Our South Sardinia address book

Where to eat in South Sardinia, from our house above Pula: coffee and pastry, lunch, dinner, wine, gelato, the market, producers to visit, artisans and a few good walks, in Pula, Nora, Chia, Santa Margherita di Pula, Teulada and Cagliari.

Checked on 13 November 2026. Openings vary through the year. Many beach places on this coast open from Easter or from May, and restaurants change their days with the seasons, so check each address before you drive.

Every family has its list. Ours lives in far too many messages to friends on their way, and it changes every year: a pastry shop wins a prize, a restaurant closes. This page replaces our two older restaurant guides, and we keep it up to date rather than starting again each year. Every address on it was checked again before we wrote it down.

Where to eat in South Sardinia: how this address book works

It runs from our side of the gulf to the city. Each entry says what the place is, why we like it, where it is, and its opening days when the place or the Michelin Guide publishes them. Three house rules: we do not list restaurants inside hotels or resorts, we do not list anywhere to stay, and we tell you when we could not confirm something.

A word on the stars. The 2027 Michelin Guide, presented on 12 November 2026, keeps the star of Fradis Minoris in Pula and gives a new one to Amanõ in Cagliari. In Cagliari, CUCINA.eat keeps its Bib Gourmand, and in the Sulcis the guide gave a new one to Origini at Narcao (Radio Sintony has the details). The guide is renewed every November, so check the latest edition before you book. Dal Corsaro, the old Cagliari star that many lists still recommend, has closed.

Pula and Nora: our side of the gulf

Pula is about ten minutes from the house by car, and Nora a little further. In the evening, the town gathers around Piazza del Popolo.

Coffee and breakfast: Su Nuraghe, Piazza del Popolo 57, Pula. An all-day bar and restaurant on the main square, with breakfast in the morning, light dishes at lunch and pizza from a wood-fired oven in the evening. We like it because the square is the town's living room, and this is the best seat in it.

Dinner, traditional: Su Furriadroxu, Via XXIV Maggio 11, Pula. Cooking from the Campidano, the plain around Cagliari, served in an old casa campidanese with a courtyard. It is the dinner we would suggest first, because a plate of handmade pasta and the slow-roasted suckling pig, porceddu, explain the island faster than any guidebook. We could not find its opening days published: call or message before you go.

Dinner, the star: Fradis Minoris, Laguna di Nora, Pula. Chef Francesco Stara's restaurant on the edge of the Nora lagoon, with one Michelin star, kept in the 2027 guide, and a single tasting menu. Much of the fish comes from the lagoon or the southern sea, the vegetables from small growers on the Campidano plain, and the wine list from small producers across the island. We like that it cooks the place it stands in: in August 2024, Michelin published Stara's tomato dish built on Pula's own tomatoes. Its Michelin page gives dinner every day except Tuesday, and lunch from Thursday to Sunday; its dates change with the season, so check them on its own site and book well ahead. The kitchen also runs a bistro, FradisLab.

Before lunch: the Laguna di Nora, Viale Nora, Pula. An environmental centre on the lagoon, with an aquarium, a gallery on whales and dolphins, a sea turtle recovery centre, and guided canoe and snorkelling tours. We like the canoe tour best: flat water, birds, and the stones of Nora just beyond. Contact the centre for tour times.

The walk: Nora. The archaeological site is the obvious morning out, and the headland around it is good walking, best early or late in the day. Our day guide to Nora has the details.

Chia, Santa Margherita di Pula and Teulada: the Costa del Sud

South of Pula the coast gets wilder. Outside high summer, honestly, it is a coast of walks and picnics more than restaurants.

Lunch by the sea at Chia. The beach bars and kiosks along the Chia shore are summer creatures. At Su Giudeu there are bars near the beach and a car park at Erbexili, but names and opening dates change from year to year, so we do not list one here until we have checked it in person. When the kiosks are shut, our advice is a picnic from Pula and the long dunes of Su Giudeu almost to yourselves. Our index of the beaches near Pula tells you which beach suits which wind.

The walk: the Roman road from Santa Margherita to Chia. An old road once linked Nora with the port of Bithia at Chia, and stretches of it still run above the coast. The Cagliari section of the Italian Alpine Club has walked it from Cala Marina, near Santa Margherita di Pula, past the beach of Pinus, views over Santa Margherita and the towers of Nora, the remains of a Punic sanctuary at Bithia, and up to the Spanish tower of Chia: about 12.8 km and four hours of walking in all, on paths without waymarks. Take a map, water and a hat.

The walk: Cala Cipolla to Capo Spartivento. On the far side of Chia, a panoramic path leaves the small cove of Cala Cipolla for the lighthouse on the cape, above the southern Sulcis coast. Go in the morning, before the wind; Sardegna Turismo has the rest of Chia, from Bithia to the Stagno di Spartivento.

Santa Margherita di Pula. This is resort country, and resort restaurants are not on this list. We come for the pine woods and the beaches, and for the start of the Roman road walk above.

