Pescara Food Guide — Local Cuisine & Restaurants

Updated August 2026 · 9 min read

Pescara is where Abruzzo's two food souls meet. From the port comes the city's seafood identity — the famous brodetto alla pescarese, the fish stew that divides Adriatic cities the way rivalry divides football clubs. From the hills behind the city comes the shepherd's Abruzzo — lamb skewers, pecorino cheese, and pasta cut on a chitarra, the guitar-shaped wire frame that gives Abruzzo its square-cut noodles. Add the saffron of the Navelli plateau, the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo vineyards, and a dessert — parrozzo — invented right here in Pescara and named by the city's most famous son, Gabriele D'Annunzio. This guide tells you what to eat, where to find it, and how to eat like a local — then book your stay with IMPT, where every booking removes 1 tonne of CO₂ at the same price as Booking.com.

The Signature Dish: Brodetto alla Pescarese

Every Adriatic town has its brodetto, and Pescara's is fiercely its own. Unlike the vinegar-scented versions of the Marche coast, brodetto alla pescarese is built on a base of tomato, onion, white wine and a decisive pinch of Abruzzo saffron — the prized Zafferano dell'Aquila DOP grown on the Navelli plateau about 60 km inland. The stew layers a dozen or more types of local fish — scorpionfish, red mullet, sole, cuttlefish, and whatever the trawlers brought in that morning — cooked gently so each fish keeps its texture. It is served with toasted bread and ideally eaten with a glass of Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo, the region's cherry-pink rosé. The dish is best from September to May, when the sea is coolest and the catch richest; in high summer, restaurants shift towards lighter grills and crudo.

From the Hills: Arrosticini and Shepherd Food

Drive twenty minutes inland and the menu changes completely. Arrosticini — small skewers of seasoned lamb or mutton, cut into thumb-sized pieces and grilled over charcoal on the traditional long, narrow fornacella — are the emblem of the Vestine and Gran Sasso foothills around Penne and Farindola. Locals eat them by the dozen, wrapped in a slice of bread, with a glass of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Alongside them look for pecora alla cottora (lamb slow-cooked with herbs in a copper pot), ventricina (a spicy, hand-chopped pork salami from the Vasto area), and pecorino cheeses such as the sharp Pecorino di Farindola and the Canestrato di Castel del Monte from the Majella. Many trattorias in the Pescara hills still roast on wood or charcoal, which is exactly why the food tastes like it does.

Pasta alla Chitarra

Abruzzo's most famous pasta is maccheroni alla chitarra: fresh egg pasta pressed through a chitarra — a wooden frame strung with steel wires — producing square-cut strands that grip sauce better than any round noodle. The classic pairing is a slow lamb ragù, though alla pescatora versions with seafood appear on coastal menus. Order it in Pescara's old-town trattorias around Via delle Caserme, where the pasta is still made by hand most mornings. If you want the full experience, many restaurants offer a pasta-making demonstration, and you can buy a chitarra and Abruzzo flour to take home.

Street Food and Quick Eats

Pescara's street food is honest and filling. The seafront and the port are lined with kiosks selling panini col baccalà, fried fish cones, and porchetta rolls from the inland towns. Olive all'ascolana — giant green olives stuffed with meat, breaded and fried — appear on every aperitivo table. In the Borgo Marino, the old fishing quarter squeezed behind the port, you will find tiny fry shops doing a brisk trade in frittura di paranza (mixed small fry) eaten straight from paper cones. For breakfast, the ritual is a coffee and a pastry at a café on Piazza della Rinascita — known to everyone in Pescara simply as Piazza Salotto — the city's open-air living room.

Desserts: Parrozzo and the Sweet Side

Pescara's proudest sweet is parrozzo, a dome-shaped cake of almond flour, semolina and dark chocolate, invented in 1920 by Pescara pastry chef Luigi D'Amico and christened by Gabriele D'Annunzio — the poet said it resembled the rough pan rozzo (rustic bread) of the peasants. It is sold in every pasticceria in the city; the classic version is chocolate-glazed, and it is perfect with a coffee. Also look for ferratelle (thin iron-pressed wafer cookies, often rolled and filled), cicerchiata (a carnival mound of honey-glazed dough balls), and the sugar-almond confetti di Sulmona, the famous Abruzzo wedding confetti that are even made into flower bouquets.

Wine and Cheese

Abruzzo produces more wine than many better-known Italian regions, and Pescara sits at the heart of it. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo — the DOCG Colline Teramane is the top tier — is a generous, dark red that pairs with lamb and ragù; Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo is its rosé sibling, made for seafood; and Trebbiano d'Abruzzo plus the revival white grapes Pecorino and Passerina give crisp, mineral whites. Many wineries around the Colline Pescaresi offer tastings with views of the sea. Finish a meal the Abruzzo way: a slice of pecorino with a spoonful of honey or mostarda, then a centerbe — the herbal liqueur of the Majella — as a digestif.

Where to Eat, Area by Area

Port & Borgo Marino: The port district and the Borgo Marino old quarter are where Pescara eats fish. Expect simple rooms, paper tablecloths, and seafood that arrived that morning. This is also where you'll find the city's fish market — go early to see the catch, then book a table nearby for lunch. Historic centre / Via delle Caserme: The old town's dining spine, with trattorias specialising in chitarra pasta, arrosticini and Abruzzo wines at fair prices. Piazza Salotto: The elegant heart for cafés, gelato and aperitivo; pricier and more tourist-facing, but essential for people-watching. Lungomare Matteotti: The seafront promenade mixes pizzerias, seafood grills and modern bistros with sea views — best at sunset. Inland hill towns: For the definitive arrosticini experience, drive to Penne, Loreto Aprutino or Città Sant'Angelo (20–30 minutes), where mountain trattorias serve lamb, pecorino and Montepulciano in stone-walled rooms.

Vegetarian and Eco Notes

Abruzzo cuisine is meat-heavy, but vegetarians eat well: pecorino and scamorza cheeses, fagioli and lentil soups, grilled vegetables, the classic fregnacce (pasta ribbons with ricotta and herbs), and excellent wood-fired pizza. Ask for contorni and you'll get mountains of seasonal greens. To eat sustainably, follow the locals: eat what's in season, buy from the market rather than the tourist strip, choose restaurants that cook with local produce, and avoid ordering seafood in August when stocks are most pressured. And when you book your Pescara stay through IMPT, you get the same price as Booking.com, €5 free credit for new users, 5% cashback in IMPT tokens, and 1 tonne of CO₂ removed with every booking — across 8M+ hotels and 25,000+ green-certified partners worldwide.

Frequently asked questions about Pescara food

Is brodetto alla pescarese spicy?

It has warmth rather than heat: a little fresh chilli and the saffron give it a gentle kick, but it's a family dish, not a fiery one. You can always ask for it milder or hotter.

Do I need to book restaurants in Pescara in advance?

In July and August, yes — especially the seafood spots in the Borgo Marino and port area. Outside summer, walk-ins are usually fine, though Sunday lunch is busy everywhere.

Where can I buy parrozzo to take home?

Any pasticceria in the city centre. The classic version keeps for a week or two, which makes it one of the best edible souvenirs from Pescara.

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