Summer is reaching its peak. Thousands of tourists choose Cagliari for their vacations. City streets turn into an open-air museum and between the historical sites tours and the trips to the shopping streets, lunch and dinner time become a moment to meet up and share. We chose to relax at La Pergola Bianca restaurant.  Charmed by its rustic and elegant style, we take our seat at the tables inside and we get immediately dragged in a cheerful atmosphere.

Some customers savor a landfare appetizer, with a rich cured meat and cheese selection, while some others take a quick business lunch before going back to work. It’s still early for lunch, so we kill time sipping a spritzer.

Today we want to taste the flavors of the sea and so we start our lunch with raw fish: oysters, red prawns and mussels, served au naturel on some fresh lettuce.

The appetizers in the menu go from raw to cooked: we order a mussels broth and fried orziadas, and then a smoked tris and a fresh salmon tartare with avocado, green apple, sesame and lime.

For those who want to try something unique, we suggest the double cooked octopus, boiled first and then grilled with a mix of herbs that enhance its flavor, served on a creamy chickpea soup.

We get to the first courses and we’re surprised by the homemade vibes of La Pergola Bianca with its artisan production of fresh pasta: tagliolini, culurgiones, ciccioneddus and ravioli damplings filled and flavored in many different ways.

We decided to try tagliolini pasta with red prawn, cherry tomatoes, zucchini flowers and burrata and it was an explosion of taste and freshness. 

For the second tasting we were captivated by the special of the day: black and white damplings, made with half classic dough and half squid ink dough, served with a red prawn bisque. The potatoes and prawns filling, their bisque and lime blends on our tongues and we taste all the flavor of the sea.

We can’t help but mop up our plate with bread to get the remaining gravy: with homemade bread it’s even more delicious! We were so hesitant that we couldn’t choose just one second course, so we started with the irresistible cuttlefish on pea cream, sweet and delicate.

And we finished our round with grilled tuna filet, served with Tropea onion, cherry tomatoes, capers and basil. A dish with a typical summery taste.

We couldn’t leave without trying the dessert that reveals the true origins of this restaurant: Sant’Antioco’s ravioli dumplings with ricotta and orange, covered with a honey veil.

Il 24 aprile 1370 una nave spagnola con a bordo persone e merci, fu sorpresa da un’improvvisa tempesta al largo del porto di Cagliari. Il comandante, per ritardare l’affondamento, ordinò ai marinai di gettare tutto ciò che era presente nella stiva. Intanto, i passeggeri invocarono la Madonna, pregandola di salvarli. Una grande, pesantissima cassa di carrubo, fu lanciata in mare per ultima ma non affondò. Galleggiò tra le onde. Al suo passaggio, nel cielo si apriva uno squarcio e la tempesta si placava. Seguendo quella cassa verso la costa, i marinai riuscirono ad approdare sani e salvi al porto di Cagliari.