, which is one of the best-value meals in town.

The lemons are the thing to buy: the sweet, thick-skinned Costiera lemon is what gives the local pastries and liqueurs their perfume. For the sweet side of the same shops, our pastry shops in Ravello guide covers what to buy with your lemons.

If you would rather learn to cook the repertoire than buy your way through it, a half-day class is the most productive souvenir. See our cooking classes in Ravello for what a session typically covers.

Delizia al limone and candied lemon peel: the sweet finish

The signature dessert is delizia al limone, a dome of soft sponge filled with lemon cream and glazed with an aromatic citrus coating. It is light enough to order even after a full pasta course, and it is the one sweet that sums up Ravello on a plate. Candied lemon peel, often dipped in dark chocolate, is the thing to buy as a gift on the way home.

If you want something cold after dinner, walk rather than sit: a gelateria cone is the usual way to finish an evening in an Italian hill town. Our best gelato in Ravello guide covers where to stop.

Breakfast follows the same pattern: a cornetto and a coffee at the bar, standing, is the local habit and the cheapest start to the day. Our breakfast in Ravello guide explains the bar routine.

Booking, timings and choosing between lunch and dinner

Ravello has few tables relative to demand in high season, so book the terrace restaurants and L'Antica Cartiera ahead if the meal matters — especially for a Saturday or a special occasion. The bistrot at L'Antica Cartiera runs through the afternoon, which makes a late, light lunch easier to arrange than at a place with a strict single sitting.

Lunch is the more relaxed meal in Ravello: the same kitchens, often simpler plates, and daylight on the view. Dinner is for the occasion, and the terrace at dusk is the reason to book it.

If you are moving on along the coast, our guide to the best restaurants in Amalfi covers the next town along.

Which Ravello table should you book?

Book L'Antica Cartiera if you want the sea directly below the table and are prepared to go down to Marmorata for it, and a terrace above Piazza Duomo if the view from the hill town is the point of the trip. For everything else, follow the dish rather than the address: a family trattoria with scialatielli and parmigiana will feed you better than a mediocre terrace on any given night.

Keep one lunch free for a slice and a cuoppo near the square, and one afternoon for the shops on Via Trinità, so the trip has a cheap, good day as well as a special one. The town rewards planning ahead: a handful of phone calls in the morning secures you the table you actually want.