Teulada: Tuerredda. The white crescent of Tuerredda takes a capped number of visitors in the busy months, booked online through the town of Teulada; in 2026, bookings were required from 2 June to 15 October. Outside those dates it is quieter, and a fine place for a sandwich.

On the road to Cagliari: Capoterra

Fish lunch: Sa Cardiga e Su Schironi, on the SS195 at the Capoterra roundabout, between Pula and Cagliari. A fish and seafood restaurant open since 1967, listed in the 2027 Michelin Guide, with the day's fish laid out by the door and a long run of antipasti. We like it as the natural stop on the way home from a day in the city. The Michelin page gives Friday and Saturday lunch and dinner, and Sunday lunch.

Cagliari: coffee and pastry

Cagliari has its own breakfast snack, the pizzetta sfoglia, two discs of puff pastry around tomato, capers and sometimes anchovy, eaten at the bar with a coffee and listed as a traditional Sardinian food product since 2022.

Antico Caffè, Piazza Costituzione 10/11, at the foot of the Bastione di Saint Remy. One of the city's historic cafés, with an Art Nouveau room and white marble tables. We like it for a coffee before the climb up to Castello, or for a slice of cake after it.

Ditrizio, Via Francesco Crispi 21. The pastry shop of Piero Ditrizio and Valentina Fais, opened in 2020. In November 2025 it became the first in Sardinia to win the Tre Torte, the top award of Gambero Rosso's pastry guide. We like the maritozzi, and the pizzetta sfoglia made with butter, crisp enough to be heard across the room.

Pasticceria Piemontese, Via Enrico Lai 4, in the San Benedetto quarter. Founded in 1974 by Giuseppe Aresu and run today by his son Gianluca. We like it for its chocolate, and for a pizzetta that is buttery, sweet and salty at once, and softer than the purists like, which starts arguments.

Pbread, Viale Cristoforo Colombo 2D, by the Molo Ichnusa. Stefano Pibi's natural bakery: sourdough loaves, pain au chocolat, a pizzetta made with capers from Selargius, and around four hundred wines on the shelves. We like that you can leave with tomorrow's bread and tonight's bottle in one bag.

Cagliari: lunch

CUCINA.eat, Piazza Galileo Galilei 1, San Benedetto. A kitchen, a counter and a wine shop in one room, with a Michelin Bib Gourmand, kept in the 2027 guide. The cooking mixes Sardinian dishes, classics and new ideas, and the bottles on the walls are for sale. We like it for a long lunch at the counter, choosing the wine from the shelf. The Michelin page gives lunch from Tuesday to Saturday.

Cagliari: dinner

The new star: Amanõ, Via Sidney Sonnino 68. Chef Vincenzo Sorvillo's small restaurant, a few tables around an open kitchen, won its first Michelin star in the 2027 guide. The cooking takes Sardinian produce and traditions somewhere new, in tasting menus of five or nine courses; the inspectors singled out a gyoza of duck, Parmesan and green apple. We like that it stays open all year, so it is there when the beach places have shut for the winter. Dinner from Monday to Saturday, closed on Sundays, according to its Michelin page.

Old Friend, Via Giuseppe Cesare Abba 51. Seasonal, farm-to-table cooking, à la carte or one of three tasting menus, a Bib Gourmand in 2026 and listed again in the 2027 guide. We like that the Michelin inspectors singled out a vegetable dish, aubergine with almonds and fig leaves. Dinner from Tuesday to Sunday; closed on Mondays.

Josto, Via Sassari 25. Modern Sardinian cooking in two small rooms, with an open kitchen in the entrance hall, listed in the 2027 Michelin Guide. On the menu, ham from Sardinian pigs, fregula, mullet and a dessert made with saba, the island's cooked grape must. We like it for the wine list, Sardinia and Burgundy side by side, and for the records playing at a civilised volume. Dinner every evening, according to the Michelin page.

Luigi Pomata, Viale Regina Margherita 18. The restaurant of one of Cagliari's best-known chefs, a fish and seafood kitchen listed in the 2027 Michelin Guide. We like it for tuna: Pomata is known for the red tuna of Carloforte, the island town off the south-west coast. The Michelin page gives lunch and dinner from Tuesday to Saturday, dinner on Monday, and closed on Sundays: book ahead.

Wine in Cagliari

Our two wine addresses in the city are shops with a counter rather than bars: CUCINA.eat for a glass at lunch, Pbread for a bottle to take home. For something new at dinner, ask at Josto, and for the glass after it, our guide to mirto explains the island's myrtle liqueur.

Gelato in Cagliari

I Fenu, Piazza Galileo Galilei 35. The gelateria and pastry shop of Fabrizio Fenu and Maurizia Bellu, opened in 2018, awarded Tre Coni, the top rating, in Gambero Rosso's Gelaterie d'Italia 2027 guide. Almost everything comes from Sardinian producers: we like the pardula, the Sardinian Easter pastry turned into gelato, and the cream made with Vernaccia di Oristano. It shares a square with CUCINA.eat.

