La Grotta Del Gusto In Matera

- Service: Self-service, with plastic cutlery and food served in traditional poke bowls. The waiter at the entrance explains the service and gives you menus, then you can sit wherever you like. There's a device at the table that, once you've ordered (return to the waiter at the counter), lets you know when your food is ready. Overall, the service was fairly quick and the waiter was very friendly. - Cuisine: The restaurant offers a variety of local dishes at reasonable prices but of good quality. For our appetizer, we tried the "cialledda" from Matera, a bread-based dish topped with tomato sauce, cucumber, tomatoes, and basil; it was very refreshing on the hot day. For our first course, we tried the orecchiette with turnip tops and crusco peppers (€9) and the cavatelli with pezzente sausage and cardoncelli mushrooms (€9), both of which were very popular, but I especially enjoyed the mushrooms in the second course. Finally, for dessert, we had "sporcamuss," a delicate yet crunchy puff pastry with custard. - Atmosphere: Quiet, quite cool, and informal. - Venue: Very simple, yet characteristic. Entirely carved out of stone, with typical cave decorations and ornaments scattered throughout. There are about twenty tables, but only inside. - Location: Sasso Caveoso, a short walk from many attractions and panoramic bridges, such as the Pascoli lookout. - Opinion: The quality of the food, the reasonable price, and above all, the availability of tables without waiting are definitely the restaurant's strong points.

We had bread meatballs with sauce, truly exceptional. Then, two first courses: gnocchi with local sausage and ravioli with sauce. Everything was delicious and topped with excellent Matera bread. Highly recommended. Very quaint atmosphere.

Self service!, but it works well and is fast

We dined at this informal restaurant two evenings, ordering first courses and appetizers, spending reasonable amounts and eating well. The place is beautiful, quaint, and clean, and the staff is extremely kind and helpful. The "do-it-yourself" approach is a pleasant one... You sit at a table and choose your food from the menu, then go to the counter to order (and perhaps chat a bit). When your dishes are ready (you're notified by a buzzer), you return to the counter to collect them. Of course, there's no cover charge. We ate off paper plates; it's not the end of the world, and perhaps for this type of service, it's the best option.

Great Food & Unique Cave Experience! I’ve traveled around Italy and this was truly one of the best meals I’ve had — high-quality, fresh food in a very unique cave setting. Despite being self-service, the experience is wonderful, and the cool temperature inside the cave is perfect on this hot summer days. I’ve been in Matera for 3 days and tried several restaurants where I paid an exaggerated coperto fee of 3 to 4 euros — here, you don’t pay any COPERTO at all. Totally worth it!

Described as "Self-service" but don't let that deceive you on the quality on offer here. You place your order from the menu and when cooked you get an alert to collect. The food is high quality and the staff friendly in this family run gem. I had the "Tagliata con funghi cardoncelli e peperone crusco" which was succulent with the deepest of flavours...we also had the roasted lamb (Agnello al forno con patate) again rich in flavour, wholesome and sophisticated (though appears as a stew). Do yourself a favour, great experience, cool cave restaurant to escape the punishing heat. Well done to all.

We've been here a couple of times and it's always a great experience. Daniel and his staff welcome you with open arms and make you feel at home. The food is excellent, the tagliata paired with cruschi peppers and mushrooms is really good, but the panna cotta with cruschi peppers on top is also delicious 😋 In short, excellent value for money.

Excellent food in a cave. No table service but excellent service and attention otherwise.

Abbiamo scelto questo locale per a prima nostra cena a Matera, perché abbiamo letto recensioni in Tripadvisor, nei pressi del ns b&b Al Vicinato nei Sassi, e siamo state colpite dalle recensioni e dalla caratteristica di essere scavato in una grotta, dove un tempo le persone del posto vi abitavano. Non siamo state deluse, anzi di più. Talmente che abbiamo mangiato bene, che ci siamo tornati anche a cena la sera successiva e a pranzo il giorno successivo prima di ripartire. Quando vi abbiamo mangiato noi c'erano ancora i camerieri, oggi invece ordini e vai a ritirare i piatti fuori la cucina, chiamandoti quando sono pronti. Abbiamo mangiato tutte specialità del posto. Antipasto di salumi, formaggi e latticini del posto, fave e cicoria accompagnato dal tipico pane di Matera fatto a crostini. Orecchiette con zucca, guanciale, stracciata e peperone crusco. Orecchiette al sugo Materano. Peperone crusco, Crapiata(zuppa di tantissimi legumi sempre con crostini di pane di Matera)[è un piatto tipico che si faceva alla fine del raccolto e si condivideva insieme al vicinato. Per prepararla ognuno offriva dei tipi di legumi provenienti dal proprio raccolto, un bel momento di condivisione].Acqua, coca, caffè, dolci e panna cotta al peperone crusco (divina). Prezzi economici. Personale gentilissimo ed educato

Nella media, tendente al sotto media, diciamolo, a causa di un primo che non ha soddisfatto il nostro palato. Trattasi degli scialatielli con zucca e burrata, sbagliati completamente dal nostro punto di vista. Gli altri tre primi, di cui i cavatelli e gli gnocchi buoni. Il tagliere iniziale di salumi e formaggi molto ma molto easy. La cosa simpatica o antipatica è che si ordina in cassa e quando il tuo piatto è pronto, suona il tuo tag e devi andare tu a prenderlo vicino la cucina. Dolci molto buoni e soprattutto un plauso ai ragazzi del servizio molto gentili, sorridenti e preparati. Da migliorare ma per una sosta senza aspettative ci sta tutta. Prezzo nella media.