Gianni, Clara and Renato Pedrinelli arrived to Sardinia from Northern Italy 1973 and have since then been running restaurants on Sardinia. For 19 years Ristorante Gianni Pedrinelli has been one of the most popular restaurants in Sardinia and especially among the posh crowd that stays around Costa Smeralda.

Ristorante Gianni Pedrinelli is located 500 metres from the sea and is close to Porto Cervo, the luxury hotels and the yachts of the Emerald Coast. It is a seasonal restaurant opened from March until October. The restaurant is located in what once was a private home and has a neoclassic style with light long curtains, a lot of white Italian antiques and a beautiful fireplace on the checkerboard stone floor in the dining room with rafter ceiling supported by boldwhite columns. The main dining room seats 150 guests, but the whole restaurant can seat around 250 guests during peak season with an additional smaller dining room and outside dining included as well.

Gianni and Renato Pedrinelli work as the Restaurant Managers and Clara Pedrinelli is the Head Chef of the fairly big kitchen of top standard. The cuisine is inspired by both Northern Italy and Sardinia and almost everything served is locally produced. The owner sibling trio offer a great service with constant smiles and the mood of the restaurant is great, but Ristorante Gianni Pedrinelli is not the place to visit if you are looking for any taste sensation.

In general the strong salty taste on several of the dishes is just too much and it should be easy for Clara Pedrinelli to adjust so her cuisine is in more harmony with the guest’s taste buds. Raw Sardinia langoustines and shrimps should not taste like you are having a drink with pure sea water and the spaghetti with clams, zucchini and bottarega can be so salty that it is almost impossible to eat it.

The scorpion fish is a fish you do not have every day so it is a shame that the served scorpion fish with cherry tomatoes, artichokes and potatoes tastes almost nothing or like chewing on a moist piece of paper. A smaller buffet table with hors d’œuvres is recommended by the restaurant, but we think you should skip that and go straight into the menu’s starters.

The home-made vanilla ice cream is a must when ending a dinner at Ristorante Gianni Pedrinelli and it is even better with a chocolate cake on the side, but a plate with delicious ice cream is far from enough to satisfy today’s concerned gourmets.

Written by Andy