Il Mostrico - BARGA

No written menu as food cooked to order, who cares when the pizza is the best that Italy has to offer! Pizza followed by home made cake, amazing! Small family run business, everything that Italy is all about! Perfect visit here and you won’t regret it.

My wife and I booked to come here for dinner on a Wednesday evening in late August 2019 having called here for a coffee tgecorevious Sunday. What a great spot. Totally unpretentious and genuine. Warm welcome from the owner and lovely waitress. We were only one of 3 tables and had a great view and a chat with the owner whose Grandmother Eva started this off. Il Mostrico has been on the same family for 100 years or more. No menu they just tell you what they have. We had no anti pasti (but wished we had when we saw it! then the primi piatti of tortelli with ragu which was superb and then very thinly sliced beef for my wife and I had pork. Both with fries freshly made and mixed salad. Rosso followed by créme brûlée and I had ice cream with blueberries picked locally. The whole meal was EUR 40. It doesn’t get better than this with a view to match. Thank you.

Staying north of Lucca for two weeks we decided to take a Sunday afternoon trip to Barga. Beautiful little town in the hills. One of the cleanest we encountered. At 11am everything was closed other then a coffee shop in the piazza. We decided to drive up the hill/mountain above Barga just to see the potential view. Truly up in the middle of no where we discovered Il Mostrico and it was open! Apparently a hot spot for the after church rush, all the outdoor tables were reserved. Since we beat the rush they did find us a table on the patio. No menu, they offered us three options tortelli w/bolognese, noodles w/bolognese, or risotto. Strange, but not a problem. We were just so happy to run across a place to eat. The pasta was fresh, homemade, and made with love. Some of the best we had in our trip! If they were busy, this little restaurant might struggle serving you in a timely manner. However, on this particular day it was a hidden little gem that made our trip! The only negative, there were too many trees which blocks the patios view over the mountains. If you decide to go, use the road to the east which goes thru Bebbio. The views to stop for are amazing! The road windy road to the west, was fine but many curves and more heavily tree covered to block the views.

This little place is tucked away on the beautifull mountain road from Barga to Renaio. Takes about 20minutes to get there from Barga in the car but very straight forward to get to. The restaurant was recommended to us by the locals who swear that it serves the best pizza for miles. We decided to try it and it did not disappoint. Pizza was the best we've ever tasted. Don't get me wrong you'll find good pizza in lots of restaurants around and in Barga but this was something else, truly delicious! We ordered wine, water, two pizzas, desert each coffee and lemonchello for the grand sum of €30, definately the best value meal of our trip. Some advice if your going to visit, give yourself some time to stop for some photos of the beautiful views on the way up, decide which kind of pizza your after before you arrive (they'll make whatever you want but there aren't any menus), book in advance, the restaurant is only open Fri-Sun and is extremely popular with the locals. Enjoy.