There are very few restaurants we’d suggest going to in Positano, but was one of the best fine dining restaurants we’ve experienced on the Amalfi Coast.
One of our favorite things about Il San Pietro di Positano was Zass, the hotel’s romantic yet unpretentious one-Michelin star restaurant. The restaurant is open to outside guests and we’d highly recommend having dinner here over anywhere in town. The mood is set with candles, and live music every night makes an evening at this cliff-side institution a memorable experience.
Dinner starts with one of the iconic dishes from Napoli, a slice of wood-fired pizza as an amuse-bouche. We love the fact that they start a fine dining meal with a few casual but special bites. Next, our tasting menu included dishes of sea bream carpaccio, ricotta cheese “tortellone” with Genovese sauce, suckling lamb, and a chocolate pie with salted caramel and coffee.
The wine list and pairings are really unusual for the Amalfi Coast. Head sommelier Salvatore Marrone has a special interest in small producers – which pleasantly surprised us. They of course have all of the typical Italian wines that are the pride of every sommelier’s list and sought after by tourists with more money than knowledge of Italian wine. If you allow yourself to be surprised, the team will introduce you to producers that you probably won’t find anywhere else in the area, including some of our favorite Piemontese producers like G.B. Burlotto and Elio Sandri.
Belgian Chef Alois Vanlangenaeker has a beautiful technological kitchen that he’s personally designed to create the best environment possible for his team, including good air conditioning and windows for his team so they aren’t in the dark all day long. Additionally, he has a huge garden of produce to work with on the property and brings in some of the best products, including fresh fish from the market in Napoli twice a week.
Zass, Via Laurito, 2, 84017 Positano SA, Italy
Note: Il San Pietro di Positano provided support for the reporting of this story.