Sorrento Restaurants: What's Worth It

1 The Splurge Tier: Bar Veneruso, Ristorante the Garden, O' Fish Seafood Bar, Capri Blu, Lieve

The smell of hot pastry dough hits you before you reach the counter at Bar Veneruso, 43 Corso Italia. At 07:15 on a weekday morning the regulars are already standing at the bar, and the espresso machine has not stopped since the door opened at 07:00. This is the first of five kitchens in Sorrento's splurge tier, and splurge in the 80067 postcode means worth planning your day around.

Bar Veneruso runs from 07:00 until midnight, seven days a week, which gives it more useful hours than any terrace on Piazza Tasso. Down the same Corso Italia at number 29, O' Fish Seafood Bar opens its fish-only counter by 11:00 and holds until midnight every day except Wednesday. O' Fish Seafood Bar is the room you want when the harbour stalls start waving laminated menus at the cruise crowd.

Turn off Corso Italia onto Via Tasso and the foot traffic drops within ten paces. At number 2, Ristorante the Garden keeps an Italian brief and publishes its own site at thegardenrestaurant.it. Ristorante the Garden takes reservations on +39 0818781195, and in July you will need one.

Two rooms on Via degli Aranci complete the tier. Capri Blu at 108-114 runs two clean services, 12:00 to 14:30 and 17:30 to 23:00, closed Tuesday. Lieve at 13B-13C fires its oven from 12:00 to 15:00 and again from 18:30 until midnight, closed Wednesday. Capri Blu is the Italian dining room for a couple who want to be seated at noon on a Thursday. Lieve is the pizzeria for the group arriving at 18:30 on a Friday. A kitchen that closes for the afternoon, like Capri Blu, respects its cooks. A pizzeria that takes a full day off, like Lieve, feeds its dough properly.

2 The Workaday Tier: Le Colline di Sorrento, MoMo Kitchen & Bar, Terrazza Vittoria, La Lanterna, Terrazza Bosquet

The evening air on Via Casarlano carries wood smoke from the kitchen at Le Colline di Sorrento before the road finishes climbing. This is the hillside address that anchors Sorrento's workaday tier, the five rooms a regular visitor learns to rely on. Le Colline di Sorrento opens Monday 09:00 to 17:00 for daytime service and Tuesday to Saturday for dinner only, 19:30 to 23:30. Sunday it stays dark. A hillside kitchen honest about when it cooks beats a harbour terrace promising everything.

In the old town, La Lanterna sits at 23 Via San Cesareo, where the lane is narrow enough to read the house number from either end. La Lanterna publishes a working site at lalanternasorrento.it and answers on +39 081 878 1355. Down the hill at 33 Piazza Marinai d'Italia, Ristorante Bar Ruccio runs a fish kitchen on a piazza most cruise-day walkers never reach.

A block off Piazza Tasso, MoMo Kitchen & Bar holds number 16 on Via Sant'Antonino. MoMo Kitchen & Bar publishes its own site at momosorrento.it and takes calls on +39 081 3597555. The bar counter fills before the tables, so if the counter seat is what you want, name it when you book.

At 34 Piazza Tasso, two terraces share a house number but not a kitchen. Terrazza Vittoria runs its own site at terrazzavittoria.exvitt.it and its own line on +39 081 877 7111. Terrazza Bosquet keeps a separate site at terrazzabosquet.exvitt.it and a separate phone on +39 081 877 7836. L'Orangerie sits at the same number 34, with its own site at orangerie.exvitt.it and its own line on +39 081 877 7868. Terrazza Vittoria is the room you ring when you want a terrace booking confirmed by phone. Terrazza Bosquet is the kitchen next door, a separate line and a separate menu. Both sit at 34 Piazza Tasso, and in season both beat the walk-in gamble at 20:00 on a Saturday.

A hillside kitchen honest about when it cooks beats a harbour terrace promising everything.

3 Bar Veneruso: The Verdict on an all-day Corso Italia coffee-and-cake counter that opens at 07:00 and holds the room until midnight

The espresso machine at Bar Veneruso hisses at a pitch you hear from the pavement of Corso Italia before you push the door. At 07:00, when the counter at 43 Corso Italia opens for the day, the walk-to-work regulars along the street are already waiting, and the cornetto basket is warm before the first one is pulled.

Bar Veneruso runs until midnight, seven days a week. That 17-hour window is the whole argument for the room. The identity of 43 Corso Italia is coffee-and-cake counter first, Italian kitchen second. Come at 08:00 for a cornetto standing at the bar. Come at 22:00 for a slice and a coffee after the passeggiata thins out. The rhythm at Bar Veneruso follows Corso Italia's own clock, morning commute to evening walk, and number 43 holds the room for both.

