Reading Italian Menus

Ristorante Italiano

Reservations are usually not necessary, unless it's at the most expensive restaurants.

Lunch is usually served between 12:noon - 3:pm
Dinner is served between 7:pm -10:pm

Many restaurants are closed between lunch / pranzo (PRAHN-zooh) and dinner / cena (CHEH-nah)

Look on the menu to see if it says "coperto" or "pane e coperto" (cover, or bread and cover)
Many restaurants feature a "menù turistico," or tourist menu. This is a fixed-price usually consisting
of a few courses, and is typically a good deal.

Restaurants are required by law to give customers official receipts.
Tips In restaurants and cafes: 15% is usually added to your bill to cover most charges.
If you're not sure whether this has been done ask,

"E incluso il servizio?" (ay een-cloo-soh-eel sair-vee-tsoh).

Please download Java(tm).

In Italy, dishes are served on separate plates in order of their appearance on the menu.

Bartender / Barrista Waiter / Cammariri Waitress / Cammarera

Starting Off.. Mangiare (man_JEEH_reh) (eat)

Antipasto (ahn-teeh-PAH-stooh) : "meaning before the meal"
An antipasto plate usually contains cured meat, pepperoni, salami, marinated vegetables, variety of cheeses topped off with olive oil. It may also be severed with bruschetta (bru-SKEH-tah) toasted garlic bread.

Primo (ooh-PREEH-mooh) : The First Course

consists of pasta, soup / zuppi (TSOOH-peeh), such as minestrone (meeh-neh-STROH-neeh) and risotto rice dish.

Secondo (seh-KOOHN-ooh) : Second Course

Which is the main course and will be meat / carne (KAHR-neeh), chicken/gaddina (gah-DEEH-na) or fish / pesce (PEEH-sheeh) dishes accompanied by,

Contorno (kohn-TOHR-neeh) : Side Dish

Which consists of mixed salad / insalata mista, vegetables / verduri (vehr-DOOH-reeh) such as, eggplant / miringiani (meeh-reehn-JAH-neeh) or spinach / spinaci (speeh-NAH-chee)

Final Dinner Course

Dole / Duci (sweets) such as zabaglione or Fruit / Frutta (FROOH-tah).

Sicily has more original sweets than any other part of Italy.

Amaretti (ah-mah-REH-teeh) (macaroons) Italian liqueur Amaretto and Amaretti Biscotti are flavoured with extract of apricot, Cannolu (kah-NOH-looh)( tube filled with cheese/cream), Cassata (kah-SAH-tah) layered cake filled with sweet ricotta and candied fruit. Gelato (jeh_LAH-tooh)

And the list goes on....