The Caputo family is in the minority today. Instead of feeding the masses, focusing on the revenues and copy everything else the family has found its own path. A path where the genuine and original flavours count and the local catch with the freshest possible seafood really is something amazing, every day, year after year.

Head Chef Alfonso Caputo is not the kind of chef you will find walking around in the dining room, but you will see him cook, hour after hour, fully focused on making the best possible cuisine. Alfonso Caputo is the kind of chef who lets his food represent himself and his restaurant. The presentations of most of the dishes are amazing and something you will not see anywhere else.

The Head Chef has even gone so far so that he has designed several of the plates himself to make the most unique, interesting and fascinating presentation available. To end a long dinner with numerous courses with a medley of several different preparations called Aromas of the Massa Lubrense coast with different sweet and bitter flavours topped by a red helium balloon demands a chef with integrity, self-confidence and even bravery. We love it!

Taverna del Capitano was reconstructed out of an old fisherman’s cottage and the presence of the sea and everything that has to do with it is all over the place. The location in the bay of Marina del Cantone in Nerano can not be better with endless sea views. Head Chef Alfonso Caputo is the third generation of the Caputo family in Nerano and his 73 years old father, Salvatore Caputo, still works at the restaurant and the family’s hotel every day.

Salvatore’s wife, Grazia Caputo, helps her son Head Chef Alfonso Caputo in the kitchen and the daughter, Mariella Caputo, was the first female to become a sommelier in Campania and so she is still. Mariella’s husband Claudio di Mauro is the Restaurant Manager so once again one of Italy’s best restaurants is run by a complete family who has devoted their entire life to the restaurant and hospitality business.

The restaurant makes some truly innovative cuisine faithful to the ingredients’ original flavours and especially the seafood’s original flavours. There are of course meat courses to have during a tasting menu as well, but the main focus at Taverna del Capitano will always be on the seafood and the very best catch of the day.

The toast of sea urchins in coffee machine with the local rock fish scorfano wrapped in an envelope of paperthin sheets is delicious and of course is the spiny lobster from the Galli Islands prepared two ways, cooked & raw and flavoured with Mediterranean herbs fantastic, but we recommend you to let the Head Chef decide for you since the catch of the day and ingredients are different every day. There is a tasting menu called “Surprise” where Alfonso Caputo prepares seven dishes including dessert for you and it can be anything that pops up in the chef’s mind.

All of the very best Campania restaurants demand a bit of travelling before they are reached, but they are all so worth it and Taverna del Capitano is no exception. The Caputo family will take care of you and you will have an experience that is rather unique in a good way.

Written by Andy