Where to eat in North Sardinia (a local's honest guide)

You can eat very, very well in North Sardinia, and you can eat badly too. The difference is rarely the menu. It's whether the place is cooking for tourists who'll never come back, or for the people who live here.

This guide is the second kind. Thirty-two restaurants, bars, gelaterias and one Brazilian churrascaria, from a fat burger we'd happily drive 25 minutes for to a Michelin-starred dining room in the Gallura hills. We've grouped them by area, so when you're planning the day — Castelsardo for lunch, Costa Paradiso for sunset — you can pick from what's nearby.

A few honest notes before you start. Almost everything closes from late October until April or May, so this is a summer-and-shoulder guide. Reservations matter more than you'd think; Sardinian restaurants are small. And when an Italian says "il pesce è del giorno" — the fish is from today — believe them. The catch from Santa Teresa or Castelsardo at 6am is what you're eating at 8pm.

Pick by occasion

• Special-occasion / fine dining → Il Fuoco Sacro (Michelin), Mesadoria, Le Terrazze Ritual, Phi Restaurant
• Local Gallurese done well → Lu Maestrali, Locanda Rudalza, Da Thomas, Baga Baga
• Best pizza in the area → Cross Country 2.0 (Sedini), Pizzeria Ichnos (Isola Rossa), La Pizzaccia (Valledoria), Mammamia (Costa Paradiso)
• Sunset aperitivo with a view → Phi Beach, Le Terrazze Ritual, Vento Lounge, Santaluz Kiosko, Horizon
• Beach bar lunch, feet-in-sand → Calypso, Emerald Beach Club, Santaluz, Rupi's
• Steak / burgers / grill night → Gallura Steak Grill, Lost Cow, Aruanã Churrascaria
• Gelato + pastry stops → Gelatomania (Badesi), Onda (Santa Teresa), Pasticceria Mura Nicolino (Castelsardo)
• Winery / wine tasting → Cantina Li Duni (Badesi), Tenute Sella & Mosca (Alghero)

If you're staying with us at Beach Base, about half of this list is reachable in 30 minutes or less.

Badesi — Beach Base's home turf

The village itself is small but it punches above its weight. You can do an entire week here without driving more than 10 minutes for dinner.

1. Cantina Li Duni — wine in the dunes

Our local cantina, five minutes' drive from Beach Base into the vineyards behind the village. Li Duni's claim to fame is that the vines grow in pure sand at sea level — ungrafted, exposed to the salt wind off the Gulf of Asinara — which gives the Vermentino di Gallura DOCG a mineral edge you'll be looking for in every other glass that week. Tastings are casual: five wines paired with pane carasau, pecorino, salumi and a square of sebada. In summer they run "wine + stargazing" evenings; book those a week ahead.

2. Calypso Beach Club — beach bar, lounge, sunset DJ

The big one on Baia delle Mimose at the eastern end of the Badesi beaches, ten minutes from us. Calypso has won "best beach bar in Italy" for three years running, and on a Saturday night in August it earns it — three bars, a glass-walled veranda touching the sand, a DJ playing house until one in the morning. By day it's a perfectly normal beach club with sunbeds, salads and aperitivo cocktails. By 9pm it's a different place entirely.

3. Emerald Beach Club — the quieter Badesi beach option

At the far western end of Li Junchi beach, where the dunes get wilder and the crowds thin, Emerald is the spot we go to when Calypso feels like too much. Sardinian pizza, decent seadas, cocktails brought to your sunbed, and a sunset over the gulf that's better than anything you'd order anyway.

4. Gallura Steak Grill — the meat night

Up in the Muntiggioni neighbourhood above the village, this is where Badesi locals go when they want a real steak. They'll bring the raw cuts to your table, you choose, they grill. The portions are Italian-generous (i.e. enormous), the wine list is local and reasonable, and the bill at the end is fair. Number one of eighteen restaurants in Badesi on TripAdvisor for a reason.

5. Gelatomania — gelato, breakfast, late-night spritz

The all-purpose Badesi village pit-stop. Open from 7am for coffee and pastries, gelato counter going all afternoon, charcuterie boards for aperitivo, crêpes for the kids. Marco Mannoni does pistachio with real pistachio paste and seasonal fruit flavours that are properly fruity. Five-minute walk from the main piazza.

Valledoria — 10 minutes west

The next town along the coast as you drive west toward Castelsardo. Two places worth crossing the Coghinas river for.

6. Mesadoria — Michelin Guide modern Sardinian

The most ambitious kitchen within ten minutes of Beach Base. Mesadoria is on the Michelin Guide list for 2025 — not starred, but recognised — and runs a contemporary tasting-menu format with seafood-led dishes that take a Sardinian foundation and modernise it carefully. Think prawn carpaccio with citrus, octopus done two ways, hand-rolled malloreddus with a saffron-butter reduction. The decor is minimal-cool, not rustic. Recently opened a second location in Sassari.

