What are the most exclusive restaurants on the Amalfi Coast?
For generations, the Amalfi Coast has retained a reputation as the favorite vacation destination of the world’s elite. Overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Gulf of Salerno, the famously picturesque region has featured in countless films and remains synonymous with la dolce vita.
The Amalfi Coast is also one of the best places to dine in the world — with one of the highest concentrations of Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy. It’s enough to make anyone fantasize about booking a flight to Italy and indulging in seafood, pasta, and wine.
In recent years, however, coveted dining opportunities have been harder to access than ever before.
“Post-COVID-19, I’m sure you’ve noticed that everything is booked up, right? Every plane is full, every restaurant is full, every hotel is full,” said travel advisor Jaclyn Sienna India. “So how do you navigate getting people into restaurants, hotels and yachts and experiences that are sort of already booked up?”
India knows more about getting people into restaurants than most — for 16 years, she has run Sienna Charles, a concierge and travel planning service for the ultra-wealthy. Her expertise is reserved for families making in excess of $100 million, and her past clients include George W. Bush and Mariah Carey.
Despite her star-studded resume, however, India emphasized that access to the most exciting and popular restaurants (or hotels or yachts or other luxury experiences) comes down to a few significant factors: namely, understanding what customers are looking for and building relationships with the restaurants that can fulfill those desires.
“People have really moved away from fine dining; we very rarely have a client that wants to sit through a tasting menu,” she explained. “The entire shift in the last three years has been towards trendy restaurants where the focus is not necessarily on food. It’s never about food, it’s sort of about FOMO. It’s about saying that you got in, it’s a bragging right.”
If you’re interested in bragging rights of your own (and are willing to be persistent about fighting for a reservation) read on to see which Amalfi Coast restaurant tables are the hardest to get, according to Sienna Charles.