Ristorante Caruso, Ravello

Ristorante Caruso in Ravello offers the combination that is hardest to find on the Amalfi Coast: genuinely good regional cooking, a panoramic terrace view, and prices that do not require the budget of a luxury hotel stay. Named after the legendary Neapolitan tenor Enrico Caruso, who fell in love with Ravello and spent time there in the early twentieth century, the restaurant occupies a terrace position on Via San Giovanni del Toro with views down across the valley to the sea below. The kitchen is focused on the vegetables and fish of Campania, preparing them with craft and honesty rather than elaborate technique. Pasta con melanzane e ricotta — the Campanian pairing of aubergine and sheep's milk ricotta that appears across the region in multiple forms — is a reliable and beautifully made first course. Grilled local fish with lemon from the surrounding terraces, and a selection of contorni using seasonal vegetables from the hillside gardens, complete a menu that changes with the seasons. The wine list leans towards accessible Campanian bottles at fair prices. Service is warm and attentive. Ravello attracts visitors with discerning tastes but not always the budgets for its top-tier hotel restaurants; Caruso fills this gap intelligently, providing a dining experience that is distinctly of the place without the premiums charged at Rossellinis or the more formal properties nearby.