The Top 15 Restaurants Near Ricciardulli – Pizzeria Contemporanea
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Rank 1. Luna Rossa
Basilicata Italian
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Rank 2. Vitantonio Lombardo
Modern Italian
A cave carved into the Sassi, restored from ruin into a Michelin-starred dining room, sets the mood before a single plate arrives. The chef builds modern creative tasting menus, five to ten courses, around Lucanian pantry staples, but interprets them with enough freedom that the food feels personal rather than folkloric. The sommelier's wine pairing is worth the conversation alone. Walk the lit alleyways afterward; Piazza Duomo at night does something to people.
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Rank 3. Radino Wine Bistrot
Country Italian
The dining room sits inside a former 16th-century church merged with an ancient wine press, and the stone bones of both are still very much present. Radino Wine Bistrot is a casual Italian wine bistro in Matera serving the kind of straightforward southern cooking that doesn't need explaining, cavatelli with Lucanian sausage being the anchor. There's also a snug room downstairs set aside for cigar smokers, which tells you something about the crowd's intentions.
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A family-run restaurant carved into the upper Sassi, with a small terrace and a dining room that feels like someone's home, if someone's home had a serious wine list. The father cooks contemporary Basilicatan food, while mother and daughter run the floor with the easy confidence of people who've been feeding strangers for years. Tasting menus and à la carte both available, which is a civilized way to operate.
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Rank 5. Aroma
Creative Italian
The dining room sits inside Matera's first pharmacy, and the view from the terrace takes in the Sasso Barisano in one unobstructed sweep. This is a creative Italian restaurant where the cooking leans toward restraint rather than spectacle, which in a town this photogenic is practically a political statement. Two tasting menus run alongside a full à la carte, so you can commit or hedge your bets depending on the mood.
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Rank 7. Dimora Ulmo
Modern Southern
The summer terrace looks out over the Sassi, which is a view that tends to make people order another glass. Inside a carefully restored old palazzo, this is a tasting-menu restaurant built around three named journeys through modern cooking and the traditions of Basilicata, though you can also pick individual courses. The wine list leans local without going parochial, and the service has the rare quality of seeming interested in you.
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Homemade pasta rolled out every morning sets the tempo at this old-school trattoria in Taranto, where the menu leans heavily toward the land rather than the sea. Antonio works the room while his sisters cook, and the move is to skip the printed menu entirely and let him narrate whatever came in that day. Regulars know this and order nothing; newcomers figure it out fast. A place where the informality is the whole point.
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Rank 9. La Cuccagna Giro di Vite
Apulian Italian
Apulian trattoria that grew out of a family butcher shop and never really left those roots behind. Meat still anchors the menu, and the kitchen garden supplies vegetables that show up in a long procession of antipasti and fresh pasta. The wine cellar runs to over 300 labels, which is serious for a town this size. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and there's a small B&B next door if the meal stretches, as it tends to.
- 50 Top Italy #49 · The Best Italian Restaurants - Modern Trattorias And Bistros
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
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Rank 10. Al Becco della Civetta
Basilicata Italian
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Rank 11. Da Peppe
Basilicata Italian
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Rank 12. Vez
Modern Italian
A vaulted ceiling, an open kitchen, and a terrace beside the church of San Carlo Borromeo: the setting alone does a lot of the work. This modern restaurant in a small Apulian village cooks entirely from local ingredients, with herbs from its own kitchen garden. The chef spent formative years in Bologna, and the house-made stuffed pasta remembers that. A Michelin Bib Gourmand.
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Rank 13. Bros' Trattoria
Apulian Italian
A cluster of trulli beside a small vineyard sets the scene at this rustic trattoria tucked behind a relais outside Martina Franca. The kitchen leans into Apulian tradition, with wood-fired cooking and a menu that shifts with whatever the market offers that week. The same team behind a nearby gourmet spot runs the stoves here, though the register is looser and the food earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
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Rank 14. Calvi Ristorante
Mediterranean
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Rank 15. Osteria del Vicolo
Calabrian
Mormanno lentils have been simmering in this kitchen long enough to become a local shorthand for the town itself. Osteria del Vicolo is a family-run trattoria tucked into the old village center, where one generation cooks a deeply Calabrian peasant tradition and another works the room with the warmth of someone who knows every story behind every dish. The room is small and unhurried, and the ingredients rarely travel far.