ristorazione — Reggio di Calabria · Calabria
On the Strait of Messina, where Calabria looks across to Sicily, in via Condera Mariannazzo in Reggio Calabria, Villeggiante da Ciccino carries forward three souls at a single table: trattoria, braceria (grill house) and pizzeria, all rooted in Calabrian tradition and in the raw ingredients of this land.
Chef Diego Morabito runs the kitchen with an approach that does not separate the venue's three souls but holds them together, much as happens in Calabrian homes where people eat a bit of everything and linger long at the table. The welcome is family-style by choice, the service attentive without being formal, and the atmosphere recalls a meal among friends more than a night out at a restaurant.
The dining room hosts a ritual few restaurants still practise: the finest cuts of meat — Italian and international, selected in partnership with Macellerie Borruto — are brought to the table and shown before cooking. Guests choose the cut with their eyes, judge the marbling, then decide. It is a gesture that shifts the line between kitchen and dining room, turning the choice itself into part of the meal.
Every day the kitchen starts from fresh pasta, kneaded and rolled by hand. It is the thread that ties Villeggiante to the most authentic Calabrian tradition, the kind that cannot be rushed. The selected meats then move to the barbecue, where slow cooking and direct heat complete the work begun in the choosing. Two distinct techniques, one shared register of respect for the raw ingredient.
Trattoria, braceria, pizzeria: three promises kept under one roof. The page tells the full story of the menu and how to reach Villeggiante da Ciccino.
