6 Best Restaurants in Sorrento and the Sorrentine Peninsula, Italy

At this informal, waterside restaurant and snack bar, you won't see many locals—they're unlikely to be impressed by the four-language menus—but the seafood platters are fresh and flavorful, and you can eat alfresco in the sunshine or inside a glass-enclosed dining area with a nautical motif. You can even go for a swim (just please, wait an hour or so after eating!). For a special-occasion splurge consider renting out their new (opened 2021) luxury resort next door, Villa del Maggiore, replete with pool, terraces. and direct private access to the sea.

Near the steps of the Marina Grande, this reliable choice for seafood (established in 1947) might not be Sorrento's most visually prepossessing place, but its homespun, family feel—complete with wooden tables and checked tablecloths—is a refreshing change from the town's (occasionally pretentious) elegance.

Under the same ownership as the Ristorante Museo Caruso, this budget alternative—in a tiny alley between piazzas Tasso and St. Antonino—offers the same wine list (about 1,700 labels) plus a bountiful choice of hearty Italian dishes. Its main salon is decorated with modern paintings of an erupting Vesuvius (there's outdoor seating as well), but the smaller room on the opposite side of the road is more romantic, with a tiny balcony overlooking the tortuous road to the harbor.

On the site of Roman thermal baths (you can see the ancient ruins under a glass section in the floor), this is a historic venue as well as a beloved eatery. Whether dining outdoors under the lanterns or indoors under the beamed ceiling and stucco arcades, you'll enjoy cucina tipica, locale e nazionale (traditional local and national cooking), including seafood and meat dishes as well as top-quality vera pizza napoletana (truly authentic Neapolitan pizza).

This steak house--pizzeria, with a stylish Spanish-theme dining area of fiery toro artwork and exposed brick, is a good alternative to Sorrento's many seafood-focused restaurants. As you'd expect from the name, it has plenty of meat dishes as well as a good selection of vegetarian and fish options.

Opened in 1868 by an ex-priest ('o parrucchiano means "the priest" in the local dialect), this restaurant serves classic Sorrentine cuisine in a 19th-century setting that's enchanting, although  it can feel touristy: a sprawling, multilevel greenhouse packed with tables and chairs amid fruit trees and enough tropical foliage to fill a Victorian conservatory.