Skip the terrace bars a block toward Piazza Tasso that fish for the cruise-ship crowd. A coffee bar that publishes a working phone, +39 0818074890, and a live site at barveneruso.it is a place that is run, not decorated. Ring the number in the off-season, because the hours might tighten when Sorrento quiets.

Bar Veneruso is right for the solo traveller heading for the Capri ferry who needs a standing espresso before the port. It suits the couple returning from Le Colline di Sorrento on Via Casarlano who want a coffee at 22:30 before bed. If you want a proper sit-down Italian dinner, walk to Ristorante the Garden at 2 Via Tasso. If you want fish, walk to O' Fish Seafood Bar at 29 Corso Italia. Bar Veneruso is the room that bookends the day at number 43, and in Sorrento's 80067 postcode no other counter matches those hours.

4 Ristorante the Garden: The Verdict on an Italian dining room on Via Tasso a step off the main piazza

The olive oil at Ristorante the Garden arrives on the first plate with a weight you notice, green and grassy, the kind a kitchen chooses rather than inherits. At 2 Via Tasso the room sits a short step off Piazza Tasso, and the foot traffic drops within ten paces of the junction.

Ristorante the Garden keeps an Italian brief. In Sorrento that means pasta run to order, seafood with a light hand, and a card shorter than the laminated menus waving from the Piazza Tasso terraces. Via Tasso is the quiet side of the junction. Number 2 is the quiet end of Via Tasso.

Book Ristorante the Garden on +39 0818781195 at least a day ahead in season. The site at thegardenrestaurant.it lists what the kitchen is running, and reading it before you ring saves a question on the phone. Ask for a table off the pass at 2 Via Tasso, not the one by the door. At Ristorante the Garden the specials board changes and the printed card does not.

Ristorante the Garden is right for a couple who want a proper sit-down Italian dinner after a morning on the Amalfi ferries. A solo traveller who prefers a working kitchen over the noise of a Piazza Tasso terrace will find 2 Via Tasso a short walk and a long step from the volume. If you want fish only, O' Fish Seafood Bar at 29 Corso Italia runs a single-species counter. If you want pizza, Lieve at 13B-13C Via degli Aranci fires its oven from 18:30. Ristorante the Garden sits between those two, and in Sorrento that middle register is where the cooking tends to be most careful.

5 O' Fish Seafood Bar: The Verdict on a fish-only counter on Corso Italia running late every night of the week

The counter at O' Fish Seafood Bar smells of the morning's catch before you sit down. At 29 Corso Italia the fish is the only item on the agenda, and by 11:00 on a Monday the ice is fresh and the board is set for a single-species day that will not end until midnight.

O' Fish Seafood Bar runs 11:00 to midnight Monday through Tuesday, and opens fifteen minutes earlier at 10:45 from Thursday through Sunday. Wednesday is the reset day, so plan around it. If your only free evening in Sorrento falls on a Wednesday, you need a different address. Try Capri Blu at 108-114 Via degli Aranci, which serves dinner from 17:30 on Wednesdays.

The harbour stalls along the Sorrento waterfront sell fried calamari from laminated menus. O' Fish Seafood Bar at 29 Corso Italia competes on the fish. Sit at the counter if the room is quiet, at a table if you want to linger, and let the staff steer you toward whatever the morning market delivered. Ring +39 081 009 7247 before you walk over in July or August, because a walk-in at 20:00 in season at 29 Corso Italia is a walk back out the door.

O' Fish Seafood Bar is right for the traveller who eats fish seriously and wants a Sorrento kitchen that does nothing else. It is not the room for a mixed table where half the group wants pizza. That group belongs at Ristorante the Garden on Via Tasso, or at MoMo Kitchen & Bar at 16 Via Sant'Antonino. Number 29 on Corso Italia is a single-species address, and in Sorrento's 80067 postcode that commitment is rare enough to cross the town for.

6 Capri Blu: The Verdict on a Via degli Aranci dining room working a strict two-service Italian day, closed Tuesday

The room at Capri Blu runs deeper than the shop front suggests. Three street numbers, 108 to 114 on Via degli Aranci, stitch together a dining room with overhead fans stirring air that carries the faint sweetness of roasted garlic and lemon rind by the time the 12:00 lunch service begins.

