Albergo Euromare - Lecce

It was very quite in Castro and we popped into this restaurant because it had local fish and an interesting basic menu for our lunch. I had a simple mussel dish which was perfectly pleasant, mussels cooked as expected the juice was basic but okay. My husband had a local pasta and seafood mix which he really enjoyed. We were given some very tasty foccacia nibbles beforehand and bread accompanied the meal which was toasted and pleasant. Wines were very acceptable and cheap. The gentleman serving us was polite and did all he needed to serve us.

The food was horrendous. The pasta was soaking in oil and the salmon with was supposed to be smoked was steamed and way too salty. The terrace is nice but the food is bad.

A very old rule is that if a restaurant is empry avoid it. As early July on a Tuesday evening is not a very busy time for restaurants and the place looked OK we decided to give it a try even if the place was empty. The service was friendly and the young waiters were doing their best. The kitchen seened to be well prepared as we got our food very quickly. The food well even a poor Italian cook can’t completely mess up a fritto misto and a fried filet of fish (spigola) but this cook almost managed to do so. Next time I will trust Tripadvisor reviews which did not place this restaurant very high and furthermore try to avoid empty restaurants ! But to end this review on a postive note ... we were fed quickly and we were not hungry after the meal ... and we didn’t get sick.

We passed by around 2.30 PM and decided yo have a quick lunch. We were the only customers, sitting on the terrace. We both ordered a pasta with seafruit. It was ... amazing. Extremely tasteful, with a sauce rich in flavour, a little spicy and with lots of clamps, not those tiny ones you often see, muscles and half a crab ... indeed, despite most reviews being negative, apparently, I have to say that this pasta was probably the best one we ever had.