Osteria Ricanatti

Verdict

If you have already eaten at Osteria Ricanatti once, book again. This is the kind of address in Ostuni where a second visit rewards more than the first: you come back knowing which format suits you (tasting menu over à la carte), which dishes to anchor your meal around, and how to time your arrival to make the most of the service. Two consecutive Michelin Plate recognitions (2024 and 2025) confirm it is performing consistently, not just on a good night. At a €€€ price point in a town where €€€€ options exist, it sits in a productive middle ground: more ambitious than a casual trattoria, less of a financial commitment than the splurge-tier rooms in the area.

What to Expect

The kitchen works from a kitchen garden located a few kilometres from the old town, and that provenance is visible on the plate. Vegetables arrive with a precision that signals they were chosen, not ordered. The menu spans both tasting formats and à la carte, which gives you flexibility rare at this level in Ostuni. Dishes documented in the Michelin record include a pecorino cheese and potato tartare with chimichurri, and paccheri pasta cooked al dente with a dual-tomato sauce, raw red tuna, and fried capers. These are not safe regional copies: the chimichurri signals a kitchen that is willing to pull from outside Apulia when it serves the dish. That cross-regional confidence, applied with modesty rather than ego, is what separates Ricanatti from the more conservative end of the local dining scene.

The room earns a 4.7 on Google across 319 reviews, which at that volume is a reliable signal rather than a statistical accident. Service is consistently cited in Michelin's own notes as warm and attentive, which matters in a town where tourist-season restaurants can drift toward transactional. If you are returning after a first visit, request a table in whichever part of the room you found quieter last time: the service team here appears to respond well to specific requests, which is worth using.

Tasting Menu vs. À La Carte

For a second visit, the tasting menu is the stronger choice. You have already scanned the à la carte; now let the kitchen set the pace. The structure of tasting menus at this level in southern Italy typically runs four to six courses, and at €€€ pricing in Ostuni, you are unlikely to face the kind of per-head cost that makes a long menu feel like a risk. If your group has one committed à la carte diner, the dual format means they are not forced into a tasting commitment — a practical advantage over venues that offer only one route through the meal.

On the Question of Takeout

Osteria Ricanatti is not a venue built for off-premise dining. The cooking here is technique-dependent: al dente pasta with a two-tomato sauce and raw tuna is a dish that degrades within minutes of plating, and a pecorino tartare travels even less well. No delivery or takeout information exists in the venue's public record, and that absence is in itself an answer. If you are staying at a property near Ostuni's centro storico and hoping to eat Ricanatti-quality food in your accommodation, this is not the solution. The food is designed for the room, for the service, and for the timing of a sit-down meal. For Ostuni dining that is worth the trip to the table, this is the address. For provisions to take back to a masseria, look elsewhere.

Booking

Booking here is classified as easy relative to the Ostuni dining scene, but that does not mean leaving it to the last day. Ostuni's high season runs June through August, when the white-walled centro storico draws significant visitor numbers. During those months, a Michelin-recognised room at this price tier will fill most nights. Book a minimum of one week out in shoulder season (May, September, October); two to three weeks in high summer. If you are travelling as a group of four or more, earlier is better: smaller tables are more flexible.

Practical Details

How It Compares

Within Ostuni's restaurant tier, Osteria Piazzetta Cattedrale at €€ is the right call if you want a shorter bill and strictly Apulian cooking without the modern intervention. It costs less and delivers a reliable regional experience, but it does not have Ricanatti's own-garden sourcing or the Michelin recognition. For most returning visitors choosing between the two, Ricanatti is the better meal; for a quick lunch or a group with mixed appetites for ambition, Piazzetta Cattedrale removes the pressure.

At the other end, Cielo and Masseria Moroseta both operate at €€€€ and offer a more theatrical dining proposition: Moroseta in particular is a destination-property meal built around the masseria setting as much as the food. If the experience is what you are paying for and budget is secondary, those are the rooms to consider. But for pure kitchen-to-plate value with Michelin credibility, Ricanatti at €€€ outperforms its price point more reliably than either of the higher-tier options. Restaurant 700 at €€€ is the closest direct competitor on paper, but Ricanatti's consecutive Plate distinctions and its documented sourcing give it a clearer identity.

Pescheria Nautilas Ostuni is the address if seafood is the specific priority rather than a modernised regional menu. If you are working through Ostuni's dining options across several nights, a logical sequence is Nautilas for a casual seafood dinner, Ricanatti for a more structured evening, and either Cielo or Moroseta for a special-occasion splurge. See our full Ostuni restaurants guide for the complete picture.

Pearl Picks in Context

If Osteria Ricanatti has set a benchmark and you want to track where this style of modern Italian regional cooking goes at higher altitude, consider Osteria Francescana in Modena or Uliassi in Senigallia as the reference points for what the format looks like at three-star level. In the south, Quattro Passi in Marina del Cantone and Reale in Castel di Sangro show how Michelin-recognised kitchens handle southern Italian produce at a higher technical register. For entirely different expressions of modern cuisine worth benchmarking against, Frantzén in Stockholm and Maison Lameloise in Chagny represent the category at its most refined. Closer to home in Italy, Dal Pescatore in Runate and Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico offer a useful contrast in how Italian fine dining handles local sourcing at a different scale. Also worth exploring during your time in the area: our full Ostuni hotels guide, our full Ostuni bars guide, our full Ostuni wineries guide, and our full Ostuni experiences guide. For a broader look at modern Italian cooking in the same register, Berton al Vista is worth noting as another point of reference.

FAQs

• Is the tasting menu worth it at Osteria Ricanatti? Yes, particularly on a return visit. The kitchen's approach to own-garden sourcing and cross-regional technique comes through more clearly across a tasting sequence than in a single à la carte dish. At €€€ pricing in Ostuni, the tasting menu sits at a reasonable outlay relative to what two Michelin Plate recognitions suggest the kitchen can deliver. If you have done à la carte once, the tasting menu is the logical next step.
• Is Osteria Ricanatti worth the price? At €€€ it is. You are getting Michelin-recognised cooking with documented own-garden sourcing at a price point below the €€€€ options in Ostuni. Compared to Cielo or Masseria Moroseta, the bill will be lower and the kitchen quality is independently verified across two consecutive years. For the price tier, yes: book it.
• What should I wear to Osteria Ricanatti? No dress code is formally listed, but at €€€ in Ostuni's centro storico, smart casual is the safe call. The venue's Michelin recognition and service style suggest it is not a flip-flops-and-shorts room. Think a step above beach-town casual: linen trousers, a collared shirt, or a simple dress will fit the room without over-dressing.
• How far ahead should I book Osteria Ricanatti? In high season (June to August), book two to three weeks out. In shoulder season (May, September, October), one week is usually sufficient. Booking is classified as easy for Ostuni, meaning walk-in chances exist outside peak periods, but a Michelin-recognised room at this price fills reliably during summer. Do not leave it to the day before if you are travelling specifically for this meal.
• Does Osteria Ricanatti handle dietary restrictions? No specific dietary policy is listed in the venue's public record. Given the kitchen's use of tasting menus and its flexibility across both tasting and à la carte formats, the leading approach is to contact the restaurant directly when booking and state restrictions clearly at that point. Kitchens at this level in Italy generally accommodate with advance notice; last-minute requests at a tasting-menu restaurant are harder to work around.