The Best Italian Food in Spain

A terrace with a Tenerife view sets the scene for this fine dining Italian restaurant inside the Royal Hideaway Corales Suites hotel, where a Bologna-born chef holds a Michelin star and a spot on the 50 Top Italy list. The kitchen commits to local island fish and vegetables while keeping the pastas textbook, a tightrope that could easily tip into gimmick but here stays disciplined and clean.

Perched above Calp with an unobstructed view of the Peñón de Ifach rock, Orobianco is a contemporary Italian fine dining restaurant where the kitchen pairs Italian technique with Costa Blanca ingredients, the sea and the garden arriving on the plate in very clean, precise form. The cooking holds a Michelin star and landed on the 50 Top Italy world list. Two tasting menus, or à la carte if you prefer to make your own decisions.

An open kitchen inside the grand Hotel Maria Cristina, where Argentine chef Paulo Airaudo runs a two-Michelin-starred tasting menu he calls an Italian omakase, drawing the Cantabrian Sea through a Japanese lens. The bar is a serious part of the experience, not an afterthought, and the single seasonal menu comes with a pairing option that can go alcohol-free. Elegant without being stiff, and genuinely hard to categorize, which seems to be the point.

Handmade pasta and a terrace view over the Mediterranean tend to settle most arguments about where to eat. This Michelin-starred restaurant in Benissa's hills runs on the cooking of a chef from Rimini who treats local Alicante produce as the point of the whole exercise, not a supporting note. The format is two tasting menus, one leaning Italian, one rooted in the region, and the kitchen keeps both ideas in honest conversation.

A cozy Italian restaurant in a residential corner of Alicante, Alba earns its Michelin Bib Gourmand by threading local ingredients through a genuinely Italian sensibility, the result of the chef's years cooking in Italy. The menu runs à la carte or tasting, with off-menu specials like the catch of the day keeping things loose. A lemon and yuzu tartlet with lime and celery sorbet signals you're in capable, slightly mischievous hands.

A self-described Venetian taberna a short walk from La Boquería, Bacaro keeps the decor deliberately low-key across two bistro floors so nothing competes with the food. The menu leans into Italian tradition, sardines in saor, liver done the Venetian way, and a tiramisù people talk about afterward. Italian labels fill the wine list. The Michelin Guide has given it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks with a room that feels warm rather than formal.

Fresh pasta gets made in the basement, which feels like the right order of priorities. Manifesto 13 is a casual Italian bistro near Glorieta de Bilbao with an open kitchen, a bar counter, and a room that splits the difference between industrial loft and neighborhood hangout. The menu moves through tapas, sharing plates, and pasta with a light creative touch, and it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

The Gascón pig is an endangered breed, and this Gràcia pizzeria raises, butchers, and cures it in-house, which tells you everything about where Sartoria Panatieri's head is at. The menu splits into classics, including a stracciatella and pine nut pizza that regulars order without looking, and more technically ambitious plates shaped by time in serious kitchens. Flour milled to spec in Catalunya, fermented vegetables, a tight list of small Spanish producers. It landed at number five on 50 Top Pizza Europe.

A glamorous pizza restaurant in Madrid's Golden Mile, where the room splits into two wings around a large bar and live music plays every evening. The pizzas come in Neapolitan and Padellino styles, built mostly from Italian ingredients with the occasional nod to Spain. The wine list reads like a tour through Italian regions, and the cocktails get the same attention. It landed at number eight on 50 Top Pizza World.

Neapolitan dough meets Madrid noise at this neighborhood pizzeria, where closely packed tables and quick, easy service keep the room humming. The crust is thick-rimmed and long-leavened, and the fried starters, supplì and frittatine, are taken as seriously as the pies. The wine list leans southern Italian and artisanal, kept short and affordable. It ranks 11th in Europe on 50 Top Pizza, which in a city of jamón and cocido is either an achievement or an argument.

Two doughs, one wood-fired oven, and a running dialogue between Calabria and the Basque Country. Demaio is a contemporary pizzeria doing both Neapolitan rounds and Roman pizza al taglio, the latter double-cooked until the base goes light and almost crackerish underneath. Cantabrian anchovies land next to Campanian fiordilatte, which is either a geography lesson or just good sourcing. It ranks 16th in Europe on 50 Top Pizza, if you needed a reason to show up hungry.

The dough here blends Galician flours with Italian milling in a long preferment that gives the crust a soft, open crumb and a faint tang. This pizza restaurant a few steps from Santiago's Cathedral sends Neapolitan technique through a firmly Galician larder, so toppings run to local pork, Atlantic bonito, and Padrón peppers. It ranked 14th on 50 Top Pizza Europe. The wine list stays regional, and the cheesecake is made from local cheeses.

A small bistro near Glorieta de Bilbao where the chef's handmade pasta doubles as the entire point of coming. The team trained under Dabiz Muñoz at DiverXo, and the Italian instincts are intact, though a Thai-inflected burrata or a cod-and-pil-pil ravioli suggests the kitchen isn't above a detour. The menu is short on purpose, long on handmade pasta, and the whole room reads like a love letter to a Neapolitan grandmother, which is exactly what it is.

