La Casa Gialla began life as a renovated villa that’s been turned into an upmarket pizzeria, run by a German Signora and with an Italian Chef.  It has a beautiful location just in-front of the stunning 1171 AD Abbey -  Chiesa St Maria di Ronzano … where it seems all locals get married.

Décor is not too bad with a subtle enough nod to the best of the local Castelli ceramics without your dinner ending up drowning in a tasteless castelli wash that can sometimes happen in the area!  The dining areas are divided into intimate rooms with no more than 4 tables, which ensures you are warm in winter (very important!) and well away from a feeling that you are swimming alone in a big old ocean whilst eating.

As said it began life as a pizzeria which is still the bread & butter of this intimately constructed restaurant – fantastically light and tasty wood-oven pizzas with an endless menu of toppings that even caters for the weirdoes that like banana & pineapple or prefer the less traditional Italian style toppings, I guess this is the partly to do with Teutonic influences (our friends’ kids love it!).  Over the past 18 months La Casa Gialla has begun expanding, catering for all special events like Valentine’s Day in addition to more often than not (do check just in case and you don’t like pizza) a “menù del giorno” for which they do for example particularly beautifully fish.

We recently went back for New Year (this is a difficult time to find many restaurants open in rural Italy as most people traditionally spend this at home eating lentils and sausages that symbolise good fortune, with their families). There was only one menu on offer – Fish, and we sat down not knowing what to expect…

What came was one of the best ‘Fish’ meals we have had in Abruzzo. Perfect-sized portions, a light mixture of diverse courses of shellfish & fish, each course different enough to allow the palate to remain interested rather than weighed down by the number of fried fishy dishes more commonly presented.  Particularly good was the prawn tea – a delicate light tomato brodo-like soup infusion that hinted at Gazpacho in taste, though warm rather than chilled.  The risotto was excellent as was the main dish of monkfish with potatoes and salad, cooked to perfection.

Salads incidentally are good here, a lot more chunky & varied for those who have become bored of the lettuce-only varieties. 8 dishes (3 courses) of fish arrive as did 0.00 2009 with a complimentary bottle of local fizz in a choice of dry or sweet (always lovely to be asked, though of course I am both), cake, fruit, coffee! Phewww, yes we did sleep well but all of that including 1 litre of wine for 70 euros for 2 was goddamn worth it!

Service is wonderfully polite, incredibly patient & accommodating, and fast.  I can really recommend La Casa Gialla for both intimate pizza and to experience what else they might have on offer on an evening.

Value for money – 10/10
Quality of food – 9/10

Contact Details

Pizzeria La Casa Gialla

Telephone: 0861 697012

Address: Sits on the SP491 in front of Santa Maria di Ronzano, Castel Castagna,  64030 TE

Closed Mondays

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