Postcard from Marina di Ravenna, Italy
Dec 21st, 2008 by admin
I wrote about our two dinners at Ristorante Alma in Marina di Ravenna, Italy in my last post. But as we spent a whole weekend at this seaside resort on the Adriatic coast, I thought I’d show you a few more photos, along with two short reviews of a lunch and dinner. As I mentioned before, the resort is popular with families in the summer, but in the winter, there isn’t that much going on, so not all the restaurants are even open. A highlight of the weekend was getting up early on our first morning there and walking out of the hotel across the road, through a section of pine forest and onto a beautiful deserted beach.
Having had a heavy dinner the night before, lunch was a simple affair – hot piadina with some kind of meat patty (not a glamorous sounding filling, but delicious!) and fried wild herbs, ordered by our Italian chef friend. The vegetarian husband had one with his new favourite, squacquerone cheese and rucola. All the ingredients used at this piadina shop, L’Angolo della Piadina or Piadina Corner, are fresh and free of preservatives. It’s clearly a popular lunch place, being located by the pretty harbour, next to three incredible fishmongers. These were stocked with the freshest produce, but I did wonder who buys it during the off-peak months?
At least it meant our seafood dinner at Al Sorriso, on the same road almost opposite to the fishmongers, was guaranteed to be very fresh. Well, some of it was, and some of it not. My food was ordered for me again – a massive starter of mixed seafood zuppette, which was a bowl of mussels, prawns, crayfish etc in a tomato-based stew. The prawns weren’t at all fresh or crunchy, but apart from these, everything else was very nice, although I wouldn’t say it was amazing, considering our location by the Adriatic coast.
The secondi was a mixed fish grill. The grilled sea bass was incredibly fresh, as was the fried sole, but the rest of it didn’t appeal – fried prawns (scampi style) and something else that I couldn’t identify but took one bite of and recoiled. It was mushy and didn’t taste at all like it came out of the sea recently.
Al Sorriso is by no means an upmarket place, but if you’re looking for somewhere cheap and cheerful, with a television and German beer (the menu is in Italian and German), then it fits the bill. In terms of ratings, I’d give it a 6.5/10.
Click here to see the rest of the photos of Marina di Ravenna.
10 – Perfection, 9.5 – Sensational, 9 – Outstanding, 8.5 – Superb,
8 – Excellent, 7.5 – Very Good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 – Average
All the Italy restaurant reviews on World Foodie Guide
Contact details:
Al Sorriso
Viale delle Nazioni, 12
48100 Marina di Ravenna
Ravenna
Italy
Tel: +39 (0)544 530 462
That picture of your piadina looks good enough to eat! However, I resist licking my computer. I had never heard “piadina” before so had to Google it. Check out the image search, and you’ll see what I mean: your picture makes it look like how good food tastes. A celebration of the bread, with the meat and greens enhancing its, well, beauty.
Tess – lovely to hear from you! Just did an image search of piadina as you suggested too. It tasted, in my opinion, a bit like a scone in texture and flavour. But it works so well as a filling lunch…
Here’s a photo of the piadina with squacquerone cheese & rucola, also delicious…
http://tinyurl.com/82ftqg
Helen Yuet Ling