Are the restaurants in Termoli any good and where to eat there? If you ask me, I’ll say : go to La Sbirra.

Termoli is a small town, like the entire region. Sleepy in winter with a small number of locals sitting in a few open pubs, and vibrant in summer. The magnet for tourists is the kilometers of beaches, events organized in the summer, as well as the multitude of bars and restaurants offering more or less successful dishes, thanks to which the problem of where to eat in Termoli practically does not exist.

Out af all restaurants in Termoli, my favorite is ‘La Sbirra’ with a super cool owner from Naples. To the boss who’s always happy to see his guests, I’d add delicious non-perishable food. I mean, perishable like any food; I mean that it’s equally tasty every time, and the level of the restaurant/cuisine doesn’t deteriorate. This is not always obvious, because many restaurants start off well and then drop in quality over time.

Restaurants in Termoli – where’s La Sbirra

The majority of restaurants in Termoli are in the centre; so La Sbrirra is – at Via Adritica, 30. It’s a small side street off the main passage leading to the sea. There are a few eateries on Via Adriatica; La Sbirra is the third one from the passage, if I’m not mistaken. You’ll recognise it by the brown tables standing outside and the flowers on a shelf made from a wooden pallet.

I came across La Sbirra a few years ago by accident, when I was working in Termoli and on weekend evenings, together with the rest of the teachers, we visited local bars and restaurants, trying out where to get good drinks and where to eat in Termoli.

With only 6 tables covered in oilcloth, La Sbirra was very small at the time and looked like a cheap Neapolitan eatery with an open kitchen. Since then, it’s grown, the interior design has changed to a more modern one, the kitchen has been moved to the back… What has remained unchanged is the good food and the very nice owner, who still greets us like old friends, even though we only go there once a year.

What is worth eating at La Sbirra?

In my opinion, everything. The menu changes twice a year, meaning the restaurant offers dishes more suited to the spring-summer and autumn-winter seasons. This is also related to the closed season, when specific species of fish cannot be caught, because La Sbirra is based on fish and seafood, like many restaurants in Termoli.  But meat lovers will also find something for themselves there.

What we ordered during our last visit:

Generally, we usually do not eat the same thing, i.e, Mauro orders different dishes and I order different ones and we share them; this way we can taste more dishes and get fatter.  And unfortunately, we tend to order a lot, and the portions at La Sbirra are large, as is the Neapolitan custom. And then we roll out of there…

We start with the starter.

We order a mix of seafood. They are served cold on one plate, but the starter also includes warm octopus and cooked mussels. Tasty. The starter has shrunk a bit compared to a few years ago, but in my opinion, that’s good, because it was huge before.

Then we ordered frittata, octopus in tomatoes, pasta with chickpeas, fish soup and fish lasagna. Octopus is simply octopus that didn’t have time to grow up, in tomatoes. Despite my remorse that I’m eating babies, I definitely recommend it, because it’s tasty.

Fried seafood (frittata) is a mix of sardines and calamari.

Calamari with paste and chickpeas is a rather unexpected combination for me, but common for Neapolitans. A surprisingly good dish is a combination of calamari and chickpeas cooked with a small amount of small pasta.

Fish soup (brodetto) is, apart from green leaves, my favourite Italian dish. Each coastal region has its own recipe for such a soup, so in La Sbirra, it’s in the Neapolitan version. If you like fish and all kinds of mussels and other sea ‘worms’,/food you absolutely have to try it.

Fish lasagna is an experiment of La Sbirra. From what I remember, it’s probably even the owner’s own recipe, but I’m not sure. Really, really good, I liked it a lot, even if the combination of fish with lasagna dough seems a bit strange. The whole thing is soft, baked in tomatoes, it melted in your mouth.

Of course we ordered wine served in a clay jug. I don’t remember how much we paid; nevertheless, the prices are at an average level of restaurants in Termoli.

Is La Sbirrra really the best of all restaurants in Termoli?

Of course, this is my subjective opinion; I don’t know all the restaurants in Termoli, although I’ve visited quite a few of them. In the town you can find places that serve much more fancy dishes, for example, a super good tuna steak in the Svevia restaurant, but it’s not only the food that determines the level of a restaurant. And so, that’s why, in my opinion, La Sbirra is the best in Termoli. I absolutely recommend this restaurant to anyone who doesn’t want to spend crazy money and have a nice time enjoying delicious dishes.

So can I advice some good restaurants in Termoli? 🙂 Of course, I can. La Sbirra is one on the top.