Capri Blu opens lunch at 12:00 and closes it at 14:30. Dinner runs from 17:30 to 23:00. Tuesday the door stays shut. A Sorrento kitchen that closes for the afternoon is a kitchen that resets between sittings, and the 17:30 dinner plates arrive with the same discipline as the noon lunch. Skip the walk-in-any-time trattorias on the cruise route that never close because they never need to plate well twice in the same day.

Ring Capri Blu on +39 081 1824 8634 before you walk over, especially between June and September. The kitchen keeps an Italian brief, and in Sorrento's 80067 postcode that means pasta and fish handled with olive oil from a source the cooks trust. If you arrive at 12:00, be on the hour. Five minutes early and you wait on Via degli Aranci while the room finishes its reset.

Capri Blu is right for a couple arriving on a Wednesday, when both Lieve at 13B-13C Via degli Aranci and O' Fish Seafood Bar at 29 Corso Italia are closed. It is the room for a family that wants a proper sit-down lunch between the morning coach to Pompeii and the 16:00 ferry to Capri. If you want pizza instead, walk to Lieve, a short distance down the same Via degli Aranci. If you want the hillside view, take a taxi to Le Colline di Sorrento on Via Casarlano. For a noon plate in Sorrento on a Thursday, Capri Blu at 108-114 is the address.

They never close because they never need to plate well twice in the same day.

7 Lieve: The Verdict on a Wednesday-closed pizzeria on Via degli Aranci that keeps to two services

The heat from Lieve's pizza oven reaches the doorstep at 13B-13C Via degli Aranci before you step inside. The stone floor holds the warmth, and the dough, if you catch the first firing at 12:00 on a Thursday, smells like it has been proving since the previous night.

Lieve runs two services. Lunch opens at 12:00 and closes at 15:00. Dinner fires from 18:30 until midnight, six days a week. Wednesday the kitchen stays dark. A pizzeria that takes a full day off every week has time to treat its dough with the care that the by-the-slice counters along Corso Italia do not. Lieve is a proper sit-down Sorrento pizza, served on a plate, in a room that was two shop fronts stitched into one at 13B and 13C on Via degli Aranci.

The address sits on the same street as Capri Blu at 108-114, and both keep a dark day each week. Lieve closes Wednesday, Capri Blu closes Tuesday. If you are in Sorrento for three nights, you can hit both without a schedule conflict. Ring Lieve on +39 081 877 4853 for the 18:30 opening if you want the first oven. Walk in at 14:30 if you want a late, quieter lunch before the afternoon empties the lane.

Lieve is right for the group that wants pizza after a day along Sorrento's coast. It is not the room for a seafood dinner. That is O' Fish Seafood Bar at 29 Corso Italia. It is not the room for a long Italian carte. That is Ristorante the Garden at 2 Via Tasso. Lieve does one thing, pizza, and the Wednesday rest day and the two-service rhythm are what separate it from every third doorway in the 80067 postcode selling slices under a neon sign.

8 Le Colline di Sorrento: The Verdict on a hillside Italian kitchen on Via Casarlano that opens the dinner grill Tuesday to Saturday

The wood smoke from Le Colline di Sorrento meets you halfway up Via Casarlano. The climb is steep enough to thin the tourist foot traffic, and by the time you reach the kitchen the air has shifted from Corso Italia's exhaust to something that carries charcoal and rosemary.

Le Colline di Sorrento keeps a schedule that tells you what kind of room it is. Monday runs 09:00 to 17:00, daytime only. Tuesday to Saturday the kitchen opens for dinner, 19:30 to 23:30. Sunday it stays shut. An Italian kitchen on Via Casarlano that limits itself to five evening services and one daytime window has decided what it wants to be, and the hillside address is the second decision.

Ring +39 081 8773793 before you set out. A late Tuesday walk-in at Le Colline di Sorrento with no booking is a walk back down the hill to Corso Italia. Take a taxi up if you have not planned a car, and let the driver put you within a short walk of the door on Via Casarlano, not the roundabout. Le Colline di Sorrento is the dinner that requires a plan, and in Sorrento that effort is what separates it from the Piazza Tasso terraces working the walk-in crowd.

Le Colline di Sorrento is right for the traveller who has eaten three days of Corso Italia lunches and wants a final evening above the town. The couple celebrating an anniversary in Sorrento's 80067 postcode will find the Via Casarlano hillside quieter than Piazza Tasso at 20:00. If you want to stay on the main street, O' Fish Seafood Bar at 29 Corso Italia opens from 11:00 on Tuesdays. Le Colline di Sorrento fires the grill at 19:30. The hill or the high street, and on a Tuesday evening in Sorrento both addresses are open and few others are.