Giuseppe Zimbalo (known as “Lo Zingarello”) and Giuseppe Cino are two key figures from the late 17 th and early 18 th century credited with contributing to the beauty that has made Lecce famous throughout the world. Both are architects and sculptors; they designed and erected the monumental masterpieces that grace this Baroque city. In this multi-stop itinerary, each location is worth the trip, with delectable pasticciotti, rustici, and almond paste Easter lambs to tempt you along the way. Over the last five years, a handful of millennials have sanded down the traditionalist exterior masking Lecce’s food scene, pushing local ingredients where no one had ever dared before. Here’s who and where, in no particular order.
Where to Eat in Lecce: 10 Restaurants on Italy’s Heel
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An itinerary of 10 restaurants in Lecce is worth a trip to Puglia on its own – just to taste all the delicious gourmet dishes and pizzas, which go beyond regional traditions.
Lecce
400 Gradi
400 Gradi (or 400 Degrees) is the figure prominently displayed on the restaurant’s sign – located on Viale Porta d’Europa – indicating the ideal temperature in Celsius to cook a pizza. Pizza lovers from across Puglia flock to this Mecca to get burned sinking their teeth into the “Cono Fritto,” a var...
Bros
The restaurant located on Via degli Acaya, right in the heart of Lecce, is like a totally different Puglia, perfectly in sync with the region’s traditions, but like nothing you’ve ever experienced before. Enjoy specialities like the “Fucking Cold Egg” (one of the very first shocks, and not just temp...
3 Rane
Maurizio Raselli, the Piedmontese son of goldsmiths, with prior experience working in renowned chef Giorgio Locatelli’s entourage, has changed course by cutting ties with the past – or so it seems. In his restaurant located in the heart of Lecce, he creates haute cuisine, freely adapted from his vas...
Alex
Alessandra Civilla’s cuisine has a unique gift: everyone loves it. To mothers and grandmothers, it calls to mind the famous, beautiful, round flavors of Salentino cuisine. To the business set, it satisfies their appetite while digesting quickly, keeping them feeling light. It even feeds the ego of g...
Primo Restaurant
Founded in 2015 by Silvia Antonazzo and Marco Borelli, Primo has revamped the culinary scene of both Lecce and Salento in general. Its signature dish shows just that: Beer-glazed turcinieddhi (offal roulades) with orange-onion marmalade, tempura sea fennel, and a hops infusion – an interplay of text...
Osteria degli Spiriti
L’Osteria degli Spiriti is one of a kind, particularly with its enormous cellar decked out to quench the thirst of the most demanding wine enthusiasts – even better when guided by owner Piero Merazzi. For everyone else, there’s the warm, maternal cooking of chef Tiziana Parlangeli, a sweet, timid, d...
Spiriti Gourmet
Angelo D’Amico, pizzaiolo since 1991, has a history in pizza acrobatics and a few free-style trophies on his shelf. His biggest challenge was won with his signature pizza, managing to stand out among the overcrowded offering of pizzerias in Lecce. The most popular is the Crocchè, a white pizza with ...
300mila Lounge Bar
Fresh flowers every day, a dizzying wall of wine bar labels, and Davide De Matteis a blue-blooded frontman (a scion of Lecce’s illustrious La Cotognata family) with a stellar mixologist résumé. These are the ingredients, in addition to a touch of contemporary art, that makeup 300mila Lounge Bar, the...
Duo
Dazzled by haute cuisine during a brief apprenticeship in Piazza Duomo alongside Enrico Crippa, today Franco Viva is devoted to the limited number of seats in his gourmet restaurant at Via Garibaldi, 11. A cuisine that dares and divides; you may like it a lot or not at all, but there is no doubt ove...
Osteria da Angiulino
Osteria da Angiulino has fed hordes of natives but also tons of non-local students, both welcomed brusquely and bombarded with orecchiette, ciceri e tria (a typical Salentino dish composed of chickpeas in broth with fried fresh pasta), meatballs and tripe in broth or “alla romana.” At Angiulino, the...