Il Gambero Rosso Vernazza in Province of La Spezia

"First off, the service & speed is absolutely 5/5. We had an Airbnb that was up the mountain at Cinque Terre so we actually had a cab booked for 10pm. We were seated just around 8:35-45 and we made sure to ask the waiter if there was enough time to eat. He said we would be out by 9:30PM if we want. The environment couldn’t get any better with sitting right by the sea. If you really want to enjoy the full ambiance, I believe sunset would be the best time to have your meal as you have the best of both worlds. The waiter not only memorized our entire order, the pacing of the meal was top notch. We ordered 4 mains for 4 people along with two more mains to share. The pasta was absolutely amazing and again, the waiter had been absolutely perfect. The only reason there’s a docked star is because the flavor of the seafood was top-notch, but it definitely could’ve been cooked a bit better. In the end, we were definitely finished our meal by 9:30PM and we were not only surprised by the quality, but just how on point they were the entire time as it was definitely their peak dinner time when we arrived. Highly recommend trying if you stop by!"

"Located at the heart of Vernazza, the courtyard of the restaurant directly overlooks the Vernazza central plaza and the sea. A great location, especially for night time when the sun is setting. The food came pretty quickly after ordering. The spaghetti was rather undercooked, but the fish in Gambero Rosso style was pretty good. The service was OK. Note that this restaurant charges EUR 4 per person when dining in, called "cover charge". Not an omission by the restaurant, I missed reading it at the bottom of one of the last pages, but it's my first time encountering this type of charge. Overall, a okay type of restaurant. The prices are pretty high, not due to food quality but for tbe location. I do believe the restaurants are better a bit further north in Vernazza."

"The octopus potato salad is surprisingly good. The weather was really hot and nowhere offered any air conditioning there, we stayed at the outdoor area at least we can hide from the sun."

"We really enjoyed our dinner. We had to wait a few minutes to get a table but the boss was very kind and offered us a glass of wine to wait. We shared one pasta dish with fish and a rich tomato sauce; it was the best fish pasta we had in the last week of travel. For main i had the John Dory in a similar rich tomato sauce with olives and capers. That was very tasty and the fish was totally without bones, not even a small one, perfect! My wife had the grilled fish and sea food that was all fresh and tasty, and again, not one bone. The only complain we have is that the bread was too dry; dried from the morning presumably."

"This restaurant here has a prime location on the Piazza down at the small port in Vernazza. Still, the prices are fair, the staff was friendly and helpful and the food really good. So it's far from being a tourist trap you might expect from this kind of location. Had a glass of local white wine, a mixed acciughe (anchovies) platter for a starter, Spaghetti Vongole (clams) and homemade pasta for a main. The acciughe came in all different forms and shapes. Fried, grilled, dried and salted and in oil. All very good, high quality. The Cinque Terre is famous for having great acciughe. The Spaghetti Vongole were decent, not the best ever, but enjoyable. Pasta perfectly cooked al dente. The pasta I had (some kind of homemade ravioli - just a different shape) were really great. Nicely filled and cooked perfectly. But the best part of it was the sauce. It was a (hazel? walnut?) sauce. What might sound a bit crazy, was actually a perfect match. Suprisingly good...no, great. A really nice choice, this restaurant. If you want a great location and some good food, look no further."

"Great place for lunch in this very crowded CinqueTerre town of Vernazza. The food was delicious, fresh mussels, trofie pasta with pesto sauce and fried anchovies in tomato sauce."

"This place was fantastic. It is super busy and right near the waterfront. At the time, they only had 2 servers working out of 5 but still did an exceptional job. I had the lobster pasta and my husband had pasta in walnut cream sauce, both were delicious."

"The dining experience was nice here at Gambero Rosso. The food was very good, minus the John Dory fish. The risotto had great flavors and their signature pasta with zucchini was also excellent. The view is also very nice, and they cannot control how many people are around, but it is a very busy location."