Gelatificio di Federico, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 185, near Piazza Yenne. Opened by Federico Pisano in 2020, with the origin of the fruit written next to each flavour: strawberries from Arborea, prickly pears from Dolianova, figs from Pula when it is fig time. We like it for a sorbet on the walk back from the Corso.

Markets and food shops

San Benedetto market, Piazza Nazzari, Cagliari. Since March 2025 the city's great food market has lived in a temporary hall in Piazza Nazzari, about 170 traders strong, while its historic building is rebuilt. We like it for the fish, and for watching Cagliari do its shopping. Monday to Friday from 7:00 to 14:00, Saturday from 7:00 to 15:00, closed on Sundays: check before you go.

Producers to visit near Cagliari and Pula

Cantina Santadi, Via Giacomo Tachis 14, Santadi, inland in the Sulcis, west of Pula. Carignano del Sulcis owes much of its reputation to this winery. A guided walk through the cellars and the barrel room ends with a tasting and a few local products. We like it for the reds, and because it is the nearest of the big names to the house. Monday to Saturday, 10:30 to 16:00, booked ahead.

Cantine di Dolianova, Dolianova, north of Cagliari. A wine cooperative founded in 1949, known for its Vermentino di Sardegna. Guided visits on booking, Monday to Saturday in the morning and on weekday afternoons. We like it for a Vermentino tasting where the Vermentino grows.

Olio del Tempio, Dolianova. An olive oil mill with tastings, and an olive oil museum, Sa Mola de Su Notariu, in a late seventeenth-century house. Visits by booking. We like it for the green of the groves, and because a bottle of new oil is the best present to take home.

Artisans and design shops

Gioielleria Carta, Via Garibaldi 47, Cagliari. Goldsmiths since 1920, working Sardinian filigree by hand; the workshop made the crown of Sant'Efisio in 1956. We like it because filigree is the island's jewel, and this is where the saint's own was made. (The saint passes through Pula and Nora on 2 and 3 May; our guide to the Festa di Sant'Efisio explains the procession, and each year's programme appears on Cagliari's tourism site.)

Raku Ceramic Workshop, Scalette Santa Teresa 2, in the Marina, Cagliari. Maria Cristina Di Martino and Salvatore Farci make raku ceramics: birds, fish, little puppet theatres and figures of the tenores singers, as well as tea sets and lamps, with pieces made to order. Call ahead: the register publishes no opening hours.

Artigianato Pasella, Cagliari. A Sardinian maker founded in Calangianus, in Gallura, in 1972: cork, ceramics, textiles and things for the house drawn from island tradition, with a shop in Cagliari among its stores. We like it for cork and textiles you will actually use. Check the store address on its site.

A few walks

Parco di Molentargius e Saline, between Cagliari and Quartu Sant'Elena. A regional park of about 1,600 hectares on the old salt pans, worked until 1985, and a protected wetland since 1977. The flamingos are the stars: watch them from the bird hide facing the Bellarosa Maggiore. The paths are free and open every day, and there are guided visits on foot, by bike and by boat on the canals (see parcomolentargius.it).

Add the Roman road to Chia, the path to Capo Spartivento and the headland at Nora, and you have a walk for most mornings of a week. For the city itself, our day in Castello and the Marina is a walk in its own right, and with children, our week of family days in the south fills in the afternoons.

Or stay in: dinner at the house

Some evenings the best table on the coast is your own. At Il Polpo Nero, we can find you a private chef on request. Francesco Stara of Fradis Minoris will cook a dinner of his own at the house, and Marzia Aroffu, Cuoca d'Italia 2018, a family-style one, both on request: they are on our experiences page. For a simpler night, our red mullet on the roof needs one trip to the market and twenty minutes.

Quick answers

Is there a Michelin-starred restaurant near Pula? Yes. Fradis Minoris, at Laguna di Nora in Pula, keeps its star in the 2027 guide, and in Cagliari, Amanõ won its first. Check the latest edition, as the guide changes every November.

What are the Bib Gourmand restaurants in Cagliari and the south? In the 2027 guide, CUCINA.eat in Cagliari, and Origini at Narcao, in the Sulcis, new this year.

Where is the San Benedetto market now? In a temporary hall in Piazza Nazzari, Cagliari, since March 2025, while the old building is rebuilt.

Are the beach restaurants open all year? No. Many beach places open from Easter or May: check each one before you drive.

If you are planning a group, our guide to a group stay at Il Polpo Nero covers the rest, and for the house itself, write to us and we will tell you which dates are free.

Lola

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The house
Il Polpo Nero, at Perd'e Sali, near Pula. Five bedrooms for ten, a pool, and a roof that catches the sunrise over the Gulf of Cagliari, ten minutes from town. Private dinners at the house on request; ask us for dates.