La Spezia holds three restaurants that define dining on the Ligurian coast. Each tells a different story: intimate seven-course tasting menus under Chef Carlo Sanvenero, sunset-soaked Chianina beef in the hills, and theatrical Angus steaks carved tableside. Here's how to experience all three.
The ferry from the islands docks by early evening, and La Spezia announces itself in smells before sights: diesel and brine near the marina, then, three streets inland, garlic softening in olive oil behind an open kitchen door. This is the mainland gateway to Cinque Terre, but it is not a town that performs for tourists passing through to the coastal trails. It cooks for itself. Three restaurants here, all priced identically at $$, tell three different stories about what that means: an intimate tasting menu that feels like being let into someone's home, a hillside trattoria built around flame and sunset, and a steakhouse where the theatre happens at your table.
Key takeaways
- Antica Osteria dei Camalli serves a seven-course tasting menu for €35 under Chef Carlo Sanvenero, rated 4.6 and priced $$.
- Ciccio e Pinolo sits in the hills above La Spezia, requires a car to reach, and holds a 4.5 rating for its Chianina beef and sunset views.
- Nana Meat & Wine carves two-pound Angus steaks tableside with a cleaver, scoring 4.5 and a 9.5-rated review calling it better than New York steakhouses.
- All three restaurants sit in the same $$ price bracket, meaning quality here isn't gated by budget.
- Spacing the three across 2-3 nights avoids palate fatigue and lets each kitchen's rhythm register on its own terms.
Dining Like You're Welcomed Into Someone's Home: Antica Osteria dei Camalli
The dining room at Antica Osteria dei Camalli holds maybe a dozen tables, and Chef Carlo Sanvenero runs the kitchen the way a grandmother runs a Sunday lunch: no rush, no flourish for its own sake. The seven-course tasting menu costs €35 and moves through dishes rooted in old Ligurian recipes, some dating to the 1700s. One course brings octopus boiled and then gratinated with raisins and pine nuts, a purple potato cream underneath and a parsley oil finishing it with lemon and salt. Another pairs Cantabrian anchovies, prized for their fleshy sweetness, with figs, a honey-mustard mayonnaise, and a lemon gel that cuts through the richness.
What separates this place from fine dining elsewhere is the absence of performance anxiety. Nobody here expects you to know which fork comes next. One guest described it plainly: it was like a home cooked meal, everything fresh and local, the ambiance itself feeling like someone's home. At 4.6 stars, it is the highest-rated of the three, though one dissenting review called it expensive for the quality, a rare crack in an otherwise consistent chorus.
Fine dining, done right, doesn't ask you to perform for the room. It asks you to slow down enough to notice the lemon gel.
For a honeymoon, this matters more than star ratings. The seven courses are paced for conversation, not spectacle: cappon magro, the self-declared king of Ligurian dishes, arrives layered with monkfish, shrimp, mussels, and vinegar-soaked bread beneath a green sauce of capers and salted anchovy. Order this on your first night in town, when jet lag still softens the edges of everything and you want a room that asks nothing of you but appetite.
Sunset Over Beef: Ciccio e Pinolo's Hillside Philosophy
You need a car to reach Ciccio e Pinolo, and that fact alone filters out anyone not committed to the meal. The trattoria sits in the hills above La Spezia, family-run, and the climb rewards you with the Ligurian coastline unrolling below as the sun drops. One couple wrote that the views were spectacular, especially catching the sunset, and called the food the most flavorful of their entire trip. That is not faint praise from travelers already deep into a region famous for food.
The kitchen's signature move is Chianina beef, the prized Tuscan breed, worked into a ragù that fills hand-rolled ravioli. The filetto arrives enriched with local lardo and taleggio melted with herbs, a dish that takes a simple cut and layers it with fat and funk until it becomes something else entirely. Bread and pasta are made in-house daily; the antipasti board draws from regional salumi rather than anything shipped in. Rated 4.5, it earns lines like "worth traveling for" and "a real must," and reviewers note the unhurried service, each course arriving only once the last has settled.
Timing is everything here in a way it isn't at the other two. Call ahead and ask about seating near the terrace edge if sunset viewing matters to you; the golden hour over the gulf is not incidental scenery, it is half the reason the dining room exists.
The Theatre of the Cut: Nana Meat & Wine's Open Kitchen Spectacle
At Nana Meat & Wine, dinner starts with a cleaver. The kitchen keeps its Angus steaks, some weighing two pounds, in full view of the dining room, and when your cut is selected, the butcher carves it from the primal right there, presents it with a flourish, and walks it to the grill. One reviewer, comparing it to steakhouses back home, wrote that nothing in New York came close to watching a two-pound steak carved right off the cow and grilled to a perfect medium-rare; they called the trip out from Fezzano totally worth it.
This is a wine bar as much as a steakhouse, rated 4.5, and the meat program shares the room with a serious selection of cured products: the Nana board pairs regional salumi and cheese with Lunigiana honey and sweet-and-sour local onion, while a Mocetta board offers 70 grams of salted, massaged, and aged beef in the Valtellina tradition. Order both while you wait for your steak; the open kitchen means you'll watch it rest before it ever reaches your table, and there's no faster way to build appetite than watching your own dinner get built in front of you.
Three Restaurants, One Understanding: What This Sequence Teaches
Order all three across a stay and a pattern emerges. Antica Osteria dei Camalli is the quiet welcome, the meal that asks nothing of you. Ciccio e Pinolo is the pastoral pause, sunset and beef and a drive that makes you earn the view. Nana Meat & Wine is the celebration, loud and theatrical and grinning. Each sits at the same $$ price point, which means the difference between them is never about what you can afford. It's about what kind of evening you're in the mood to have.
Logistics: Booking, Timing, and the Right Evening for Each
- Book Antica Osteria dei Camalli for your arrival night or a quiet midweek evening; the €35 tasting menu rewards an unrushed schedule the next morning.
- Reserve Ciccio e Pinolo for a clear evening and confirm sunset timing when you call; you'll need a car or taxi for the hillside drive.
- Save Nana Meat & Wine for a weekend or whenever you want noise and energy around you; the open kitchen thrives on a full room.
- Space the three across 2-3 nights rather than back to back, so no single kitchen's richness dulls the next.
- Dress casual-smart for all three; none demands a jacket, though none rewards flip-flops either.
Frequently asked questions
What's the price range for restaurants in La Spezia near Cinque Terre?
Antica Osteria dei Camalli, Ciccio e Pinolo, and Nana Meat & Wine all operate in the $$ price range, delivering fine dining, hillside trattoria cooking, and steakhouse theatre at the same accessible price tier rather than gatekeeping quality behind luxury pricing.
Do La Spezia restaurants have Michelin stars?
None of these three restaurants carry a Michelin star. Antica Osteria dei Camalli delivers fine-dining caliber through its €35 seven-course menu, while Ciccio e Pinolo and Nana Meat & Wine specialize in flame work and steak theatre, all without formal Michelin recognition or its accompanying formality.
Can you watch your food being cooked at La Spezia restaurants?
Yes. Nana Meat & Wine features an open kitchen where two-pound Angus steaks are carved tableside with a cleaver before grilling. At Ciccio e Pinolo, the flame-grilled preparations of Chianina beef and filetto are visible from the dining room as the kitchen works.
What's the best restaurant in La Spezia for couples?
It depends on the evening you want. Antica Osteria dei Camalli suits an intimate, unhurried night; Ciccio e Pinolo offers romantic sunset views over the Ligurian coast from its hillside setting; Nana Meat & Wine delivers lively, theatrical energy built around its Angus steak program.