7. La Pizzaccia di Pietro Licheri — XXL pizza, hidden gem

Pietro Licheri's pizzeria is tucked off the main drag in Valledoria and serves enormous, long-fermentation pizzas at honest prices. The XXL ("for sharing") arrives at the table and silences the conversation. Gluten-free crusts available with a day's notice. Family-run, no English menu, occasionally a bit chaotic — exactly what you want.

Isola Rossa & Trinità d'Agultu — 10–15 minutes east

The next village east, a small fishing-village-turned-summer-resort with a red granite tower on the headland. Lots of beach bars, a few decent restaurants, and one of the most consistently good kiosks on the coast.

8. Santaluz Kiosko Mediterraneo — sunset beach kitchen

On Li Feruli beach at the northern tip of the Isola Rossa bay, Santaluz is a beach kiosk that has quietly turned into one of the best lunch-and-sunset spots in the area. The menu is small but ambitious — tuna tataki tacos, shrimp-avocado bao, ragu meatballs, a pavlova that local food writers have written about. The building itself is local wood that disappears into the dunes, the sunbeds are fair-priced, and the sunset is from the right side of the headland.

9. Pizzeria Trattoria Ichnos — the local pizza

The Isola Rossa Ichnos (not to be confused with the well-known San Pantaleo branch) is a thin-crust pizzeria that also does a creditable spaghetti vongole. Family-run, no fuss, queues outside in August. The €5–10 pizza range means you can feed a family of four and a wine carafe for under €60.

10. GustaBè — the aperitivo wine bar

Right on the Isola Rossa seafront, a small wine bar doing aperitivo properly: a Sardinian cheese-and-charcuterie board, a glass of Vermentino or Cannonau, and a sunset view. Reliable cocktails too. Walk-in for early evening; book for a table after 8.

11. Il Veliero — Trinità d'Agultu, near La Marinedda

A solid Trinità d'Agultu spot near La Marinedda beach. Online presence is light but the in-person reviews are consistent: fresh seafood, reasonable Vermentino selection, friendly staff. The kind of place that doesn't market itself and doesn't need to.

Inland villages — 15–20 minutes from the coast

Drive ten minutes inland from the beach and you're in a different Sardinia entirely — cork forests, granite villages, no English on the menus. Worth the small effort for the cooking alone.

12. Lu Maestrali, Viddalba — traditional Gallurese, garden setting

Twenty minutes from Badesi, in the hills above Viddalba, Lu Maestrali is the meal we send guests to when they ask "where do locals actually go?" The garden faces west, so dinner starts in light and ends in sunset; the kitchen does the proper Gallurese repertoire — zuppa gallurese (a bread-and-cheese baked dish that's not a soup), suckling pig, hand-cut tagliatelle with wild boar ragù. Family-run, generous, unpretentious.

13. Cross Country 2.0, Sedini — pizza in a paragliding field

A long-fermentation Neapolitan-style pizza in an unlikely setting: a clearing on the edge of Sedini, with shaded tables under the trees and a paragliding launch pad in the next field over. The pizzas are properly puffy, the toppings are generous, and on a clear evening you can see from Valledoria's beach all the way to Asinara and Corsica.

Castelsardo — 25–30 minutes west

The medieval hilltop town we send everyone to once (and then again for dinner). Four picks ranging from a €10 burger to a fine-dining sunset terrace.

14. Lost Cow — the burger you'll talk about

Despite the name (and the menu still calling it "burgers & grill"), this is essentially a cult burger joint in the old town. Fat patties, brioche buns, fried chicken, the kind of crispy edges that get reviewed by sandwich-tournament Instagram accounts. Cheap, fast, casual. Don't order anything fancy — the burger is the move.

15. Baga Baga (and Paninoteca da Federigo)

Baga Baga is the hotel-restaurant a kilometre outside the old town, on a hill with one of the best views in north Sardinia — Castelsardo to the east, Corsica's cliffs to the north, Asinara to the west. The cooking matches the setting: granseola (spider crab), local lobster, contemporary takes on Gulf fish. The terrace at sunset is one of the great Sardinian dining experiences.

In Castelsardo old town itself there's a separate, much humbler spot called La Paninoteca da Federigo — sandwiches, panini, big portions — that's worth a stop on a lunchtime wander.

16. Vento Lounge Bar — sunset aperitivo, old-town terrace

A cocktail bar in the historic centre of Castelsardo with a 180-degree sea-view terrace looking over the Gulf of Asinara. The drinks lean Sardinian — myrtle, juniper, mirto liqueur in things you wouldn't expect — and the snacks are correct. Come for the hour either side of sunset.

