Scrumptious seafood @ Ristorante Portivene 1, Portovenere (Italy)

Hi from Malaysia! We've been here since Friday for my cousin's wedding in Kuala Lumpur, and we're now in Kota Kinabalu for a short side trip before heading back home to Hong Kong. This was a great opportunity to introduce baby girl to relatives who haven't yet met her, and apologies to the bride because baby girl almost stole the limelight from the her. I will have more photos to add to my ever-growing backlog of photos for this blog. Speaking of which, here's a post from our trip to Europe last summer.

When we were in Portovenere, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at a small restaurant that prepared local dishes featuring seafood caught off the Ligurian coast. Portivene Un Mare di Sapori is currently ranked #1 on tripadvisor for restaurants in Portovenere, and it definitely was a good choice for sampling the local specialties. I loved the nautical-themed decor, and the simple and relatively short menu made it a breeze to make our choices for a quick lunch.

The entrance into Ristorante Portivene:

The blue nautical interior of the restaurant:

Trio of fritters (5&euro, called "pancakes" on the English version of the menu), featuring locally caught seafood - salted cod, anchovies and mussel:

Rustic Pizza with Mussels (7.50&euro) - delicious and done right on a tomato base without cheese:

Linguine Byron (7.50&euro) - with squid, fresh tomatoes, olives and pesto. The squids were tender, and the tomato-based sauce was yummy:

Towards the end of our meal, we noticed Carpaccio di Tonno Fresco (tuna carpaccio) written on the daily special board, so we ordered one. Fresh and very enjoyable (though I had to limit myself due to the fact that I was 5 months pregnant at the time, and was concerned about the mercury content):

Fresh seafood and good quality ingredients are what you'll get at Ristorante Portivene. This gets my thumbs up!

Ristorante Portivene 1
Via Capellini, 94
19025 Portovenere
La Spezia, Italy
Tel. +39 0187 792722