La Bella Idrusa

Visited 11Jan2026, out of season, fantastic experience, excellent food, the owners very kind. You must try the Sagne! Fish meat or veggy/mussels. Uniiques

People have spoken about how amazing Italian food can be well I have to start by saying you will 100% experience an extraordinary dining experience at La Bella Idrusa, Otranto Italy. La Bella Idrusa one of if not the best places I have ever been blessed to dine at. The food is not churned out for the numbers you will see waiting to access this fine dining experience. The food is defiantly made from the heart and the attention to detail head chef Mario goes to, to ensure guests receive the best quality local produce is second to none. Every dish Mario and his team prepares shows how passionate and committed they are producing exceptional food, which I have to say made every dish truly remarkable. La Bella Idrusa is the most welcoming restaurant I’ve been to, the hospitality is exemplary and the team do all they can to ensure you receive an exceptional dinning experience. Yes they are busy and at times, especially at weekends when there will be a huge queue outside the restaurant, you just have to ask yourself why? Just trust when I say it’s worth the wait. If you have a special function in mind and want a dedicated team to provide unbelievable food don’t be afraid to ask the team if they can accommodate your special occasion. I hope my pictures do the food justice. Thank you, Mario, Franco, Nadia, Marco, and the entire team at La Bella Idrisa. I will continue to share what a beautiful place Otranto and restaurant La Bella Idrusa are to visit.

Had a nice dinner here with generous portions and lovely service!

With all the great reviews and passing this place for a week now we decided to wait the 40 minutes and go for it. How wrong could we be as I have been on the toilet much of the night with diarrhea (my wife said the kitchen looked filthy when she had to wait for the toilet next to it). The hostess was very nice but like much of the staff overworked as we had to wait so long even with 9 empty clean tables. The place has an amazing position at the entrance to the old town with a view out to the harbour, so 5 stars for atmosphere. Locals seemed to get seated right away. The waiter came within 8 minutes (unlike another family we saw wait for 15 while we waited) to take our order but no smile or friendly conversation. He delivered some of the drinks, starter of calamari and salads with plastic packets of oil/vinegar (classy!) fairly quickly but then disappeared. Our wine we ordered never came. The mixed salad looked like something I was served in a school back in 1970, two hard tomatoes quartered with a few shavings of carrot on a bed of chopped cheap lettuce made many hours before. We waited and waited for 40+ minutes for our pizzas which when they came were mis-sold. The prosciutto was just a cheap cut of ham, damp and warm, not crisp on a watery passata sauce with no flavour, no reduction with herbs etc. The porcini mushrooms just tasted and looked like portobello shrooms so again mis-sold. The base of all the pizza were undercooked and soggy, soggy soggy cardboard, totally tasteless and not crisp. I have made many pizzas myself and this tasted like my first experiment gone wrong with the liquid from mushrooms ruining the pizza. We couldnt pay from the table but we had to go back to the hostess and pay and wait yet again. They were doing a lot of take away service which was causing delays at all the other tables I saw who had to wait and wait, many people longer than us. So poorly managed. And to make matters worse I have been on the toilet for much of the night due to cramps and some issues with the food so now I am paying again. It was not what I ate earlier in the day which is from a bakery (with no meat or fish) we have been going to all week. So far the worst Italian meal I have had in Italy with over ten visits in the last 35 years. Sorry I really wanted to like this place, maybe Mario the chef was on holiday. Just remember because something is popular doesnt mean it is good.

in short: little taste for a lot of money! unfortunately the food quality was much below the stunning atmosphere. each dish we had (parmigiana, la bella idrusa, pizza balsamica) was lacking in taste & complexity. e.g. i've never had dried tomatoes or capers with as little flavor as here. the staff was friendly but too rushed to clean plates off our table in 30 mins.

Great Pizzeria buzzing with life. Very busy at about 19:00. Tasty huge pizza and great wine choice too

There is a reason why there is always a line to get a table here! The food is really good and it is worth the wait. It’s really hard to make a pizza that stands out amongst so many other restaurants that make pizza. I think that La Bella Idrusa is able to stand out amongst the competition with a very light crust and a bold pizza sauce. I’ve eaten so much pizza this week and this is the only one that I will remember.

Great food, price, service and location (nice view sitting in the external patio). We've been to 2 other restaurants also in the old town, but they were average. This was the best of them. We ordered the octopus, orechiette (local pasta), German weiss beer and tiramisu for dessert. They also brought couvert (Italian bread with olive oil).