Trattoria Il Porticciolo

one of 5 villages of cinque terre, manarola… typical menu of pasta, pizza, salad and more with strong seafood theme… fresh seafood is abundant in cinque terre… simple meal of pasta, pizza and wine… no peeling or hands required for seafood at il porticciolo… seafood pizza with simple marinara sauce with a sprinkling of mussel meat, calamari and tentacles… no cheese on seafood pizzas… taking a house wine selection of the white refreshing to wash down… spaghetti with shrimp, zucchini and squid ink 13,80 €…shrimp on top and center… spaghetti with zucchini swirled together… cooked al dente and dry, but flavorful… squid ink more of a decoration brushed around the side… ink already dried hard on to the plate…2 € per person cover charge…1,80 € for small bottle of water and 2,50 € for a large bottle… almost better to drink wine than request water… simple filling meal…

It’s convenient to eat here on a Thursday night when the other popular choices are closed. It was fairly easy to get a table around 9, but the downside to eating later is that they sell out of so many popular dishes! My husband and I shared the pesto bruschetta which was delicious. Then I had the spaghetti with seafood and he had the gnocchi with pesto. It was all very fresh and high quality but lacked salt which was an easy fix. For dessert, we shared the trio of tiramisu — chocolate, classic, and strawberry. Overall, we had a good experience and appreciated the great service.

Best service we’ve had had in Italy thus far! Giovanni was a fantastic server that made us feel very welcome! We had the muscles which I could have eaten forever and the spaghetti ragu. I couldn’t get enough! The tiramisu is a MUST HAVE! I highly recommend this place!

Solid 3 stars. Not the best, but not the worst. The squid ink pasta was better than the seafood pasta. They basically are the same, but one is with squid ink. I was disappointed with how tiny some of the seafood pieces were. Each clam was the size of my pinky fingernail. The seafood pasta also tasted like ocean (a tad stinky), almost as if they cooked the noodles in salt water. The grilled octopus was great, but a little pricey.
The service was superb though. If I go back, I’ll probably stay away from the seafood items and try their pesto.

Why this restaurant can get such high score. The foods are totally bad. Salty than you can image. Even the wine is not tasty. I am sick of the foods there. I don’t wanna go there again.

Amazing view. 12 euro ½ litre. Good meat and cheese platter. Beautiful sunset. What’s not to love!

After a yr… I amback! This time I brought mom and dad to enjoy their amazing fried octopus, grilled shrimps, pesto pasta, etc… Love this place!

Can you eat badly in Manarola? I doubt it. I did check with Unilocal first, but all the restaurants and focaccerias we visited were exceptional.
We had some antipasto to start and then the seafood spaghetti and lobster fettuccine for mains. Both mains were fantastic. Heavy on the seafood, light on the pasta which is the way it should be. All the seafood was incredibly flavourful and the fettuccine was freshly made and incredibly soft.
The kind waiter even got my husband a negroni from the bar across the road as they didn’t have all the ingredients in house — now that’s service.
You must book ahead.

Best tiramisu ever.
Our day was completely improvised due to rain and worker strike. We came to find ourselves not knowing what to eat and went to Unilocal.With decent reviews for this restaurant, we decided to try it and it was the best choice for our trip.
We got seats inside the restaurant. When we first entered, I saw a glass enclosed below the bar counter with some yummy desserts and I was determined to get it.
Our server was particularly cool and laid back. With six of us wanting to try different selections, we ordered 5 items to share.
Each dish that came out was amazing. Price was very reasonable and the portion was good. Near the end of our meal, one of our friend felt he could have more pasta and decide to order another lobster pasta. We had no problem inhaling the second time around.
All of us were satiated and I was still determine for dessert. The tiramisu was waaay too good. It’s not the standard cake we eat in the states. This was the frothy creamy goodness that just a nice balance of sweet. Six of us sharing the three sampler cup was not enough so we ordered another one. We did see some people were late arrivals and to realize that they are there only for dessert.
Would definitely recommend coming here for the lobster pasta and tiramisu.

