5 Best Restaurants in Sorrento, Sorrento and the Sorrentine Peninsula

At this informal, waterside restaurant and snack bar, you won't see many locals—they're unlikely to be impressed by the four-language menus—but the seafood platters are fresh and flavorful, and you can eat alfresco in the sunshine or inside a glass-enclosed dining area with a nautical motif. You can even go for a swim. For a special-occasion splurge, consider renting out their luxury resort next door, Villa del Maggiore, replete with pool, terraces, and direct private access to the sea.

Seafood classics, including tartara di pescato del giorno (raw catch-of-the-day antipasto) and linguine with riccio (sea urchin), are tweaked creatively here. The staff is warm and helpful, the singer on the sound system is the long-departed "fourth tenor" himself, and the operatic memorabilia (including posters and old photos of Caruso) and subtle lighting add to the atmosphere.

Near the steps of the Marina Grande, this reliable choice for seafood (established in 1947) might not be Sorrento's most visually prepossessing place, but its homespun, family feel—complete with wooden tables and checked tablecloths—is a refreshing change from the town's (occasionally pretentious) elegance.

Under the same ownership as the Ristorante Museo Caruso, this budget alternative—in a tiny alley between piazzas Tasso and St. Antonino—offers the same wine list (about 1,700 labels) plus a bountiful choice of hearty Italian dishes. Its main salon is decorated with modern paintings of an erupting Vesuvius (there's outdoor seating as well), but the smaller room on the opposite side of the road is more romantic, with a tiny balcony overlooking the tortuous road to the harbor.

Opened in 1868 by an ex-priest ('o parrucchiano means "the priest" in the local dialect), this restaurant serves classic Sorrentine cuisine in a 19th-century setting that's enchanting, although it can feel overly touristy: a sprawling, multilevel greenhouse packed with tables and chairs amid fruit trees and enough tropical foliage to fill a Victorian conservatory.