Il Portico In Fano

21/09/2025: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Felix Taverna dei Pescatori – Let Yourself Be Guided The first thing I asked for when ordering was my usual spaghetti with clams. The owner, Felix, with his fake-gruff demeanor, rolled his eyes and replied, "More!? We have them if you want, but today we have this. Trust me." Faced with my insistence, he turned to my girlfriend: "From now on, I'll only talk to you, not to him." So they chose the dishes. We started with a small appetizer: boiled mantis shrimp, delicious, plus a seafood tramezzino, which I ate on faith. For me, spaghetti with pesto and Sorrento lemon zest, imposed by the two people behind me. For her, fusilloni with zucchini and zucchini flowers stuffed with mussels. A perfect blend of sea and land, accompanied by an excellent bottle of Arneis. It was pleasant to be there, in that spot next to the harbor, on a beautiful day when, around 1 pm, we could enjoy a cool breeze coming from the sea. A lunch that wasn't just food, but an experience. We didn't eat anything else today, but this review is also an opportunity to take stock of another dinner a few days ago. And precisely because we had such a good time the other evening—I think it was Wednesday—we returned. On Wednesday, we were greeted with an appetizer, again with mantis shrimp, and with gratinated mussels, which I'm fond of (I'm a creature of habit). Then, after requesting the usual roast sea bass, the owner "scolded" me, pointing out that, since the fishing ban had ended just the day before, the sea had yielded the best there was on the market and that eating a training fish was crazy. So we ate a mixed grill of monkfish, sole, uniquely delicious calamari, and more. In their simplicity, it was like eating the sea. The lemon? Felix replied, "It's just for garnish. It's not used on good fish." It was a sublime evening, too. Felix's friendliness makes everything more authentic; the courtesy of his wife, who, alongside him, does the hosting for every table, makes you feel welcomed like family. And then the waiters, chosen from among the young men from Fano who are eager to gain experience: with their good-natured manner, they immediately put you at ease, as if the person serving you were the son of a family friend or a nephew. And as soon as you enter, you understand that the experience at Felix Taverna dei Pescatori is different: the two signs at the entrance say it all. "If you're in a hurry, this is not your restaurant" and "Here we cook, not bake." Two signs that make you smile, but they perfectly capture the spirit of the place: here, the weather is right for real cooking, not for reheating something in a pan. Eventually, I realized that those signs weren't a warning, but a promise. A promise kept.

21/09/2025: We spontaneously wandered in from the beach on a Saturday evening: A top-notch host who read our hunger like a palmist at a fair. Whether antipasti, first courses, or second courses, everything was a perfect match for our tastes. And the service team was always attentive and courteous. On top of that, we found the whole experience to be excellent value for money. Thank you, Felix, for the highlight of a nearly perfect day.