Handmade pasta built from a family recipe is the whole argument here, and a Piedmontese chef making it in Madrid gives the room a quietly confident feel. Gioia is a small Italian restaurant where the menu runs à la carte or a tasting menu that riffs on the overlap between Italian and Spanish cooking. Truffle turns up often, and the tagliatelle made with forty egg yolks is the dish regulars tend to mention unprompted.

Tucked at the end of a quiet alley lined with luxury boutiques, this intimate contemporary restaurant is easy to walk past and hard to forget. The two chefs, one from Madrid and one from Rome, cook a short menu that folds Spanish and Italian traditions together without making a fuss about the concept. The room is small, the menu tighter still, and the cooking lands with the confidence of people who don't need the extra words.

The dining rooms lean into a retro Italian pop aesthetic from the 1970s, all considered and a little theatrical. This contemporary Italian restaurant in Recoletos is run by a chef from Puglia who steers well clear of the pasta-and-pizza comfort zone, cooking his way through Italy's regions with some seriousness. The set menu called "From South to North" does roughly what it says. A room that knows what it is, which is rarer than it sounds.

Authentic Sicilian pottery lines the shelves, which sets the tone before a single plate arrives. This small, contemporary Italian restaurant is a Madrid offshoot of an original in Palermo, and the kitchen leans into that southern Italian lineage, reworking traditional recipes with a modern eye. Both the à la carte and tasting menus come with optional wine pairings, so you can commit to the full Sicilian afternoon whether or not you planned to.

A trattoria tucked near Las Palmas's old literary quarter, Rígolo is built around the idea of cooking the way someone's grandmother would, if that grandmother also imported her cheeses and charcuterie from small Italian producers. The chef spent years under Nacho Manzano before channeling that experience into handmade pasta and slow, regional Italian cooking with the odd Canarian twist keeping things honest.

The name nods to the toy factory that once occupied the building, just off the old walled approach to Dénia's castle. This is a tasting-menu restaurant where an Italian chef folds local Marina Alta produce into contemporary Italian cooking, running three menus of varying length and ambition. The result plays seriously with texture and form while keeping the food recognizably Italian at heart, which is either comforting or a magic trick, depending on your expectations.

A Sardinian chef who fell for Seville hard enough to move there runs this intimate contemporary restaurant near the cathedral. Everything comes through two tasting menus, where the cooking blends Andalucian warmth and French precision into something that feels personal rather than programmatic. The Michelin Guide has it on its radar, which tracks for a room this focused. Wear something nice but not your best suit.

The wood-fired oven greets you at the door before you've even found a seat, which is a fair statement of priorities for a pizzeria in a medieval village inside Garrotxa's volcanic park. The kitchen moves between classic Neapolitan, small pan, and double-fried styles, drawing on local ingredients throughout. It landed a spot on 50 Top Pizza Europe, which is a long way to travel for pizza until you're actually here eating it.

A Neapolitan pizza shop done up like a 1950s Italian grocery, shelves of imported provisions included, in the middle of Seville's old alleys. The team behind it runs the place as a pizzeria, restaurant, and shop at once, so you can eat a ruota di carro at the counter and leave with a bottle of something Italian under your arm. Fresh pasta and risotto round out the menu for anyone not in a pizza mood.

A suspended fireplace floats over a communal table near the Congress of Deputies, which sets the tone: this is a pizza restaurant that takes the room as seriously as the dough. The style is Nordic, long-fermented and airy, topped with San Marzano tomatoes and cured meats from the Lessinia valley. Italian artisanal ice creams close things out. It holds a spot on the 50 Top Pizza Europe list, which the politicians next door have yet to replicate.

The dining room takes its cues from an early 20th-century salon, all elegance and composure, named after Vesuvius as a straight-faced declaration of Neapolitan intent. This is a sit-down pizza restaurant serving contemporary Neapolitan pies, the kind with a crust that has some presence without turning the whole thing into an obstacle course. The staff is notably warm, and local Cantabrian anchovies make a compelling case for the marinara.

A wood-fired oven dominates the dining room, and the Neapolitan-style pizzas that come out of it, thin-stretched with a light, airy crust, are the obvious reason to be here. The setup blends classic Italian tradition with South American warmth in service, which makes the whole thing feel livelier than your average pizza night. The terrace was made for the Valencian climate, and the vermouth list handles the local tardeo hour without complaint.

The pizza dough goes through a long fermentation before it ever sees the oven, and the whole-flour crust that comes out is lighter than it has any right to be. This is an Italian trattoria inside the Royal Hideaway Corales Resort, so fresh pasta and homemade sauces share the menu, and the view over La Caleta is the kind that makes it hard to ask for the check. Named among 50 Top Pizza Europe's Excellent Pizzerias.

A large sign reading "See Naples and then die" greets you at the door, which tells you everything about where this pizzeria's loyalties lie. Graffiti, sacred imagery, and popular icons cover the walls, and the wood-fired oven runs without pause at the center of it all. The menu stays faithful to classic Neapolitan pies, with five variations of Margherita alone, plus Neapolitan street food and desserts to match.

