Restaurant in Rimini, Italy
Aged Adriatic fish, jetty setting, book ahead.
Da Lucio is Rimini's most credentialed restaurant: a Michelin Plate holder ranked #124 in Europe by Opinionated About Dining in 2025. Chef Jacopo Ticchi ages Adriatic fish to concentrate flavour before grilling or wood-firing — a technique that separates this from every other seafood table in the city. At €€€, it is the one Rimini booking worth planning a visit around.
Most visitors to Rimini come for the beach and leave without eating particularly well. Da Lucio is the reason that calculation should change. Chef Jacopo Ticchi runs a modern seafood restaurant at Rimini's docks that has earned a Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025, and ranks #124 among Opinionated About Dining's leading restaurants in Europe for 2025 (up from #223 in 2024). At €€€ pricing, it is the most credentialed table in the city and the one most likely to justify a special trip. Book it.
The common misconception about Da Lucio is that it is a traditional Adriatic fish restaurant — the kind where grilled branzino arrives with lemon wedges and nothing surprises you. It is not. Ticchi's approach centres on aging fish sourced from the Adriatic, allowing water to evaporate so that flavours concentrate before the fish is grilled, baked in a wood-fired oven, or served raw. The technique is closer in philosophy to dry-aged beef cookery than to conventional seafood preparation, and the results shift the texture and intensity of what ends up on the plate in ways that direct fresh-catch cooking does not.
The setting reinforces that this is not a casual fish lunch. Da Lucio sits on a jetty extending into the water at Rimini's docks, and the dining room runs long with the sea on either side. The open-view kitchen sits near the entrance, so on arrival you pass directly through the cooking operation before reaching your table. That sequence — kitchen first, room second , sets expectations correctly: this is a place where the food is the point, not the décor or the view, though both are present.
For a first-timer, the aged-fish format means you should arrive with some curiosity about technique and an openness to preparations that may read differently from what you expect. Raw courses using aged Adriatic fish will taste more mineral and concentrated than standard crudo. Grilled and wood-oven courses will carry more depth of flavour than comparable dishes at conventional seafood restaurants in the region. The kitchen's stated commitment to using every part of the fish , head to tail , means the menu will include cuts and preparations that less ambitious restaurants skip. Come ready to follow the kitchen's lead rather than defaulting to the most familiar options.
The wood-fired oven is worth mentioning in practical terms: the smell of a working wood-fired kitchen is present from the moment you enter, grounding the experience in something physical and immediate before a course is served. This is not a clinical, minimalist space. It reads as a working kitchen that happens to have a dining room attached.
Thursday through Sunday lunches are the sessions most worth prioritising. The Saturday and Sunday lunch service runs until 2:30 pm, giving more time at the table without the pressure of an evening turnaround. If you are visiting Rimini in summer, the waterfront setting at the docks becomes more relevant to the overall experience, and daytime light through a room built over the water is a different proposition from an evening service. Tuesday is the closed day, so plan accordingly. Wednesday is dinner-only, which matters if you are arriving mid-week and want the longer lunch format.
Booking difficulty is rated Easy, which means you are unlikely to find Da Lucio fully blocked out weeks in advance the way you would at Michelin-starred restaurants in larger Italian cities. That said, given its OAD European ranking and Michelin recognition, weekend lunch slots will fill faster than weekday dinners, and booking ahead rather than walking in is the sensible approach.
The OAD movement from #223 to #124 in a single year is notable. OAD rankings are driven by votes from frequent, experienced diners rather than anonymous inspectors, which means the jump reflects growing recognition among the kind of people who eat widely across Europe. For context on the Italian seafood category at that level, comparable modern seafood programmes in Italy include Dal Pescatore in Runate and coastal-focused work at venues like Le Calandre in Rubano, though Da Lucio is specifically Adriatic in its sourcing and identity in a way those restaurants are not. For European modern seafood peers, Estimar in Barcelona and Desde 1911 in Madrid operate in a comparable register of ingredient-led, technique-conscious seafood cooking.
