Food and Dining in Chia

As we drive back and forth to/from our hotel, we pass the local market in Chia and are drawn in. Initially, we are thinking about a bottle of local wine for the evening on our balcony overlooking the beautiful gardens at sunset.  But, we then pause to admire the food in the deli section and think of a picnic lunch on the balcony.

First stop, the wine corner

 Next, the deli:  Sardinian flat bread, meats, cheeses

Picnic on the balcony

We ask the hotel for a restaurant recommendation and they suggest Ristorante Mirage, about a 10 minute drive away.  We have one dinner, then another, then another.  Wow!  We like it!  We don't get to any other restaurants, but the quality, variety, and atmosphere at Mirage keep us coming back day after day.

 Dine inside or outside at Ristorante Mirage

Our first dinner starts with a assorted cheese antipasti, followed by octopus and potato salad (mostly octopus).  We then share the seafood risotto.  What a great assortment.

Dinner 1

The second day, we share three salads and two entrees among the three of us:

Antipasti
  Octopus and potato salad
  Melon and prosciutto
  Caprese salad (mozzarella and tomato)

Main course
  Spaghetti fruitti di mare (all from the sea)
  Sardinian pasta with sausage and tomato

Dinner 2:  Antipasti trio

 Sardinian pasta with sausage, spaghetti fruitti di mare

Our next (and last) dinner features two dishes we had truly enjoyed previously:  octopus and potato salad (I'm in a rut, but a great rut!) and Sardinian pasta with sausage.  We then share a pizza (we are in Italy after all) with sausage and olives.  All as separate courses.  Very symbolic, although we didn't even think of that at the time, we have pasta, octopus, and pizza for our last dinner in Italy.  All the dishes we truly enjoy.

 Dinner 3:  Sardinian pasta with sausage

Octopus and [some] potato

There is no pizza picture:  we enjoy it so much, we forget to take a picture.

But, alas, in the morning we're off to London to start our trek home.  We bid goodby to Sardinia, but pledge:  We'll be back!