Assisi Restaurants and Dining

(Assisi, Umbria, Italy)

Tourists dining out in Assisi will find that many restaurants cater well for different nationalities and often offer extensive, multilingual menus. Although many restaurants in Assisi are far from being cheap, there are plenty of reasonably priced eateries, where large families can enjoy simple food, such as traditional Italian pizzas, without breaking the bank.

Some of the most reliable dining options come in the form of hotel restaurants, and even the cheapest of these tend to be amongst the best that Assisi has to offer. Alternatively, there is plenty of choice around the Piazza del Commune and the Piazzetta Garibaldi, and the local Italian ice cream (gelato) is quite mouth-watering.

What to Eat

The Umbrian cuisine makes many an appearance at traditional Italian restaurants and trattorias in Assisi and this cuisine tends to be fairly simple, but always extremely tasty and palatable. Herbs and olive oil help to give the dishes a recognisable flavour of the Mediterranean, along with seasonal vegetables, freshwater fish (trout, perch and eel) and Castelluccio lentils (lenticchie di Castelluccio).

Always popular are garlic-flavoured sausages (Capocollo), roasted pigeon (piccioni all spiedo), and also lentil and sausage stew (lenticchie di Castelluccio con salsicce). Those dining out in Assisi feeling a little more adventurous may also like to sample the spicy roasted pig's intestine (budellacci).

Where to Eat

Cafe bars and restaurants tend to be clustered on the streets surrounding the Piazza del Commune, such as the Vicolo della Volta Pinta, the Via Portica and the nearby Vicolo Buscatti, where the Grotta Antica is an excellent and very affordable dining venue, with an unbeatable wine list, price-wise.

Other restaurants of note in Assisi include the Medio Evo on the Via Arco dei Priori, the Ristorante il Duomo on the Vicolo San Lorenzo, and the Buca di San Francesco on the Via Brizi, where spaghetti and gnocchi are staple components of many a dish.