Ozium - POGGIARDO

We had a very Nice evening, sitting in a beautiful garden, the food was very good and the ambiance was fantastic. The service was very friendly. I recommend this restaurant.

We had 2 lovely meals here in June 2022. Antipasti fantastic, they brought out more than we ordered 'just to try '. Nice garden, unpretentious, friendly and good value. As well as the antipasti we had various pasta dishes and the tagliata di manzo. It was all delicious. Gigi was super friendly and gave us liquors after.

We visited Ozium during August whilst on holiday in Poggiardo. It's ranked #1 on tripadvisor but should probably be #2 in our groups opinion. Had we visited more restaurants in Poggiardo I would imagine it would be lower still. We emailed the restaurant to book but didn't receive a reply. We turned up and they asked if we had booked. It is a large restaurant with many tables. At this time of the evening there was only one table taken and from their response we were unsure whether we would get a table. We stayed for approximately 1.5 hours and even when we left it wasn't full. The food on the whole was acceptable but nothing extraordinary. Service left a little to be desired. We had a disappointing visit

We started with the sea and land antipasti. We wanted to share 1 order among 4 people as a starter, but the waiter said it would not be enough. We should have known better, but we followed his advice anyway. It was very, very good, but far too much food. We also ordered two pasta dishes to share and two mains. The pastas were more than enough for 4 people (Linguine and mussels and ricotta-pinoli stuffed packets in a pesto sauce), both tasty. We really should have skipped the pasta! The tagliata beef was very flavorful. I would order that again. They served it with fries and should not have. The fries were not hot and nothing is worse than cold fries! However, the tagliata did not need anything more than the rucola and shaved grana. The grilled mixed seafood was finished, so we tried the fried mixed seafood. It was fine and fresh. The server was very pleasant but inexperienced, and could not answer our questions without asking for help. He also kept dropping cutlery while clearing, because he did not know how to handle multiple dishes. Could have done without the TV. No one was watching it in our room, not even the Italians! The manager turned the volume down as he could see that we did not care for it, but did not turn it off. Now that we have the lay of the land, we know what to order and how much. We will return.

Very pleasant modern restaurant with a beautiful garden and outdoor bar. The food is freshly prepared,well presented and reflects the local cuisine well. The staff are helpful and attentive. The restaurant/bar is obviously popular locally and was reasonably full on the evening we visited, given that it was Thursday.