Marinella - Barrettali

Happened upon this place as a lunch stop off on the winding road along Cap Corse partly because my wife was feeling a bit car sick and wanted a break. We were looking for a light lunch the sort of thing that can be so good here. As soon as it became apparent that we didn’t want a full bore gastronomic experience, the tone of the service changed including being shunted across from the ‘restaurant’ to the bar (the other side of the room . We were eventually offered a salad and some chicken nuggets (since when has the only children’s menu option in France been chicken nuggets? and then charged €45 for the privilege including a €10 ‘surcharge’ for the person who didn’t want to eat at all. The food was tolerable but not brilliant and the service like a parody of 1980s France. This is a dark hole in a beautiful place. My advice to others would be to check out the crêpe van 50 yards along the road I really wish we had.

Tired of the twisty roads in Cap Corse, we took a side road for a break and went looking for coffee or a cold one. After a couple of cold ones in the sun on the patio, I knew we were not going further so we checked in to the hotel and booked for dinner. This was off season, May, and the place was almost empty. The hotel is nothing special, what small,country French hotels were like 50 years ago when we first visited. The rooms could do with an update but were perfectly adequate, comfortable and clean. The very pleasant surprise came with dinner. Beautiful food, very well prepared, reasonably priced and excellent service. Sometimes you really luck out and this was one of those times. Highly recommended.

From the crossing to the bike we stopped for lunch. A real pleasure, the products are fresh, well worked, we have feasted, a meal worthy of a star. You can stop there safely.

We ate this noon, pleasant setting, very good reception of our arrival, jovial server and very friendly, the more copied and very good, very nice plates.

We had a very good time, excellent cuisine, very friendly staff