Lecce
Il Bacaro

Il Bacaro

Via Parini , 14, Lecce, Italy, 73100

Pasta • Steakhouse • Senza Glutine • Ristoranti Di Carne


"Me and my wife arrived without reservations at 08:00pm and were told that all the outdoor tables are booked. After some nodding and hand signals we were told that we could sit outside, but had to vacate the table at 09:30. Fine with us. This...turned out to be most interesting, as no other guests showed up before 09:30pm and the whole wait staff and chefs attended to us. Service very relaxed and informal, although at times I felt they where rushing us a bit. My wine selection was not a big hit with the waiter, and he selected for me a different bottle, and discounted it down to the price of my original choice. His selection tasted better. We ordered the 2 person entrée for EUR 22. Be aware, these are 10 different courses that feed a minimum of 4 people. It was excellent, and we did our best but could not finish half of it. The wife ordered a small filet mignon and I went for the Wagyu beef. Filet looked and tasted good, but a little over cooked (we where never asked how we wanted the meat cooked , the Wagyu was excellent, but served in very thin slices. When I cook Wagyu I do it like a normal steak. Perhaps my ignorance? Meat was served on a funky wood platter with four sauces, well three sauces and Dijon Mustard. This came with a side order of two different types of potatoes. Pretty good pan fried potatoes, and crazy good deep fried potato wedges. I don 't think we even ordered them I think the staff is so proud of the food the restaurant serves, that they just serve it to their guest, without the guest asking : Of course, after the starter, we had difficulties finishing the steaks. How the Italians do it, I will never know. We finish our meal promptly at 09:30pm. Waiter brings us the bill and a complimentary and very tasty sorbet. Bill is EUR 110.00 for two people, I think that is a reasonable vacation rate, and pay the guy. When he comes back, then he gives us a bottle of red, with the name of the restaurant on it (Bacaro . Wow, thanks man. Well worth a visit."

Fusion

Fusion

Viale Ugo Foscolo 9/11/13, 73100, Lecce, Italy

Sushi • Pasta • Fusion • Gelato


"My wife and I visited this restaurant for lunch earlier today, with the intention of trying something different during our trip to this lovely region of the country. The restaurant has some positive aspects: it is spacious and well air conditioned, offering welcome respite to the afternoon heat. The shrimps in panko (gamberi in panko) were delicious and my beef with sancho pepper (manzo, verdure croccanti, fondo bruno e sancho pepper) was tender, even if the portion was quite small. However, there are several negative aspects to this restaurant which soured our experience, both literally and figuratively. The chicken yakitori taco (Tacos Pollo Yakitori) was dry and overcooked. The coup de grâce, though, was the poor quality of the uramaki, with the ebi mayo and goma both leaving a very unpleasant sour aftertaste. This was very unexpected, given that the restaurant prominently features sushi dishes in its menu. The owner 's responses to the negative reviews here, including to my wife 's review, are rude, condescending and dismissive, insinuating that their customers have only eaten at mediocre 'all you can eat ' sushi restaurants and lack the refined palate to judge the quality of their sushi. We have both eaten at a la carte sushi restaurants and sushi bars all over the world and have tried some of the freshest salmon in Norway and Scotland and we can confidently say that the uramaki was disappointing. Given the mix of positive and negative reviews on Google and TripAdvisor, I hope our experience was a one off and that others are more fortunate than we are when choosing to dine here. Edit: you 'll notice the (expected) condescending tone in their response below, despite mentioning having high quality salmon in countries where salmon is sourced from. Salmon can go bad, and rice can become stale for various reasons, regardless of its source. We are not the first to point out problems with the fish, as indicated by some earlier reviews, and given the half hearted nature of their apology, we don 't expect to be the last."