Bar Baia Saracena

Located right out on the breakwater in Vernazza, Baia Saracena has one of the best views while dining in a village filled with great views. While the restaurant in the tower above provides a good view of the water, from Saracena you can see the water, hillsides and a gorgeous view of the pastel buildings of Vernazza. Plus you don’t have to climb any stairs. There was a good crowd when we arrived at dusk, but it was never totally full, which was on par with our experience in Vernazza where the town empties of day tourists come early evening.
As with any place that’s right on the water in a seaside town, there was plenty of seafood on the menu, but I was feeling like a different local tradition — pesto. They’ve got a variety of options, and my wife and I chose to try a few of them — she the pesto lasagna, and I ordered the pesto bruschetta as a starter to share, and the traditional trofie al pesto for my main.
The bruschetta was composed of four slices of heavily toasted bread piled high with chopped tomatoes, a dusting of herbs and an interesting pesto cream, rather than just the spread of dark green basil sauce that I was expecting. The pieces were big enough and had enough toppings that a knife and fork was the obvious way to go. The tomatoes were good and fresh, and the pesto cream was pleasantly smooth and I enjoyed its more dialed back pesto flavour, compared to what pure pesto would have been like. The thorough, but not burnt, toasting stood up nicely to the tomatoes and pesto.
Pesto course #2 for me was a very large serving of a local favourite pasta, trofie. The semi-​thick, semi-​twisted sticks of pasta were plump and had an enjoyable chew. The pesto flavour was more pronounced than the bruschetta and that of pesto trofie I’d had elsewhere in Vernazza, but despite not being as much of a basil-​lover as my wife, I still ate eagerly.
We got tiramisu for dessert; the cream was wonderfully airy, but the cake parts could have used a more generous soaking in coffee.
All in all, I would definitely suggest that hit this place up at dusk if you’re in Vernazza for a few nights, and take in the sunset on the water and tasty local flavours that Baia Saracena has to offer.

This little ristorante doesn’t look like much, but its a gem. My girlfriend and I ate here 4x in 3 days, while trying a few of the other restaurants, but we were never as satisfied.
The pesto dishes are the best we’ve had in all of our two week trip here and the location near the dock is worthy of the food.
Plus, it’s cheaper than some of the other options and the wait staff is very friendly.

Inexpensive option for the area that serves pizza and pasta to go. You can also dine in if you prefer.
We got a pesto pizza for 10EUR, ate on a bench outside overlooking the harbor, and felt about as satisfied as we had with any of our other meals in Cinque Terre so far. The pizza was greasy and ordinary, but we had been paying 3x as much plus cover and service charges for mediocre food at sit-​down restaurants.
The pizza was popped in the oven after we ordered it, so we had to wait 10min.
Note: The location currently on the Unilocal map is way off. The pizzeria is actually on the edge of the Vernazza harbor and not miles inland. I submitted an edit, but it hasn’t been accepted yet.

A great little pizza, pasta, sandwich place on the very end of the street as you enter the harbor promenade.
Great yeasty pizza crust slathered with the good stuff for about 6 — 7 euros.
Nice spot for dining outside right on the wharf.