Ferrara Restaurants

If u have a car u can feel the homemade dishes of this simply but family run restaurant.
It doesen't look so nice, the dining room look like 20 years ago but the tastes are true!

Favorite Dish: Cappellacci di Zucca
Salamina da Sugo con Purè di patate
Cream caramel

"Slurp" is a cozy pizzeria in the very centre of Ferrara, at the beginning of via Garibaldi, just before entering the City Hall Square.
They prepare a wide range of pizzas, but also some kinds of pasta and cakes.
They make pizza with different basic ingredients, including kamut wheat, which I still haven't tasted, because they are more expensive.
You see the menu here.
Prices are averagely low, compared to other pizzerias in the same street, and the owners are nice people.

We had just arrived in Ferrara and were as yet unfamiliar with it. It was a Saturday night and the Bar/Ristorante Arioste below our apartment was just a little too lively with young people for our taste that particular evening. We were looking for something a little more mellow yet still local in flavor.
As we strolled down Via Palestro towards the main piazza of the town, we crossed Corso della Giovecca and saw a sign on the walk pointing down Via del Gambero - the sign said typical food. Just what we were looking for.
We stepped in and the ambience was (like most of Ferrara) understated elegance; quite contemporary yet classic. I must admit we got a couple of looks from other patrons because it is probably unusual to find tourists there on a Saturday evening. There was an English menu but the staff did not speak much English at all ( as I said in another post, thankfully, the tourists have not overrun Ferrara yet). So I would suggest bringing a simple restaurant phrase book, because the best dishes are on the local Italian menu. The staff was very helpful (especially if you try even a little bit of Italian).
I had the duck which was amazing and my husband had the beef steak; both were superb.

Favorite Dish: My duck was incredible.

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This bar offers not only brioches, coffee, cappuccino, milk or anything else you may wish to have at breakfast, but also good dishes for lunch.
Breakfast costs more or less as much as elsewhere in Italy, while the price of the dishes offered for lunch is a bit higher than in Trieste, for example. This may be due to the central location which attracts tourists.
There is quite a wide range of dishes:
- toasted sandwiches, 3 euro
- piadinas or sandwiches, 4 euro
- several kinds of pasta or risotto, 5 euro
- pumpkin tortelli with butter and sage; or with meat sauce; or with butter and nutmeg, 6 euro

Favorite Dish: The second photo shows some of the dishes they prepare for lunch (and for dinner too, if you wish). When I ate there in November 2007, I had Strigoli allo speck, piselli e panna (a kind of pasta with speck, peas and cream. They were very good and cost 5 euro.

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Venchi is a very ancient ice-cream parlour of Ferrara. It has existed since 1878 and is very famous for its chocolate, as the large poster at the entry says (see the second picture).
Ice-creams are rather expensive for me. One scoop costs 1.50 euro, two scoops 2.20 euro and three, I don't remember.

Favorite Dish: I had one scoop of yoghurt ice-cream. It was rather good.

I was there for an exhibition so, as I usually do when I travel in Italy, I've looked for a good restarant in my favourite Trattorias book and found out this one. This is very different from those usually described in such a book. The ambience is very elegant and modern, everything white, a lot of modern paintings and black&white photos.
Excellent service, the menu offers a lot of traditional Ferrarese dishes along with modern cuisine; there is a complimentary champagne (an italian one) with a small pre-starter. I liked it very much but I found it a bit expensive. Well, everything is deserved for quality and service but I expected something different.
Do not miss the ferrarese bread and the moka coffe, both outstanding as well.
Closes always on Mon. and on Tue. at midday

Favorite Dish: Pasticcio di maccheroni alla ferrarese

This is not a restaurant, but a wonderfull dishes u have to taste in the local restaurant.

Pasticcio di maccheroni is Ferrara's most typical first course, a real speciality, at once sweet and salty.
It's a first course but it's really a complete meal dishes
It is elaborate to prepare and when ready to bring to the table should have its distinctive priest's hat shape.
the tradition want to be eated the Mardì Gras of Carnival, but now u cna find it in little shape in the best patisserie too.
The true pasticcio is made with sweet 'pasta frolla', like a short bread dough, filled with a special meat ragù, with mushroom and bechamel...cooked in owen....u can fell the little melange of sweet and salted.

This is a special restaurant that make the mixture between the Ferrara cooking traditions and some new taste.
The cooker don't loose the tradition of the local kitchen, in fact the pasta is fresh hand made every day, like dessert and more.

Favorite Dish: you can choose between two type of menu:

Earth menu - traditional pasta and meat dishes
Sea menu - everithing made with local fishes and seafood