Dinners in Monterosso

Every dinner in Monterosso al Mare is memorable and we visit some old favorite places and find some new ones.  Our first night, we head over to Cantina di Miky, dining outside on the boardwalk where we share octopus with potatoes and cod ravioli with olive sauce.

 Slogan to live by

Octopus, cod ravioli

Our second night's dinner is at Il Casello, again dining on the water.  We share stuffed anchovies, fried anchovies, and Il Casello's special pasta with white fish.

Outside seating at Il Casello

 View from our table as the sun sets

 Stuffed anchovies, fried anchovies

Pasta with white fish

The next evening, we're at L'Osteria di Galleno, in an ally just off Piazza Garibaldi, where we share mussels in lemon sauce and olive oil, trofie pesto (a Ligurian specialty), and quattro stagioni (4 seasons) pizza.  While we're dining, the owner wanders by and says that he remembers us from last year and we tell him we'll be back next year (and, as it turns out, a few nights later).

Mussels in lemon and olive oil

 Trofie pesto

Quattro stagioni pizza (only one season left)

On our next visit to L'Osteria, we have some of the same:  lemon mussels, 4 seasons pizza, and fruitti di mare (seafood) pizza.

 Repeats:  mussels and quattro stagioni pizza

 Pizza fruitti di mare

It's hard to imagine how dinner could get better than this:  incredible food at a  table near the Mediterranean!

To round out our dining experience, we have two meals in London, both fish and chips, the first at Gatwick Airport on the way out and the second at Heathrow Airport on the way back (where we're spending the night before catching a morning flight to San Francisco).  Both fish and chips meals are tasty, but the Heathrow offering (at the Renaissance Hotel) wins for presentation.

 Fish and chips:  Gatwick, Heathrow

However, as tasty as the fish and chips might be, I'm still longing for pizza fruitti di mare, pasta with white fish, or octopus salad (not to mention the difference in ambiance between a seat on the sea or a seat in an airport)!