July 2022

Dining review: Ristorante Pizzeria Il Ghiottone – Palau, Sardinia

Since we had to cancel our original travel plans, I went back to the stars on my Google Map to find our new place for dinner and Ristorante Pizzeria Il Ghiottone became the new winner. From the outside, this would not have met our authenticity check – sign with Disney writing, menu on display as a giant sign, and menu with English – but the ratings and demand said otherwise. We were so lucky to have grabbed a table without a reservation – the place was bopping! The number of people that were turned away later in the night was quite amazing.

We sat outside and loved how much outdoor dining was the normal thing here – the weather is perfect for it as the sun goes down and a coolness enters the air. We did quite a bit of negotiating to figure out what we were ordering.

We started out with the house white wine – Vermentino – and the bread service which of course included the guttiau (Sardinian bread). We just love how satisfying it is without making you full like regular bread.

Spaghetti “il Ghiottone” with mussels, clams, saffron, and egg roe

Penne alla polpa di cristacei (pasta with shellfish sauce)

Kevin ordered the “Il Ghiottone”. This dish was beautiful! Full of creatures of the sea, the mussels and cleans were a great portion to the pasta. The egg roe on top looked more like breadcrumbs and was super tasty. The pasta was well cooked and the entire dish was great.

I was all over the place and for once, having a few photos of the food would have been helpful since the descriptions of some of these dishes were a bit vague. It should have been my sign to order something else since “shellfish sauce” was a bit of a mystery. The dish was good but not what I was in the mood for so I just ordered wrong. The table next to us had the tagliatelle gamberi e zucchine (pasta with shrimp and zucchini) which I was immediately envious of. I will keep that in mind for next time!

Calamari alla griglia (grilled squid) and grilled vegetables

I wanted to make sure we got our share of seafood while at the coast and this was certainly a good way to ensure we did. This piece of squid was beautiful – just look at the char! I was glad we decided to share this as it made the perfect portion to share. We both really enjoyed this and how it was prepared. The vegetables were a last minute contorni (side dish) to get some vegetables in which were all grilled and seasoned with olive oil and herbs. We were very happy with our entree dish!

Since we had a seada the previous night, we skipped dessert here in lieu of gelato. Overall, Il Ghiottone is definitely worth the hype and would recommend it for your trip to Palau.