17. Pasticceria Mura Nicolino — local pastry, since 1978

A Castelsardo institution that's been making the same classic Sardinian pastries — seadas, papassini, amaretti, pirichittos — for nearly fifty years. Mornings are best. Walk down the hill from the castle with a paper bag of pastries and you've understood Castelsardo.

Costa Paradiso — 25 minutes east

The pink-granite stretch of coast halfway between us and Santa Teresa. One pizza pick worth driving for.

18. Pizzeria Mammamia — proper Neapolitan, on the cliffs

On Terrazza Maya in Costa Paradiso, a short walk from the head of the Li Cossi trail, this is a Neapolitan pizzeria that takes its dough seriously. The Sardo (with local salumi and pecorino) is the move; the tiramisu at the end is a bonus. Outdoor courtyard, no nonsense.

Aglientu & Vignola Mare — 30 minutes east

Long sandy beaches, quiet villages, and one of the region's quietly-best fine-dining rooms.

19. Almadìa Restaurant, Aglientu — refined Vermentino-and-fish

The destination dinner of the Vignola Mare area. After a recent management change Almadìa has stepped up to refined Mediterranean cooking — raw-fish plates, hand-made pastas, eleven different Vermentino di Gallura wines by the glass. The setting is greenery overlooking the Vignola coast. About 1.6 miles from Spiaggia di Vignola, so make it a sunset-then-dinner plan after the beach.

Santa Teresa di Gallura — 1 hour east

The northernmost town in Sardinia, with Corsica visible across the strait. Three picks for a long beach-day-into-dinner.

20. Ristorante Da Thomas — fifty years of seafood

Founded in 1978 by Cecchino Mannoni and now run by his three sons, Da Thomas is in the Gambero Rosso 2025 guide and is the seafood dinner of Santa Teresa. The catch comes off the local boats in the morning; the menu changes; the crudités are properly raw. Order the off-menu fish of the day and let them choose how to cook it.

21. Horizon Alchimie di Gusto — sushi, poke, sunset terrace

Santa Teresa's outlier — a fusion spot mixing sushi and poke bowls with Sardinian ingredients, served on a terrace over the sea with cocktails using local botanicals. Live music some summer nights, take-away if you'd rather eat on the beach. Genuinely a different mood from everywhere else on this list.

22. Onda La Gelateria Artigianale — yellow submarine

Just off Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, the Santa Teresa gelato counter people queue for. Mauro's been making it for 29 years. The signature is Yellow Submarine — ricotta + saffron + pistachio — but the seasonal fruit sorbets are what we go back for. Gluten-free cones, dairy-free options, gelato-on-a-stick for the kids.

Porto Pollo — 1 hour east, on the way to La Maddalena

The kitesurf isthmus we cover in the day-trips guide. One reason to stop for a long lunch.

23. Rupi's Chilling Out — surf-bar with a kitchen

On the wind-side of the Porto Pollo isthmus, Rupi's is a beach bar with proper food: burgers, tortillas, big salads, cocktails. By day it's surfers in wetsuits stopping for tortillas; by night it turns into a party with DJs or live bands most evenings. Thursdays are the big night. The aperitivo with kitesurfers wheeling overhead is the move.

Costa Smeralda — 1 h 15 east, the splurge end

The Aga Khan stretch — Baja Sardinia, Poltu Quatu, Porto Cervo, San Pantaleo, Porto Rotondo. Prices climb sharply here. The seven places below range from a Michelin-starred dining room to a fixed-menu Brazilian rodízio in the marina.

24. Phi Beach — the sunset (and the dining room)

Built into the granite of the Forte Cappellini fortress in Baja Sardinia, Phi Beach is the Costa Smeralda sunset bar. Two things happen here: the Chiringuito at the rocks, where the sunset DJ set has been on Ibiza-circuit DJs' tour lists for fifteen years; and Phi Restaurant, the upstairs Michelin-Guide-listed dining room from chef Giancarlo Morelli. A salt-water pool, an open-air club after dark. One of the most famous beach clubs in the Mediterranean.

25. Le Terrazze Ritual — rock terraces with waterfalls

Above the historic Ritual Club in Baja Sardinia — the 1960s nightlife venue that the discos in the rest of Sardinia were measured against. Le Terrazze is the restaurant on top: multi-level rock terraces, waterfalls, mosaic floors, views across to the La Maddalena archipelago. Chef Riccardo Pacifico's menu plays Mediterranean with exotic notes. The aperitivo is built around a €50 first drink with a tasting plate; à la carte minimum spends apply.