Waiter was rude but attentive. They charged us a cover fee. I usually won’t be upset by that, but they sat a party of 3 in a table for 2 and we stared at the wall the whole time. These are the reasons why I gave this place 3 stars. They have free wifi. I ordered the ravioli bolognese, it was good. My friend ordered the spaghetti bolognese and he thought it was ok. My other friend ordered the lobster pasta dish and she loved it. She had the best meal of the three of us. It was an entire lobster tail and it was very reasonable priced. The table next to me told me the pesto sauce here is too rich and they couldn’t finish their meal. I wouldn’t come here again.

This restaurant is on the main walking street of Manarola. It gets very crowded in the evening so I’d make a reservation beforehand to make sure you get a seat (or a nice seat outside).
We had the antipasto misto di mare, a seafood platter, which was recommended to us. It was a good sampler to begin our meal, though I found it a little salty. We both had the lobster with fettuccine, which literally includes half of a lobster; it was filling and well made. We also enjoyed the local Burasca wine, which was fantastic.

Great dishes and seafood options, reasonable prices, good local wine selection– the house white was great. The interior was very appealing and had been re done recently. We sat inside and it was not overly warm as I think there was some aircon. They offered local olive oil to compliment the bread. Our server was very busy and it was hard to get his attention but once we ordered our different courses, they were out within 10 minutes. When you’re finished with dinner a beautiful sunset is just a short walk towards the water– makes for a very romantic evening.

Best foods we ever had during our short stay in Italy and better than any Italian foods we ever had in America. The seafood sampler had octopus, squid, swordfish, sardine, anchovies, and salmon cooked in different styles. One of my favorite dish ever. The mussel and squid pasta was cooked perfectly and full of seafoods. The black ink pasta were so flavorful. All the plates were large. The presentation of all the dishes was eye pleasing. The table service was so attentive, everything was done without being asked. The interior of the restaurant was modern, warm, and inviting. I wish we had time to go back to try other dishes. The cost was so affordable, much less than what we had paid in Florence for not so good foods.

The best food in Italy! I went to Venice, Florence, and Rome. The BEST meal I had in Italy, was here! Go!

This place was highly recommended to us but we found it to be just ‘ok’. Nothing bad and I’d probably eat here again to try something else… The waitstaff was friendly and the food was good. Perhaps it’s a case of it being over-​hyped. I’d like to give 3.5 stars but I will round up to 4.
We had a glass of manarola wine (which was quite good), the Ravioli stuffed with cod fish and the fettuccine with local lobster and they were both tasty. The tasting of local olive oil and balsamic vinegar and bread were disappointing.

Best meal we had in the cinque. Nice interior and staff, decent prices and good food. We had swordfish, lobster pasta, crème brûlée. Etc.
Slight negatives were that the bread was ultra cheap and in-​eatable and there was a two euro per person cover charge. But overall value and experience was good

We hiked from Vernazza to Manarola and were starving! So glad we found this rest as soon as we entered the main strip of manarola.
I ordered the seafood platter for 18 euros– totally worth it! u get a large squid leg, lobster, huge crawfish, and shrimp. Also had the pesto bruschetta– highly recommend! And don’t forget to order some cinque terre white wine with your meal =]

3 ½* Trattoria Il Porticciolo
Via Renato Birolli 92, on main drag
Manarola
Had slight difficulty getting seated
Food service by Australian-​Italian was friendly and good
House rolls were okay
The thin-​crusted pizzas were very good; each one could feed two persons
The CT5 house wine was very good
High quality food at slightly higher prices

This place was fantastic. My husband had the best seafood pasta and it was loaded with mussels, clams, prawns, etc. I ordered the pesto lasagna which was also very tasty but if I ever came back, I would definitely go for something with seafood. We had a nice Manarola white wine with lunch. Service was great. Worth checking out if you are visiting.

