Ristorante L’Altra Mezzanotte is a long-standing restaurant in Ischia Porto’s Riva Destra, or the area to the right of Ischia Porto that is lined with waterside restaurants and bars.  Apparently the Riva Destra has been a popular evening hangout since the 1960as. Ristorante L’Altra Mezzanotte opened in 2015 when two locals reopened an older restaurant that had closed. Ristorante L’Altra Mezzanotte itself is easy enough to find, it’s located right in the line of restaurants on the Riva Destra.

Ristorante L’Altra Mezzanotte offers both indoor, air-conditioned seating, as well as outdoor seating in the cutest teal chairs. The outdoor area offers port views, while the interior offers views of the wood-fired oven. The staff at Ristorante L’Altra Mezzanotte is incredibly friendly and welcoming to tourists.  Known for its fresh, local seafood, Ristorante L’Altra Mezzanotte also has a wood-fire oven for preparing pizzas and some other dishes.

PRIMO COURSE

As Ristorante L’Altra Mezzanotte is known for its seafood (and, spoiler alert, I planned to order pizza), we split a tuna tartare to start our meal. The tuna was certainly fresh, and we both really enjoyed this starter. It was juuuust large enough to share between two people. The tuna tartare made me almost switch to seafood from my pre-planned pizza order.

MAIN DISHES

Ristorante L’Altra Mezzanotte’s menu is decently sized, with items falling into two categories: wood-fired pizzas or seafood dishes. Kind of an odd pairing, but it works. You will see dinners equally ordering pizza and seafood, but I found the seafood to be better than the pizza when comparing to other restaurants. In any case, I don’t think you can go wrong at Ristorante L’Altra Mezzanotte.

As I was on a mission for great pizza in the greater Napoli area on this trip, I ordered a wood-fired pizzas. My particular selection was the Diavola – a Napoli-style pizza, made in the wood-fried oven, obviously, topped with fresh mozzarella, basil, and a spicy sausage (not too far afield from the American pepperoni (side note – pepperoni is a pepper in Italy – not a meat)), chili pepper, and oil.  The crust was totally cooked to perfection, and the pizza was fantastic. The oil pulled everything particularly together.

Dan, more adventurous, opted for the grilled calamaro. Calamaro is the singular of calamari, or local squid. This calamaro was grilled and was larger than the typical “calamari” that we see in the US. As is customary with mains in Italy, it was served only with lemon for squeezing (no side dishes – those are ordered extra). We also ordered a side dish of grilled seasonal vegetables to pair with Dan’s calamaro. I was a little iffy on Dan’s calamari, mainly due to its size (yikes!), but it was incredibly tasty, especially with a squeeze of lemon.

DESSERT

While we did not need dessert, we ordered one of the desserts-of-the-day, which was served with a healthy side of Nutella, lol.

Of course, we couldn’t end our dinner, and it was our FINAL dinner on Ischia, without a glass of the local limoncello and mandarino, a liquer made in Ischia in December and January from Ischia’s Phlegraean fields. Both are must tries in Ischia.

All in, our dinner at Ristorante L’Altra Mezzanotte was very good, and I would certainly go back. It was casual enough, but the food was high quality and the service was extremely friendly. Ristorante L’Altra Mezzanotte is also a good place for a group with different palates, as one can order a cheese pizza and the other can have grilled local fish!

STEAL OUR DINNER

Ristorante L’Altra Mezzanotte: Riva Destra, Via Porto, 71. Open 12:00 – 15:00, 18:00 – 1:00.