Best Restaurants in Sorrento
Five essential tables, ranked by occasion and researched for quality.
$$$ €60–120$$$$ Over €120
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Sorrento’s Top 5 Restaurants
Don Alfonso 1890
Don Alfonso 1890 is one of the great restaurants of southern Italy — a two-Michelin-starred institution that has been defining the standard of Sorrentine fine dining since Alfonso Iaccarino and his wife Livia established the family’s orga...
Il Buco
Il Buco occupies the cellars of an ancient monastery in central Sorrento — a series of vaulted stone rooms that have been dining the community and its visitors for long enough to have accumulated the specific quality of atmosphere that only age...
Terrazza Bosquet
The Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria is one of the grand hotels of the Italian south — a 19th-century property perched on the cliffs above Sorrento with views of the Bay of Naples, Vesuvius, and Capri that have been stopping guests in their track...
L'Antica Trattoria
L’Antica Trattoria occupies a charming building on Via P. Reginaldo Giuliani with a peaceful pergola that, on Sorrento evenings, constitutes one of the most pleasant outdoor dining spaces on the Campanian coast. The Michelin star here represent...
Marina Grande
Marina Grande is Sorrento’s original fishing harbour — the port that predates the clifftop town by centuries, preserved in its essential character despite the town’s development and the tourism that has transformed the peninsula abo...
Dining in Sorrento — The Essential Guide
The Sorrentine Coast at Table
Sorrento sits at the apex of one of Italy’s greatest culinary landscapes. The Bay of Naples, Mount Vesuvius, the islands of Capri and Ischia, the Amalfi Coast, and the volcanic soil of the Campanian plain all contribute to a food culture of extraordinary richness. The Sorrento lemon — the sfusato sorrentino, produced under the IGP designation in the lemon groves above the town — is among the most celebrated citrus fruits in Italy and appears in every restaurant from the most humble to the most Michelin-starred.
The province of Naples has the highest concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy, and the Sorrentine Peninsula contributes multiple stars to that count. Don Alfonso 1890 alone has held two stars for decades, building the organic farm that now supplies many of the peninsula’s serious kitchens. Il Buco, Terrazza Bosquet, and L’Antica Trattoria have all built strong, individual kitchen personalities around the same exceptional raw material.
Campanian Wine
Campania produces some of Italy’s most distinctive wines from indigenous grape varieties: Aglianico in Taurasi makes reds of extraordinary ageing potential; Fiano di Avellino and Greco di Tufo make whites of genuine complexity; and the volcanic soils around Vesuvius produce the Lacryma Christi wines whose combination of mineral depth and approachability makes them the natural accompaniment to the coast’s seafood.
The Sorrento Lemon
The sfusato sorrentino lemon, grown in the terraced groves above the town, is protected by an IGP designation that recognises its distinctive quality: sweeter than standard lemons, with a thick, fragrant peel and a perfumed juice that makes the very best limoncello. The serious restaurants of the peninsula use the local lemon in both savoury and sweet contexts, and the difference between a dish made with the sfusato and one made with an ordinary lemon is immediately apparent to anyone who pays attention.