I'd appreciate recommendations for a good guide to restaurants in Italy. "I Ristoranti di Veronelli" has been recommended to me, but it seems overpriced ($45 + shipping from the sole distributor) in the US compared with the price in Italy, so I'm hesitant to order it without more information. Can anyone compare it with the Gambero Rosso guide?
I am always a sucker for a good restaurant guide, too. If you look at the restaurant reviews on this site, you can print out just the short versions and it's probably as good as any guide book.
That said, I really like Osterie D'Italia. The English version includes Locande also. I can't remember if I ordered mine directly through the slow food site or from Amazon.
what sort of restaurants are you looking for? Upscale, budget or something in between?
I have verified several times that the Rough Guides, besides being excellent travel guides, have very accurate and updated information on budget and midrange restaurants. In fact e.g. the Umbria and Tuscany book compares with Osterie d'Italia and you only have to carry one book.
I warmly suggest the Gambero Rosso (I use it), if you like to know the latest news on restaurants in Italy. It seems to me that the Veronelli is a little "old". Otherwise le Osterie d'Italia is a good alternative to not very expensive restaurants.
"That said, I really like Osterie D'Italia. The English version includes Locande also. I can't remember if I ordered mine directly through the slow food site or from Amazon".
I agree the guide is available form amazon. amazingly every pick which we visited was good! RR
Yes, this is the guide published by Slow Food. I don't think we have ever had a bad meal from its recommendations, although occasionally we have been disappointed in the service in some of the restaurants. It is very heavy though for a book to pack along with you. I xeroxed some pages from the book when I was only going to a few locations, and also have copied listings from the Slow Food website and pasted them into a file which I print out to take along.
The link to the page where you can search restaurant listings is here, but I believe it only exists for the 2006 edition. Also, it is only in Italian.
The english version for the Gambero Rosso is now about 6 years old. If you speak any italian, (or if you don't but have a pocket translator) it is still a great guide but get the modern version when you are in Italy.
A really good book for those who love Italian food and wine is "Il Golosario" because not only it includes reviews of restaurants but also of food and wine, per region.
The problem is that... it is in Italian!!! Well if you can understand a bit of our language, you can look at the description herehere.
Thanks for the many helpful responses. As I should have pointed out in my original posting, I'm looking for a guide that covers a range of restaurants, primarily mid-range with good price/quality ratio, but preferably also including upscale (equivalent to Michelin one star) restaurants. I speak enough Italian to be able to make do with a guide that is Italian language only. Some additional questions and comments:
* Osterie D'Italia seems to be quite popular. Is it primarily aimed at mid-range restaurants (as the name suggests), or does it include upscale as well?
* The Rough Guide is an interesting suggestion. While I agree that series is reasonable for restaurants, I've found the Eyewitness (DK) Guides to have the most consistently reliable restaurant recommendations of any general travel guide. (I've also found the Frommer's Guides to be terrible for restaurant recommendations, to the point that I consider being listed as a suggestion that a restaurant is to be avoided.)
* Lia: on the subject of Veronelli, could you please explain what you mean by "old"? Do you mean that the guide is not up to date with recent developments, or that the style and focus are a little aged? Does Gamero Rosso cover a range of restaurant types, or just the upper end of the scale?
The Slow Food Osterie book generally lists small family-run places. I don't think I've ever encountered what I'd call an upscale restaurant there, although I much prefer the "downhome" cooking style anyway.
I don't know where you're going in Italy, but Beth Elon's A Culinary Traveller in Tuscany is one of the best food-oriented guidebooks I've ever encountered. We used it extensively on this trip, and it led us to some truly wonderful places.
Brendt, I know that this does not sound as an orthodox sugggestion, but finding good midrange restaurants is one of my hobbies and I have always found good suggestions in the Rough guides.
I have also had great success with our last couple of holidays in other countries and by cross checking with restaurant reviews available on the internet I figured that most restaurants listings were updated.
Some upscale restaurants are listed but I cannot tell you about those as I do not go often enough to have statistics!
Should you be in Umbria, there is a nice book An appetite for Umbria by Christine Smallwood about some of the best places here.
Osteria in Italian means small family run restaurant. It actually used to be a wine shop serving some food, but now the name is used also for small restaurants serving "revisited" traditional food and reasonable wines, low/ medium budget.
Brendt, yes I mean exactly that the style is a little aged (according to me, naturally...). Gambero Rosso has different ranges of restaurants, all supposed to be of good/high quality but not only the top and not only the very expensive. For example (I have the last year edition): for Rome you can find the Osteria del Velodromo Vecchio in the Appia Area, a very good trattoria which costs 30 euros ca. and La Pergola of the Hilton Hotel (where there is the top chef Heinz Beck) which costs at least 200 euros...Surely there are not the "buiaccari" (here in Rome it means the old osterie-trattorie not expensive, with the Castelli wine and an heavy Roman cookery), and nor the billion of "in-the-average" trattorias in every corner in Rome. However, on the book cover of the guide it is written "Ristoranti d'Italia, Ristoranti, trattorie, pizzerie, etnici, wine bar" (the last year edition cost 20 euros). Have a look to the website of the Gambero Rosso http://www.gamberorosso.it/, there is also a blog (in Italian only unfortunately!). Lia
She has also recently published An Appetite for Puglia, which arrived in the post yesterday. Nice writeups of restaurants & interviews with the owners. The Umbria book can be seen here.
Jonathan
Posts: 2738 | Location: Stroud, UK | Registered: 18 November 2001