26. CouCou Sardinia — Poltu Quatu rooftop

The rooftop dinner of Poltu Quatu, the small marina between Baja Sardinia and Porto Cervo. French-Mediterranean fine dining that turns into late-night lounge — dancing on tables on a good Saturday. The name plays on the coucou bird; the actual experience is "in the clouds" — sweeping views in every direction.

27. Aruanã Churrascaria — Brazilian rodízio, Poltu Quatu

The first Brazilian churrascaria in Sardinia, in the Poltu Quatu marina since 2003. The format is fixed: €65 a head, ten different cuts of meat brought to the table on swords by gauchos until you tap out, plus an unlimited vegetable, cheese and salume buffet. The picanha is the showpiece. Live music June–September. Festive in a way no other restaurant on this list is.

28. Ristorante L'Assaggio — San Pantaleo's "cozzeria"

Tucked at the entrance of San Pantaleo village, L'Assaggio is built around one thing: cozze — mussels, prepared eighteen different ways. Owners Lilliana and Graziano have been doing this for years. Refined seafood, rustic-chic dining room, a terrace looking onto granite rocks. About 25 minutes from Olbia airport, so it works as a first-night or last-night dinner.

29. Il Fuoco Sacro — Michelin star, Petra Segreta Resort

The dining room of the Petra Segreta resort, in the hills above San Pantaleo. One Michelin star. The kitchen is patron-chef Luigi Bergeretto and chef Alessandro Menditto, in collaboration with Enrico Bartolini — Italy's most-starred chef. A 500-bottle wine cellar. The setting is rural Mediterranean maquis; the cooking is haute Sardinian. The most ambitious meal in North Sardinia, full stop.

30. Locanda Rudalza — twelve-course Gallurese, fixed menu

In Rudalza, between Olbia and Porto Rotondo (about 1 h 30 from us), the most distinctive traditional dinner in the area: no à la carte, no choices, a single fixed twelve-course Sardinian menu for €50 a head including wine. Signora Giovanna has been cooking it for twenty years. Porcetto (suckling pig), seadas, zuppa gallurese, gnocchi, on and on, in a juniper-beamed dining room. The far-east end of this guide but worth the drive once.

Alghero — 1 hour south-west

The walled Catalan-Sardinian city in the west. We cover the day trip itself in the day-trips guide; these two are the food picks.

31. Tenute Sella & Mosca — historic winery, on-site dining

Founded in 1899 by two Piedmontese — Sella and Mosca — and now the largest wine producer in Sardinia. The estate is 650 hectares, 520 of them vineyards; a "model village" of cellars, a restored chapel, period villas, an on-site restaurant in the old wine-master's house, an agri-resort if you want to stay. The flagship wine is Marchese di Villamarina, a Cabernet Sauvignon that doesn't taste like anything else in Sardinia. Book the tour and tasting ahead.

32. La Piccola Cucina Alghero — old-town pasta

Inside the walls on Via Sant'Agostino, La Piccola Cucina is the consistently top-rated tourist-and-local pick of the Alghero old town. Handmade pasta, fresh seafood, vegetarian and vegan options properly catered for. Generous portions. The kind of place that holds up across 1,600 TripAdvisor reviews — rare for any restaurant in a tourist centre.

The five we send everyone to

If you read all 32 of these and asked us to pick five, here's the honest shortlist:

1. Cantina Li Duni — for the best one-hour introduction to the wine of this coast.
2. Lu Maestrali, Viddalba — for the proper Gallurese dinner.
3. Santaluz Kiosko — for the long beach lunch into sunset.
4. Mesadoria — for the impressive dinner without leaving Beach Base's home patch.
5. Phi Beach (or Le Terrazze Ritual as alternative) — for the one that's-why-people-come-to-Costa-Smeralda night.

If you're with kids: swap out the Costa Smeralda spot for Gallura Steak Grill plus a gelato at Gelatomania on the way home. If you're a wine person: add Tenute Sella & Mosca for a half-day on a beach-rest day. If you genuinely want the splurge: Il Fuoco Sacro at Petra Segreta is the one.

The best dinner we've had this year was none of the above, though. It was a plate of grilled fish and a half-litre of Vermentino on the beach at Emerald, on a Tuesday in late September, while the sun took its time going down. Sometimes the best restaurant is just the one with the best timing.

Photo credits: most images on this page are Beach Base's own photography or licensed from Adobe Stock and Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons. Restaurant interiors and individual dish photos are not included on this page — we'd rather you discover those yourself. If you'd like to see specific restaurants' photography, all 32 have a website or social presence we've linked through. Any errors of fact (opening hours change, chefs change, prices climb) — please let us know and we'll update.