Al Pozzo

Seafood antipasto was very good but only had one anchovie when we were told there would be enough for two to sample. We were trying to decide if we wanted the anchovies appetizer instead. Other dishes and wine were good but high for the price. Very crowded.

We had dinner here our second night in Monterosso al Mare. While the food was good, it was almost twice as much as our dinner the night before at Belvedere which we thought was much better.

My family and I ate here on our first night in Monterosso, and we found it to be fabulous. There weren’t any open tables, so they put another one in the street and made room for us. The service was slow, as is to be expected at an Italian eatery in a crowded vacation hotspot. The mixed seafood salad, with octopus and clams, was fantastic. They served the bread with a very good quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The pesto is very flavorful, not too delicate, and just the right amount for the pasta. We ordered one of the «for 2 people «dishes, the spaghetti with lobster sauce. This isn’t just a sauce made from lobster and poured over the pasta, it’s a large steaming pot of lobster stew, with large chunks of the lobster (with shell), with garlic and tomatoes and with perfectly cooked spaghetti. It was wonderful and more than enough for 2 people. They served a nice red wine with the meal, from a local Cinque Terra vineyard. It isn’t cheap, for sure, so be prepared for a larger than average bill, but the food is great.

I really don’t know how this place get such good reviews .the service was great .but the food was terrible .very sloppy .was also over priced Isn’t worth it at all. save your money this place is trash don’t get me started on the bathrooms yuck.

Disgraceful restaurant promised wifi after sitting us Inside and producing expensive items mostly had minim of 2 to order items
Given water and then found unable to connect to wi fi as we did not have Italian phone no. !!!
We decided to leave but was basically accosted by the older female?? owner demanding we pay for our glass of water and started talking about us in in Italian which we were able to understand.
Do yourselves a favour and go to one of the many other lovely restaurants in Monterosso!

As part of our Cinque Terre tour we ended up in Monterosso, which is where the guide let us go to find lunch. After a bit of looking around, we settled on this place.
Service slow. Both ordering and receiving. The salad ordinary. Not bad, but not really good either. The Bolognese pretty good. I liked it. I probably would go with 3.5 stars, buy I can’t give that on Unilocal and it was better than 3 stars.
I noticed our guide ate here too. :-)

This place was great. On our 13 day Italian trip no other restaurant served a better mixed seafood antipasto; it was huge, offering mostly cold delicacies, and a few fried pieces. I had it as a meal and I couldn’t finish it. Yum! My husband had fresh, grilled fish, and we split the prociutto and melone, which was outstanding! Great service too. Crowded because it’s so, so good.

We tried the seafood antipasti and it was enormous — it was good (not great, esp. for the price), though glad we had the chance to try different things. We also ordered the meat plate appetizer and it was huge and the prosciutto was so tasty. Between the two, it was more than enough food to get us full, but we weren’t expecting such big portions (compared to other restaurants). But we had already ordered the pasta with pesto sauce and it was so good that we engorged ourselves. I’m not normally a pesto-​lover but we thought we’d try it because it’s so well known in the area, but I would eat it regularly if I could at Ristorante al Pozzo.

We came during the end of low season so we visited each town by train instead of the hiking trail. We found this place with the Rick Steve’s book and loved it. We shared a salad to start and then had the fried seafood platter and the pesto gnocchi since this region is the birthplace of pesto and they are by the sea for fresh seafood. The fried dish was prepared with a light better, wasn’t too oily, used clean oil so the color was light and not dark, and was very good. Being Americans, we wanted a side of tomato sauce for dipping like back home but no dice. It was still good. The gnocchi was also very good. They made it from scratch and they were like light, fluffy pillows and very filling too. We really enjoyed this place for lunch and always like places where other Italians eat at, too.

My girlfriend and I had a wonderful meal at al Pozzo. I can’t say it was my favorite of the trip, but the restaurant is very charming, the staff was friendly and the food was good.
They have a lot of seafood options at al Pozzo and they offer a number of seafood pasta or risotto dishes that serve 2 (and come out in big, steaming cauldrons). We started with a salad and then split a seafood pasta that had a very rich tomato sauce – almost a broth. It was good, although some of the seafood critters kind of creep me out (ie: the whole prawn with legs, tail, antennae and all). We also shared a delicious filet of swordfish.
Al Pozzo’s is obviously popular with the locals, it’s not a tourist trap and the quality was excellent. It wasn’t entirely to my taste though and I felt like it was a little expensive – but it’s a solid dining option if you’re staying in Monterosso al Mare and I would recommend it.
Side note: we saw an amusing ad in the train station (see photo) which offers free tastings but the unfortunate English translation on the sign advertises «taste free» food.