Tuesday, July 14, 2026 Nico Cirasino

Food & Wine: where to eat in Puglia, the gourmet restaurants and masserias every exclusive villa guest should know

Browse the article:

Due Camini, Borgo Egnazia (Savelletri di Fasano): the Michelin star born from the earth
EVO, Alberobello: olive oil, territory and very few covers in the home of the trulli
Cibus, Ceglie Messapica: the custodian of Pugliese gastronomic memory
Masseria Il Frantoio, Ostuni: women's kitchen, absolute zero mile
Restaurant 700, Ostuni: contemporary Pugliese cuisine at the Paragon Hotel
Primo Restaurant, Lecce: Italy's youngest Michelin-starred chef and contemporary Salento

Pugliese cuisine is among the richest and most authentic in the Mediterranean. Ingredients of absolute quality, a gastronomic tradition spanning centuries and, in recent years, a new generation of chefs who have elevated that tradition to a level of technique and research rarely seen in southern Italy. The result is a restaurant scene today that owes nothing to the historically more celebrated Italian regions: eleven Michelin stars spread across the Valle d'Itria, Salento and the Adriatic coast, and a density of gourmet addresses that makes every stay in Puglia a gastronomic journey as much as a holiday.

For those staying in an exclusive villa in Puglia, these restaurants are not simply where you go for dinner: they are standalone experiences, capable of becoming the most memorable moment of an entire trip. Here is the Raro Villas selection: six verified addresses, distributed across the areas where our villas are present, from the Fasano coast to Salento, by way of Ostuni and the Valle d'Itria.

Due Camini, Borgo Egnazia (Savelletri di Fasano): the Michelin star born from the earth

Inside Borgo Egnazia, one of the most exclusive and luxurious resorts in the region, chef Domingo Schingaro celebrates and elevates what is perhaps the most typical and original soul of Pugliese cuisine: the vegetable. Due Camini is the most representative starred restaurant on the northern Adriatic coast of Puglia, a short drive from Raro Villas properties in the Fasano and Carovigno area.

Schingaro works with local growers in search of heritage botanical varieties, building dishes that use each ingredient across multiple preparations, honouring every part and minimising waste. The best-known tasting menu, "La Memoria della Puglia," is a journey across the five provinces of the region on a single table. When the Michelin star arrived in 2018, the chef described it as a recognition that comes from the land itself, from the values of the Mediterranean.

Reservations are recommended at least 3-4 weeks in advance during July and August. The restaurant opens for dinner Tuesday to Saturday.

EVO, Alberobello: olive oil, territory and very few covers in the home of the trulli

In the historic centre of Alberobello, behind the Basilica of the Santi Medici, one of the most personal and identity-driven gourmet addresses in the Valle d'Itria awaits. EVO is now a true institution in the world capital of trulli: chef Gianvito Matarrese elevates territorial cooking through a sustainable evolution, anchored in the kitchen garden and a wine list sourced exclusively from small Pugliese producers.

The name is not incidental: EVO stands for Evolution, but is also the Italian acronym for Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the ingredient that threads through every dish on the menu. Matarrese promotes 25 different cultivars across 40 producers and 240 bottle references, used both as cooking ingredients and served as direct tasting experiences at the table. The menu offers a lighter option at lunch with two courses and an olive oil tasting, or a five-course selection (€65) or a seven-course chef's choice (€75).

Covers are very few (sixteen in summer with the garden gazebo): reservation is mandatory and often required weeks in advance. For those staying in a villa in the Valle d'Itria, EVO is reachable in under ten minutes.

Cibus, Ceglie Messapica: the custodian of Pugliese gastronomic memory

In Ceglie Messapica, an inland town of the Brindisi province declared "City of Art and Land of Gastronomy," one of the most authentic addresses in all of Pugliese gastronomy awaits. Cibus is far more than a restaurant: it is a project of gastronomic memory, where every dish tells the authentic story of Puglia. The setting is the interior of an ancient fifteenth-century convent, all stone walls and aromas drifting from the cellars where cheeses age and artisan fermentations slowly mature.

The menu tells the true essence of tradition through exceptional local produce: beef tartare with stracciatella, warm cow's milk ricotta with toasted almonds, sagnapenta pasta with braised roll ragù, strong ricotta and fried breadcrumbs. Then the territory's meats: horse rolls in ragù, free-range veal at the grill and donkey stew in terracotta. It closes with traditional sweets including the famous biscotto cegliese and fig ice cream paired with San Marzano elisir.

Cibus is the address to choose when you want to understand what Pugliese cuisine was before it became an international trend. Open daily for lunch and dinner.

Masseria Il Frantoio, Ostuni: women's kitchen, absolute zero mile

Masseria Il Frantoio is one of the oldest masserias in Puglia, dating to 1500. Today it is a charming hotel and certified organic farm immersed in a timeless atmosphere, where culture and tradition meet research and contemporary quality. The restaurant welcomes external guests, and delivers one of the most distinctive gastronomic experiences in all of Puglia: not a starred chef, not a code-driven tasting menu, but something considerably rarer.

The kitchen is led by Rosalba, owner and self-taught restorer, who together with a team of local women produces simple, generous, balanced dishes based on certified organic ingredients (many of them Slow Food Presidia) grown and processed on the estate itself. Each dish is enhanced by the four extra-virgin olive oils produced from the masseria's centuries-old trees. The menu rotates across nearly 300 dishes according to season, and in summer the entire dining experience moves outdoors into the central courtyard: where, as one guest once said, "we are inside a painting."

For those staying at Raro Villas properties in Ostuni, Masseria Il Frantoio is reachable in under fifteen minutes. Reservation required.

Restaurant 700, Ostuni: contemporary Pugliese cuisine at the Paragon Hotel

For those seeking a high-level gourmet experience in the heart of Ostuni itself, with a modern setting and a carefully curated menu, Restaurant 700 inside the Paragon 700 Boutique Hotel & Spa is the right choice. Chef Pasquale Palermo leads the kitchen with creativity, celebrating local flavours from fresh burrata to beef bombette, with particular attention to seasonality and unique sensory experiences. The tasting menu pairs with selected wines, and the restaurant offers outdoor dining in its orange garden.

The register is contemporary but territorially rooted: dishes that start from canonical Pugliese ingredients (scallops, tomatoes, artichokes, Murgia lamb) and reinterpret them with modern technique and considered presentation. For guests arriving from an Ostuni villa, Restaurant 700 is one of the most immediate quality dining choices minutes from the White City.

Primo Restaurant, Lecce: Italy's youngest Michelin-starred chef and contemporary Salento

Primo Restaurant is where Solaika Marrocco, born in 1995 in Gallipoli, expresses her personality as a modern cook in dishes that are as beautiful to look at as they are to taste. Guests choose between a seven-course surprise menu, an eight-dish Pugliese tradition menu (often reimagined), and an à la carte selection of the restaurant's greatest hits since opening.

Self-taught, Solaika became the youngest member of the Associazione Ambasciatori del Gusto and the youngest Michelin-starred female chef in Italy, a record that still stands. The restaurant's iconic dishes include sweetbread glazed with orange and raw Gallipoli prawns, aubergine parmigiana with burnt wheat béchamel, and hand-cut tagliatella with octopus. The philosophy is clear: to create new memories of Puglia.

Fewer than twenty covers, a minimal setting in Lecce stone, reservations almost always necessary weeks in advance. For those staying in a Salento villa, Primo Restaurant is the essential gastronomic reference point for the region.