Reservations: Bookable in advance; Easy difficulty , walk-ins possible but not recommended for weekend lunch. Closed: Tuesday all day; Wednesday lunch. Hours: Monday 12:30–2 pm, 7:30–11 pm; Wednesday 7:30–11 pm; Thursday 12:30–2:30 pm, 7:30–11 pm; Friday 12:30–2 pm, 7:30–11 pm; Saturday 12:30–2:30 pm, 7:30–11 pm; Sunday 12:30–2:30 pm, 7:30–11 pm. Address: Viale Ortigara, 80, 47921 Rimini. Budget: €€€ , plan for a meaningful per-head spend relative to other Rimini options; specific menu pricing is not published here. Dress: Not specified, but the setting and price tier suggest smart casual at minimum.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Da Lucio | Modern Seafood, Seafood | €€€ | This restaurant boasts an impressive setting on the end of a jetty surrounded by the sea in Rimini docks. The entrance stands next to the open-view kitchen (a spectacle in itself!), which then leads into the long dining room. Nearly all the fish here (which comes from the Adriatic) is aged to allow water to evaporate so that the flavours are concentrated; it is then grilled or baked in a wood-fired oven, as well as served raw, with surprising and remarkable results.; Michelin Plate (2025); Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in Europe Ranked #124 (2025); Da Lucio is a contemporary seafood restaurant in Rimini, Italy, founded by Chef Jacopo Ticchi. It challenges traditional fish cooking by focusing on aging and utilizing every part of the fish, from head to tail. The cuisine is deeply connected to the Adriatic ecosystem, aiming to innovate while remaining authentic and providing an unforgettable culinary journey.; Chef: Jacopo Ticchi document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() { var el = document.getElementById("Achievements_chefs"); if (el && el.parentNode) { el.parentNode.removeChild(el); } });; Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in Europe Ranked #223 (2024); Michelin Plate (2024); Opinionated About Dining Top New Restaurants in Europe Recommended (2023) | Easy | — |
| Abocar Due Cucine | Creative | €€€ | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| Guido | Piemontese, Seafood | €€€ | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| Osteria de Börg | Cuisine from Romagna | € | Unknown | — | |
| Dallo Zio | Seafood | €€ | Unknown | — | |
| i-Fame | Creative | €€ | Unknown | — |
Comparing your options in Rimini for this tier.
Da Lucio is set in a long dining room on a jetty at Rimini docks, which suits small-to-medium groups better than large parties. For groups of 4 or more, book well in advance — weekend lunch slots in particular fill fast. Call ahead to confirm seating configurations, as the open-view kitchen layout defines the room's flow.
The case for going full tasting format here is strong. The entire philosophy — aging Adriatic fish to concentrate flavour, then grilling or wood-firing it, plus raw preparations — is best understood across multiple courses rather than a single dish. At €€€ pricing and with an OAD Europe ranking of #124 in 2025, the per-head spend is justified if you want to see what Chef Jacopo Ticchi is actually doing, not just sample it.
The menu is seafood-focused by design — this is not a flexible kitchen built for dietary substitutions. If you eat fish, the aged-and-grilled format gives you range; if you don't, Da Lucio is the wrong venue. check the venue's official channels before booking if you have specific allergies, as the head-to-tail fish approach means unusual preparations may be in play.
The open-view kitchen near the entrance makes solo dining at the counter a legitimate option, and the long dining room doesn't penalise a table for one. Thursday or Friday lunch, when the room is less pressured than Saturday or Sunday, is the better solo slot. At €€€, a solo visit across four or five courses is a considered spend, but the OAD #124 Europe ranking means the cooking merits the occasion.
The kitchen ages most of its Adriatic fish before cooking — grilling, wood-firing, or serving it raw — which produces concentrated flavour rather than the clean, mild fish you'd expect at a standard Rimini seafood spot. Book Thursday through Sunday lunch for the most time at the table; Saturday and Sunday lunch runs to 2:30 pm. The restaurant is closed Tuesday all day and Wednesday at lunch, so check hours before planning your trip.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
