Smart and Sea

With a long history, this restaurant has a contemporary vibe, where expert management offers exclusively seafood dishes, with well executed classic preparations, elevated by careful plating and lively pairings, often featuring fresh vegetables. Both the menu and the wine list are still handwritten, but the overall quality is thoroughly modern.

Gianfranco Verdecchia, restaurateur and heir to a family of butchers, has always cooked the food that sustained his people. After running a restaurant in Sant’Omero – a hill town known for its festival dedicated to baccalà (salt cod), a staple in the area’s cuisine – he returned to his hometown of Giulianova. Here, in a stylish, secluded space away from the sea, he has kept baccalà as the sole seafood option, devoting an entire menu to it alongside a wide selection of dishes highlighting his first love: meat.

A restaurant tucked into an intimate corner of the historic center, with spaces characterized by brick vaulting that creates a pleasant contrast with some modern touches in the furnishings. Here, Enzo Di Pasquale – through a tasting format where diners freely choose dishes and quantities – celebrates the seasonality of mostly plant-based and local products, sometimes sourced directly from his own garden. The dishes are absolutely original (like the restaurant’s name: if you're curious, ask for an explanation from the staff) and always very colorful. The philosophical thread is a commendable “n

Borgo Spoltino occupies a 19C farmhouse amid hills and olive groves with views of the sea and mountains as a backdrop. This is the perfect setting in which to enjoy typical Abruzzi cuisine (most of the vegetables come from the restaurant’s own kitchen garden). These include traditional specialities such as sweet pizza (alternating layers of sponge cake soaked in Kermes liqueur, pudding and custard – a bit like a trifle – with a thick cream and slivers of almond, either on top or in the middle). The wine list features a good selection of regional wines, alongside labels from further afield.

Having just celebrated their 50th anniversary (they opened in 1971), this restaurant and hotel of the same name remain a solid culinary reference on the Abruzzi coast. The menu here is dedicated solely to fish and, as a result and is often the case, the wine list focuses almost exclusively on white wines. The fish (almost all of which comes from the Adriatic) is carefully sourced, while in the kitchen the chefs prepare classic dishes (such as enormous local langoustines cooked – and served – in a pan with oil, wine, garlic and rosemary) and a few more modern recipes (crispy mullet served with