Near Montpellier. Restaurant le Bellamore: the right address

The invitation could not be refused. Nicolas and Solange, owners for 7 years of one of the most respectable pizzeria of Montpellier and its surroundings, evolved their concept in trattoria and proposed to discover a real surprise.

Promise kept with the Bellamorein place of their former restaurant, opposite the Saint-Jean-Baptiste church in Castelnau-le-Lez : the invitation turned into a trip. The three rooms reveal the fruits of long months of hunting in Italy to create a new, truer-than-life setting. Italian Riviera atmosphere from the 70s or Roman Dolce Vita for the first two, while the last immerses us in a cinema set, where The Godfather would sit down with his consigliere in the heart of Little Italy.

The demand for authenticity has been pushed to ceramics: artisanal salt shakers hand-painted in Sicily, earthenware counters from Northern Italy complete the haute couture decor which has no equal, in any case, on this side of the Alps.

The real Carbonara, finally!

An extended experience on the plate with a menu that will delight connoisseurs and lovers of Italian cuisine. Here the pasta is obviously fresh and cooked fresh, like the Carbonara, carefully prepared according to the traditional recipe, with guanciale, pecorino and parmesan. Don’t add anything, it’s a treat. Equally creamy and tasty, the pesto and truffle versions are also worth eating. Pizzas have evolved towards even more finesse and taste. Special mention for the pizza, with truffle, with its burrata sprinkled with gold leaf, without forgetting the variations, each one more delicious than the other: stracciatella, fior di latte, pesto, ricotta… The products are artisanal, and we find here in Castelnau, the real Calabrian spianata and matured Parma hams (18 months) to swoon over.

A golden burrata

Finally, the antipasti stand out with something exceptional, again and again: spooned stracciattella, homemade focaccia, without forgetting the star of the orders, a burrata produced by hand in Puglia and recently voted the best burrata in the world. Three hundred and thirty grams of ecstasy to share if you feel like it. Or one last delicacy to finally convince us: the Black Angus carpaccio, quite unique it must be admitted.

Sitting on the terrace, facing the paved square of the church, in the calm of its pedestrian streets, in the shade of the lime facades, you felt like you were in Italy. So much so that we recommended an Espresso Martini. Nail ; let’s prolong the delight…

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