After hiking from Riomaggiore to Manarola this was a perfect place to rest and have something good to eat. I chose ‘tagliolini con kalamari’ and it was super delicious!
Prices are not as high as in the other restaurants in this area, even though the food came from another restaurant across the street! There wasn’t any outdoor tables nor white table cloths, which showed in the prices. There are also little snacks and sweet pastries etc. besides the menu. The restaurant was very fresh and stylish, the air-​conditioning was also a pretty nice thing and the old lady was very kind.
Very positive experience, totally recommend!

This trattoria has a special place in my heart because it is where we had our celebratory dinner after getting engaged along the trail from Vernazza to Corniglia. EVERYTHING that we ordered was simply delicious and well prepared. You must order something seafood from this restaurant – because you are by the ocean, of course. We ordered the grilled seafood platter and those prawns were the biggest we’ve seen in a while. And that octopus… oh, so good. The fettuccini pasta was cooked perfectly al dente, served with a light yet flavorful tomato based sauce. Service was outstanding. If we ever have the chance to go back to Cinque Terre, we are definitely coming back here to celebrate!

Service is a bit slow… But TOTALLY worth the wait. For my primi, I got the seafood pasta and it will filled to the brim with clams, mussels, shrimp, crab leg, and something weird that I could not identify but it looked like a seabug. I ate the entire thing and was pleased wi the flavor. It did not need any salt or cheese added to it.
My secondi was lil baby fried anchovies, served with lots of lemon and and a delicious pepper and white bean purée. I wish there was more purée, because I inhaled that as well. At the end, I took no dessert. I was happy with my food and my sweet wine. And all for under 20 euros!
If I was here longer than 3 days, I’d come back again!

We ate lunch here, I regretted not going back for dinner too. We ended up going to another restaurant across the way because we wanted to try something different, worst mistake ever.
Porticciolo is awesome! Their food, the service, the wine and the dessert –all amazing. Among four of us, we started with the octopus salad and mussels. Then we each ordered a lobster pasta, clam pasta, lobster pasta (gluten free) and lasagna al ragu. We ordered 2 bottles of white wine and each had our own dessert in the end, tiramisu and mascarpone (mixed berry, strawberry, etc). Everything was delicious. Oh and we ate everything! Good thing we hiked from Monterosso to Vernazza the next day.
The service was outstanding. Our server was a young lady from Australia. She was super attentive and a joy to talk to. I highly recommend this place.
Side note: Cinque Terre is very gluten free friendly.

I’d probably give this place 3 stars overall.
We started with an appetizer, splitting the anchovies with lemon sauce, which was a little easy on the lemon for my preferences. Still good though. I had spaghetti with clams while my husband had spaghetti il porticciolo. There was quite a variety of seafood in his, including what looked like a huge crawfish, which our waitress said was a scampi. He wasn’t very impressed overall with his dish, but he liked the razor clams and said the mussels back in the states were surprisingly more enjoyable. My dish was very similar, albeit with only clams, and the addition of tomatoes. It was good, but no where near the best I’ve had in Italy, even though it had fresh clams. One thing to note, they really cook their pasta al dente… I’d say actually less than al dente. So if you don’t like extra chewy pasta, beware.
We split the Nutella tiramisu for dessert, which was mostly moussey Nutella and barely anything «cakey.» It was good but not what you might expect.
The service was okay, our waitress was obviously not Italian and she spoke perfect English, as do people at most places in cinque terre.
A lot of people are drawn here because rick steves supposedly recommends it, but I’d find somewhere else to eat next time since it didn’t have a whole lot going for it.

I’m pretty sure everything in the Cinque Terre towns is touristy these days, simply because so damn many people want to see the place (s). But the locals really don’t have anywhere to hide from us, do they? Either for that reason… or maybe for pride’s sake (or a little of both?), this restaurant near the water serves up amazing seafood. I’m sure there are other good spots in town, but should I return to Manarola to fight the swarms for snapshots of the beauty its (part goat?) residents used to enjoy without us blocking the view… I think I’ll head right back down for some more seafood risotto from this spot. Just yummy.
Pro tip: if you’re sitting outside on the edge of the patio, always be aware of how close to the edge your chair is creeping… ;)