7 Best Local Restaurants in Cesenatico

Ristorante Urbano in Cesenatico is a spacious restaurant with over 200 seats, making it an ideal choice if you're on holiday with a large group. You can choose to sit on the terrace or inside, where the large windows provide an extraordinary view of Porto Canale Leonardesco.

As you'd expect from somewhere so near the sea, fresh fish takes centre stage and is a winner in the generous mixed grills that have made the restaurant so popular. Another of the restaurant's strengths is the homemade egg pasta: cappelletti, ravioli and tagliatelle are the hallmarks of a passion for food that's been passed down through the generations since 1961.

At Osteria Settecentro, in Cervia's historic centre, you'll have the perfect opportunity to treat yourself to gnocco fritto (fried flatbread), tigelle (thin, round bread), and tortellini. The eatery’s set in a historic building, and the furniture contributes to the atmosphere of times gone by.

The kitchen gets its supplies directly from local producers: the fresh fish is from the Adriatic sea, while farms on nearby hills supply oil, wine and top-quality cheeses. A must-try speciality is pasta fresca con ripieno di ricotta (fresh pasta filled with ricotta). Even the desserts are made by hand.

The cuts served in Trattoria al Cenacolo, which have been dry aged to enhance flavour and tenderness, are a favourite of meat lovers. Grigliata mista (mixed grill), coscia di castrato (mutton thigh), costate (rib-eye steak) and filetti di Black Angus (Black Angus tenderloin) are just some of the tempting main courses.

The homemade pasta dishes include strozzapreti al ragù (rolled pasta in ragu), pappardelle alla lepre (broad, flat pasta with hare) and ravioli al formaggio di fossa e pancetta croccante (ravioli with fossa cheese and crispy bacon). Feeling adventurous? Order strinchetti, a pasta shaped similarly to the bow-tie kind and served with porcini mushrooms and sausage. They also serve great pizzas.

Trattoria Da Savino is known for its cannelloni e lasagne al forno (baked stuffed tube pasta or lasagna), strozzapreti pasticciati (rolled pasta in ragu), baccalà in umido o alla griglia (stewed or grilled cod) and trippa e coniglio in porchetta (porchetta-style tripe and rabbit). The restaurant is near Coriano, just over 30 km from Cesenatico, and serves Romagna's most famous dishes.

The piadina (filled flatbread) is homemade, the cold cuts and cheeses are from local farms and dairies and the wines from local wineries. It's a friendly, laid-back trattoria that's popular for its unpretentiousness and authenticity.

Discover the area's culinary history in Ristorante il Contadino in Savignano sul Rubicone, a small town famous for the Roman bridge crossed by Julius Caesar when marching to Rome with his army. The menu includes meat and vegetable courses, like tagliatelle ai porcini (tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms), pappardelle alla lepre (broad pasta with hare), carne alla griglia (grilled meat) and trippa (tripe).

If you fancy some unusual meat, order the lumache (snails) and rane (frogs), which are served stewed or grilled. Or, try a giant or metre-long pizza. Sangiovese and trebbiano wines are produced onsite, and the cellar's home to a large selection of bottled wines.

Head to Osteria degli Inseguiti, a restaurant with a quirky name (‘Chased Ones Osteria’) serving traditional fare, if you're near Porto Canale (Port Canal) and feeling peckish. The environment is laid-back yet classy, with a large veranda outside. It goes without saying that fresh fish takes centre stage: it's served fried in crispy, aromatic dishes, as an accompaniment to delicious first courses, and in scrumptious seafood salads.

You could start with spaghetti allo scoglio (seafood spaghetti) or tagliolini con gamberi e zucchine (ribbon pasta with shrimp and courgettes) before moving on to fritto misto (mixed fried seafood) or cozze alla marinara (mussels in tomato sauce). The portions are generous and will satisfy even the choosiest diners.

La Buca serves Adriatic fish dishes that give traditional recipes a touch of class and originality, served up in an elegant setting overlooking Porto Canale (Port Canal). There's a hugely varied menu: you could start with merluzzo con pomodoro (cod with tomato) and mozzarella di bufala (buffalo mozzarella), followed by spaghettino freddo con aneto, scampi e zenzero (cold noodles with dill, prawns and ginger).

There's also a tremendous choice of crudités, from ostriche (oysters) to carpaccio di ricciola (amberjack carpaccio). Not a seafood fan? There's another menu featuring delights like gnocchi fondenti di patate con burro e salvia (gnocchi with butter and sage). The sober, elegant furnishings put a stylish and charming spin on nature’s simplicity.