A Guide to Food in Genoa
Take a Break from Sightseeing to Experience Genoa's Masterful Menus
Sep 6, 2008
Genoa is a glutton’s paradise. Whereas Naples is knows for its pizza, and Florence for its tripe, Genoa is famous for its fresh seafood and incomparably luxurious pesto. Art and culture can take a back seat to some of the gastronomic joys that are literally unavoidable here.
Pesto, Fish Platters and Free Snacks
Perhaps most famous is Pesto Genovese – the Genoese version of the popular Italian sauce used ubiquitously by hungry students to flavour the banalities of daily pasta.
A lighter, greener (almost pea green) version of your everyday supermarket pesto with an immeasurably creamy texture, almost silky – this locally produced sauce is everywhere in Genoa and it is absolutely delicious. Mostly served with Trenette pasta (a kind of flat spaghetti) this dish is available in most restaurants and cafes in Genoa for about 6-7€. Look out also for Pizza Genovese – as bizarre as it is mouthwatering, this is Pizza topped with mozzarella, tomato and, yes, pesto – a combination that would surely fail anywhere else but here, where the result is perfection.
Lovers of seafood are also amply catered for in Genoa. The restaurants lining the Porto Antico (Old Port) serve huge fried-fish platters overflowing with squid, shrimp and an array of freshly caught fish for around 12€.
Dinner is served late in Genoa and it is nothing to see droves of hungry Italians snacking over a cocktail come early evening in anticipation of the later cena. The first thing you learn in Italy though is that when a waiter brings a basket of seemingly complimentary bread, olives or other accoutrements to the table, helping yourself usually results in a hefty addition to the bill. In Genoa, this is often not the case.
For budget travellers who want to save on a big meal Bar Paradise (Via al Ponte Reale) near the Porto Antico serves cocktails for 6€ each, but with the additional bonus of free olives, fries, pickled onions, nuts and selection of sandwiches. If you’re not on the point of starving, the sheer quantity of these will fill you up nicely for the evening; and if refused, the waiter will reply almost incredulously that these snacks are included in the price of the cocktail, as if expecting anything else were unthinkable.
Note on Summer Closings
If you go to Genoa between mid August and September you’re likely to see many restaurants and shops with a ‘Chiuso Per Ferie’ (Closed for the Holidays) sign hanging in the door of the empty establishment. Though the Museums and Galleries are largely unaffected it can be annoying if you have a restaurant picked out to subsequently find it closed for the very days that you are visiting. There is still no shortage of places to eat or shop however as the closing seems to take place in a kind of rotational shift system but be aware that you may be disappointed on occasion.
Museums, Galleries and Attractions
Genoa is a city full of history, art and sculpture with one of the largest historical centers in Europe. Click here for a guide to days out in Genoa
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