Awards Candidates 2019

16/09/2025: Excellent Angus beef with incredible homemade chips. The Albea house wine is delicious, and the service from Jada is so kind and knowledgeable! Come on over!

16/09/2025: Excellent!!! We ate the Angus tagliatelle, it was divine! A plancha starter, cold cuts and cheese for four, perfect. And the service from Jada, the waitress who speaks French, was top!!!

25/08/2025: An excellent restaurant in every way. The quality and freshness of the ingredients, both fish and meat (the wagyu is spectacular). The staff is well-trained, knowledgeable, and friendly. The location is excellent. I go there a couple of times a year when I can. It's clearly an expensive restaurant, but the prices are fully in line with what's offered: carefully selected, fresh, and high-quality ingredients, well-trained and friendly staff, and an excellent location—all this in the heart of Polignano a Mare.

18/08/2025: Very good service, the dishes were simply delicious, I also recommend their wine cellar which is of very good quality as well as the fish which is the specialty rather than the meat.

01/09/2025: Original and very tasty cuisine, kind owner and excellent wine connoisseur, who gave us the best advice on local products

06/08/2025: By chance, while driving from the beach, we stumbled upon Gioia del Calle. We were hungry. It took a while to find a restaurant (we were in an unfamiliar town), but it was 100% worth it. A top-notch culinary experience. Every dish we ordered took us to the heights of our palate. I highly recommend it, not just for the hungry... 10/10

20/08/2025: Tried it one evening for dinner. The fried fish wasn't exciting. The roasted octopus was overcooked and tough. The first courses were adequate. Perhaps the kitchen and service struggled due to a table of about twenty people. The location is appreciable.

18/08/2025: The food is truly excellent, especially considering the quality/price ratio in the area. The service is also impeccable, with the staff always friendly and welcoming. The only downside is the ambiance, which wasn't particularly to our tastes. Furthermore, there was no air conditioning/cooling (or at least not enough).

03/09/2025: It's worth making a reservation, as there might not be a table available. The place has a rock vibe, with musical instruments on the walls and rather loud music from the speakers. The daily menu is on a blackboard and has a QR code (which is a bit annoying). The tuna was decent, but nothing special. The Angus beef wasn't even a question about doneness. Bottled water from a plastic PET bottle. Free bread with the dishes.

03/09/2025: This place is worth remembering, as it offers delicious and affordable food. A pleasant place for a simple and truly excellent dinner – I recommend the passegiata and carbonara. Take "simple" as a compliment, meaning it's simple, tasty, and healthy. I recommend it!

09/07/2025: I went for a drink at Mezcla. The bartender, Andrea, is excellent and very professional. It was a very positive experience. We'll be back.

06/07/2025: Welcoming and original place, vast menu, prepared and polite staff, Kevin very friendly a true host! We will definitely return!

04/09/2025: A little pricey but delicious, fresh sushi fairly close to the water in Puglia. We came as soon as they opened for lunch and the waiter had good suggestions, but our favorite was the dragon roll.

03/09/2025: One of the best sushis I've ever had!

14/09/2025: We had a wonderful experience at Quintessenza. We experienced the Quintessenziale menu along with wine pairing and we enjoyed every single dish. The service and the atmosphere were exceptional. We enjoyed a lot the details provided by the very kind and professional staff. We highly recommend the experience!

13/09/2025: Easily 5 stars. Nothing to dislike, everything to love. The best meal we had in Puglia. The best service we had in Puglia. The best conversation we had in Puglia. If you're looking at the Michelin guide and debating where to dine while in Puglia, make sure Quintessenza is on your list. Candidly, we didn't have great luck with a couple of Michelin recommendations in other cities earlier in our trip. However, Quintessenza helped us end our trip on a high note. We did the Classici tasting menu, and not one bite disappointed. Think of it this way, if you want to experience the classic flavors of Puglia using the highest quality ingredients in an accessible atmosphere presented through a fine dining lens via a highly skilled modern interpretation backed by knowledgeable and supremely friendly service, then Quintessenza is an easy choice for you. Here's your dilemma though. If you eat here early in your trip, nothing else may compare, and if you eat here late in your trip, you'll likely forget all the other places you ate.

16/07/2025: Welcoming and professional atmosphere. Friendly and attentive staff. Excellent food. Traditional cuisine.

16/07/2025: Welcoming and professional atmosphere. Friendly and attentive staff. Excellent food and traditional Apulian cuisine. PS: The waiter is very friendly.

25/08/2025: They're perfect in the dining room, but their kitchens are masterpieces. No dish is ordinary. The location is worth the trip. Congratulations!

21/08/2025: 🛑 PRICES NOT UP TO THE SERVICE 🛑 A place that certainly has a remarkable history behind it, but I think it's been lost over time. The atmosphere is certainly clean, the terrace overlooking the Trani port is very charming, but that's about it. The waiter service is terrible; it seems like they're competing to be the first to take away customers' plates, perhaps even before they've finished their meal. If you "pretend" to eat because you want to take your time, they pass by and have fun, waiting for you to slip up and take everything from you. It's absurd, but it's true. The quality of the food is something you can find practically anywhere, especially in restaurants where the final bill is more than half. Absolutely nothing special. The prices are absurd, inflated by the name they've built over time; they're basically living off the proceeds. This isn't meant to be a criticism, but simply an observation of reality from the outside, as a customer. Unfortunately, when you go to such renowned places, you expect, I won't say magic, but at least satisfaction for what you pay. It's such a prominent place that you build up fantastic expectations, which are largely unfulfilled. What a shame ✋🏻

24/05/2025: Positive experience with oil of various qualities with some real excellences

16/05/2025: Purchased some wedding favors for our wedding. I was really happy and satisfied with the packaging, presentation, quality of the product and the kindness of the staff. I highly recommend