At Borgo Santandrea in Amalfi, Marinella Restaurant offers precisely executed local cuisine and one of the Coast’s most interesting wine lists. Credit also goes to Marianna Romano, a young and trained head sommelier, who guides a selection of nearly 1,800 labels from around the world.
As you already know, I am often “forced” to follow my partner Irina on her business trips to super exclusive hotels around Italy. A few months ago we spent several days between Capri, the Amalfi Coast and the Sorrento Coast. Among others, we stayed in the brand new and beautiful Borgo Santandrea which, in my opinion, is a fantastic hotel, perched on the Amalfi coast and developed on several levels.
Borgo Santandrea, the charm of sea-view hospitality
Starting from the Beach Club, climbing up to the top of the structure, one encounters several restaurants, each with a different and gradually more refined proposal, until arriving at Alici, the fine dining that, with the chef Crescenzo Scotti, has already won a Michelin Star. Scotti, of course, coordinates all the hotel kitchens. We, on the other hand, dined in their more traditional restaurant: Marinella.
Marinella’s cuisine: tradition and precision
Located on a charming sea-view terrace, elegant but without excess, far from any noise but that of the sea, Marinella welcomes guests with local and traditional offerings, executed to perfection. Millimeter cooking and well-defined flavors characterize the dishes: excellent the spaghetti with clams veracious, fragrant and decisive; delicate the buttons stuffed with fish; then moving on to a thick squid soup, perfect for a sumptuous escarpment. We concluded with the ice cream, which is by no means obvious to find at this level.
A monumental wine list
Writing for DoctorWine, however, it is fair to point out that the real surprise was the monumental wine list, which has as many as 1,780 labels from around the world, with significant representation of small and very small local producers as well. Of course, there is no shortage of big names and a truly impressive selection of Champagnes.
Marianna Romano, director of the selection
Creating this charter and coordinating the work of the six sommeliers engaged in the different restaurants of the facility has been, for four years now, the young and talented Piedmontese Marianna Romano, originally from Asti. Marianna viscerally loves her work and the territory in which she works. For this reason, in a continuous qualitative and quantitative search, she goes to unearth even small and little-known producers.
The result is an intelligent and exciting paper, capable of satisfying both the great enthusiast and the simply curious because of the possibility of ranging between very different choices. Thanks to her preparation and natural inclination to share, Marianna knows how to guide each guest to the best choice, always with grace and competence. In short, as I like to say, Is definitely one of us.
The discovery of the passito Pepita
We drank the excellent Campania Fiano 2022 by Pietracupa and, at the end of the meal, at Marianna’s heartfelt suggestion, we discovered the surprising Pepita from Tenuta San Francesco of Tramonti. This is a passito made from Pepella, a local native grape variety, produced only once so far about ten years ago, almost as an experiment. Kudos to Marianne for scouting it out and including it in the paper.
…in conclusion
If you are in the Amalfi area and looking for a beautiful, elegant and cozy place, expensive yes but possible, where you can eat well and drink even better, remember Marinella Restaurant and the very talented Marianna Romano. You will hardly be disappointed. And, if you want, you can also get there by boat….
