10 Best Local Restaurants in Riccione

Canasta is a historic local restaurant in Riccione’s centre that’s been a favourite haunt among celebrities since the 1960s. Canasta offers typical Romagna cuisine, without neglecting the classic pizza, which uses stoneground flour and is naturally leavened for a light, digestible meal. Also recommended is the eggless carbonara with thick spaghetti, spaghettoni alla carbonara senza uovo.

Depending on your dietary requirements, all pasta can be substituted with gluten-free, wholemeal or Khorasan wheat variants. Seafood dishes use the fresh catch of the day, while meat options include cured pork from the top-quality Mora Romagnola breed which can be aged for over a long period of time while remaining succulent.

Fattoria del Mare is a seafront restaurant in Riccione that’s eye-catching with its modern architecture and glass walls and large dining spaces. The location is perfect for enjoying their speciality seafood dishes. It has been a hot dining spot among locals and visitors since the mid-20th century and opened as a hangout centred around a large barbecue that cooks the catches of the day.

From the Romagna menu, there’s a feast of traditional colours and flavours with selections ranging from wood-fired pizza to traditional lasagne bolognese, tortellini in brodo, and a mixed grill option with mutton, pork chops, sausages and other delicacies.

Ristorante Da Lele is a local Riccione restaurant right on the seafront which transforms traditional Romagna dishes with a dash of creativity and innovation. Freshly caught fish from the Adriatic takes centre stage here. Start with either the crudités miste raw seafood platter, the canocchie mantis shrimps or octopus caprese, followed by homemade pasta, salted shrimp, or lobster parmigiana.

Another speciality to try is their passatelli, a Romagna pasta dish in stock, reinterpreted with the addition of prawns, courgettes and Pachino tomatoes. You’ll also find a wealth of meat and pizzas on the menu. To finish we recommend the mascarpone della casa or their passion fruit and Grand Marnier sorbets.

Patty da Diego is a beach restaurant in the north of the town of Riccione. It’s known for its selective menu prepared there and then with fresh ingredients, favouring rod-caught fish. In this refined, sunlit restaurant with windows overlooking the coast, nature seems part of the setup. It's ideal for those who enjoy raw delicacies and want to try the local seabass fillets, thinly sliced carpaccio, spider crab or the Gabicce oysters.

First courses include curried penne pasta with seafood or candy-shaped pasta stuffed with fish. The second courses mainly feature grilled or baked fish from the Adriatic. To try a house special, order the tuna tartare with flatbread.

Kalamaro Fritto stands at the port entrance where, years ago, a fisherman would unload his catch, which his wife would then cook for local beachgoers and visitors. The popularity of its simple and tasty meals turned their booth into today’s restaurant. Besides fresh fish, there's homemade pasta and desserts, including cassata with sheep ricotta, meringue, candied fruits and chocolate or almond and pear mascarpone.

Their tuna and calamari burgers with Squacquerone sauce are among the must-tries. Also worth checking out are their original seafood parmigiana with aubergines, mozzarella and clams as well as their classic Romagna cuttlefish and peas.

Sirena Ristorante is a great place for a candlelit dinner in Riccione. The restaurant is set in a gorgeous seaside location where you can book a table for 2 on the veranda, or simply go for a classy aperitif on the terrace. It's open from morning until midnight and is suitable for both full meals and light snacks, all throughout the day.

The adjacent garden and public stretch of beach serve as a natural play area for the kids. The terrace is equipped with ramps for easy pushchair and wheelchair access. The menu includes traditional Romagna and Mediterranean dishes, as well as rice and pasta dishes, piadina flatbread sandwiches and gluten-free desserts. For an aperitif, choose from red or white wine or crushed ice and fruit cocktails.

Piadineria da Romano is a great place to enjoy Riccione's local piadina flatbread. Piandina is one of iconic local foods, made with traditional flavours that can be eaten any time, even for breakfast. Da Romano is a stone's throw from Viale Ceccarini and is a simple eatery with plastic chairs under a red and white veranda. Even so, through the windows you’ll see the dough being made by hand, just how proper Romagna piadinas are made.

Choose your filling: there's prosciutto ham, stracchino cheese, and rocket as well as tomato and mozzarella and air-cured beef and ricotta. You can also try the trusty squacquerone spreadable cheese, fish or meat, and there are also Nutella versions for an original dessert.

Fish cooked on burning embers by the sea is about more than taste: it's the joy of being together, nights around a guitar, the carefree happiness of holidays. Ristorante Da Gher, on the pier at the entrance to Porto Canale, is known for cooking on foconi: embers on raised ledges covered with sand. House specials include girigliate (grilled meats), croccante fritto misto con il pescato dell’Adriatico (crispy fried mix of Adriatic fish), spiedini (skewers) and rustide made with a method used by fisherman who, having unloaded their nets, would cook snacks on the beach. Other delicacies are the lumachine (snails) and cozze and vongole (mussels and clams) starters. In winter, minestrina di quadrucci in brodo di pesce (pasta in fish stock) hits the spot.

Casa Angelini is a longstanding fried seafood shop in the centre of Riccione where locals and visitors head to for a quick, affordable bite. Choose from the fried mix that includes red mullet, whiting, scaldfish, sardines, prawn tails and calamari as well as the classic fish and chips. House specials include calamari, prawn, cod, mussel and vegetable cone. You can also try the mozzarella skewers or the pane bianco white bread with toppings for a different treat.

Casa Angelini’s homemade sauces are also unusual and delicious which make the dishes even tastier. These include mayonnaise and ginger, barbecue and tabasco, and ketchup and tomato, together with a curious mix of mayonnaise and vanilla.

Ristorante Osteria Urbini is a seafront restaurant between Miramare and Riccione which is considered the beating heart of the Romagna countryside. While most of the restaurants in Riccione serve seafood dishes, Urbini offers simply pure, traditionally prepared meat dishes.

The heritage recipes here are authentic with no changes to ingredients or cooking methods. In the kitchen, there’s no chef, but the azdora – a name for someone who keeps the hearth burning. The dough for the meals and desserts are handmade. We recommend starting with the hand-rolled pasta with red sausage, followed by pan-fried chicken or rabbit or pork and lamb grill. Conclude with their homemade doughnuts with cream and amaretto.