A contemporary pizza restaurant in Lloret de Mar where the dough gets a long, slow fermentation before it sees any heat. The menu moves through classic pies, local Catalan ingredients, Neapolitan-rooted recipes, and seasonal specials, so there's always a reason to revisit. The wine and beer list pulls from both Italian and Spanish producers, and the team talks through each pizza like they mean it. Noted in 50 Top Pizza Europe.

The wood-fired oven is visible from the door, and the pizza makers never stop moving. Maximmus is a Neapolitan-style pizzeria in central Sabadell, a short drive from Barcelona, with a well-leavened dough that holds up under a menu of Italian classics and seasonal additions. The drink list is short but sensible, beers and wines chosen to match rather than impress. It holds a spot on the 50 Top Pizza Europe list.

The wood-fired oven inside a converted garage in Sant Cugat is hard to miss, and it sets the tone for this neighborhood pizzeria with a slow-food sensibility. Long-fermented dough anchors a menu that moves from classic Neapolitan to riffs built around local ingredients like sobrasada and Cantabrian anchovies. Natural Italian wines round things out. It earned a spot on 50 Top Pizza Europe's Excellent Pizzerias list, which the regulars probably knew already.

Roman pinsa dough is the foundation here, lighter and crispier than its Neapolitan cousin, served at a casual pizza spot tucked onto a side street in Chamberí. The kitchen opens directly onto the dining room, cartoon murals cover the walls, and a few sidewalk tables catch the afternoon sun. Toppings lean international rather than purist, and the beer selection is broad enough that choosing one becomes its own small project.

A neighborhood pizzeria in Chamberí run the way a Neapolitan kitchen runs at home: eggplant parmigiana, ragù, and handmade pasta before the pizza even arrives. The dough follows the Neapolitan school, and the salsiccia e friarielli, a pairing you rarely find done right outside Campania, is the thing to order. Prices sit below the Madrid average, which the regulars have clearly figured out.

A Neapolitan pizza spot in Los Cristianos where most of the seating spills outside, which makes obvious sense given that Tenerife's weather is essentially a permanent excuse to eat al fresco. The pizza menu runs long, covering classics and house specials, with a light, airy dough and a thin center. The entrance is split between walk-ins and reservations, so the line moves faster than you'd expect at a place this popular.

Sourdough starter that's been refreshed continuously for years is the quiet engine behind the Neapolitan-style pizzas at this casual Italian restaurant on Fuengirola's seafront. The dough uses organic flour, the tomato-based options outnumber the white pies, and a good stretch of the ingredients arrive daily from the market or straight from Italy. The terrace is the place to be, and the wine list is more considered than the beachy address might suggest.

A Neapolitan pizza spot on the leafy Granados pedestrian strip, designed around the sacred and profane iconography of Naples with lighting that puts each table at the center of the room, which sounds theatrical until you're sitting in it. The dough uses a biga preferment for a lighter, open crumb, and the menu carves cleanly into reds, whites, and a few Margherita variations. There's a year-round terrace, which in Barcelona is not a minor detail.

The wood-fired oven takes up most of the back wall and sets the agenda from the moment you walk in. This is a small, warmly Italian pizzeria in Chamberí, the kind where the dough follows Neapolitan rules and the menu runs from antipasti through dessert in the way a Roman grandmother would approve. The namesake pizza, loaded with San Marzano tomatoes and Parma ham, is the move. Recognized by 50 Top Pizza Europe.

The wood-fired oven near the entrance runs nonstop, sending pies to tables and takeout bags in equal measure, which tells you most of what you need to know. This casual Neapolitan-style pizzeria in a small Sierra Norte town keeps the dough light and properly fermented, the crust puffy at the edges, the toppings unfussy. The staff is young and quick without feeling rushed. Named among 50 Top Pizza Europe's Excellent Pizzerias.

The dough here is soft and pillowy in the Neapolitan style, topped with a mix of Italian staples and whatever local produce is fresh that day. This is a modern pizzeria run by the Campanella family, offering a genuine alternative to the tourist-trap pie shops that crowd the island. The dining room runs young and colorful, with attentive service that handles both locals and visitors without fuss. A slim wine list and Italian beers round things out.

Checkered tablecloths and walls plastered with Italian nostalgia set the scene at this old-school Roman-style trattoria on Fernando VI. The wood-fired oven turns out thin, unfussy pies built on well-sourced ingredients, and the tiramisù has a minor cult following among regulars. It's been around forever, which in Madrid's churning restaurant scene means something. A 50 Top Pizza Europe listing confirms the pizza is not just atmosphere talking.

A panini shop a few streets from Barceloneta beach, Compà is devoted to the flavors of Calabria, which means 'nduja, smoked provolone, stracciatella, and lardo all showing up between bread. That bread matters: everything is pressed and served piping hot on slow-fermented focaccia. A rotating menu of nearly a dozen sandwiches keeps regulars guessing, and a second location has since opened in Gràcia for anyone uptown who can't stop thinking about it.