New Anacapri restaurant Capriccio, launched in July 2020, has thrown its hat into the ring for the title of best restaurant in Capri, Italy, just two months after its debut. Under the guiding hand of chef Simone Mancini, this exceptional Capri hotel restaurant successful captures the flavours and colours of the island with its vivid dishes, created from local and seasonal ingredients.

Part of the Hotel Villa Blu Capri, a new five star hotel located in Anacapri, Capriccio is far more than a simple hotel restaurant, while contributing greatly to the status of this stylish new resort hotel in iconic Anacapri.

Five star Hotel Villa Blu Capri, housed in a structure which formerly hosted the town’s Melia hotel, opened in July 2020 in a Capri villa-style structure offering spacious rooms in a range of categories including roof top suites with outdoor jacuzzis and sea views. Both gourmet Anacapri restaurant Capriccio and its amazing landscaped pool area – which also hosts themed banquet and music nights – are two excellent reasons to book Hotel Villa Blu Capri when looking for accommodation in Anacapri.

But today, we’re going to be focusing on what dinner is like at Simone Mancini’s Anacapri restaurant Capriccio, including full details of this Capri restaurant menu, to help narrow down your choices when it comes to Capri dining.

If you’re familiar with the chef’s name and can’t remember why, you might recall this Testaccina review from a few years ago, when Mancini was head chef at La Fornarina in Tivoli. At the time, I was really impressed with the chromatic scale and plating of his well-balanced dishes, but the Capriccio experience shows how far he has come in the meantime.

On the occasion of my visit, I tried one of the restaurant’s tasting menus, but there are a few different options for diners. The standard degustation formula on this Capri restaurant menu costs €80, with an additional €30 for wine pairings throughout. Otherwise, choose a la carte, with antipasti and first course dishes priced between €20-28, seconds at €30-38, and desserts costing €15-18.

Now onto the big question: when it comes to Capri dining, is Capriccio really the best restaurant in Capri, Italy? Let’s leap to the details of this Capri restaurant menu to find out more!

Hotel Villa Blu Capri’s Capriccio restaurant: the review

Expect to eat at Hotel Villa Blu’s Capriccio restaurant in an elegant, partially al fresco dining area to the side of the main structure. Dinner in the pool area is reserved for special events, although hotel guests can have lunch by the pool.

Dinner started with a selection of mouthwatering antipasti; left, a seafood ball on a mussel and potato cream, dusted with pecorino cheese; and right, a bao bun, stuffed with king crab and salad. Delicious.

Next up, one of my favourite courses of the evening, which successfully captures the character of Mancini’s cuisine. This unassuming sphere is actually a baccalà cake dusted with intensely sharp and sweet raspberry powder, on a cream of mussels. This was a wonderful flavour combination, served alongside tender octopus on a spinach sponge. The dish was accompanied with a glass of strained tomato water, infused with ginger and chive.

This was followed by our debut first course, tuna tartare with fish eggs and ginger on a red onion reduction: Mancini’s eye for colour and instinct for sweet and savoury combinations encapsulated in a dish.

Next up, this intriguing dish combining violet potato mash with prawns on a champagne and lime sauce. My dining companions and I agreed that this would have worked well with a little less mash, but overall it was a successful course.

After, we moved on to perhaps Mancini’s biggest triumph of his new menu, a delicate broth-based dish named Blu Capri, which steals inspiration from this magical island’s Blue Grotto and turns it into a rockpool of marine marvels. The broth is tinted with blue curacao but is subtle in flavour, surrounded by a wonderful collection of lightly poached trophies from the sea.

This was followed by this handsome pasta dish stuffed with an octopus and pecorino ragu. The cheese overwhelmed the seafood a little on this occasion but it was nevertheless full of flavour and charm.

After, we were served this original and successful fettucine combination of scampi, liquorice and lime.

We were coming to the end of the first course selection, crowned by this extraordinary risotto inspired in part by the flavours of northern Italy. The deep saffron notes were contrasted by shavings and pieces of hazelnut, representing a rewarding trip to Piemonte.

Our savoury courses concluded with this successfully executed dish of fresh amberjack, combined with liquid scarola, rhubarb and beetroot, alternately earthy and intense.

Onto a tris of desserts, and again, Mancini’s expert plating, instinct for colour and contrasts produced three very different dishes. First up, this romantic dish, shaped like a crescent moon, of black cherry ganache cheese cake. Dressed with fresh fruits of the forest and twists of silver leaf, it channels a feminine innocence while trusting in deep, fruit flavours.

Next, we tried Mancini’s take on a classic, vintage dessert: a peach Bavarian cream, which again combined creaminess with the tang of real fruit flavours.

To conclude, Mancini’s light-hearted upgrade of a popular commercial ice-cream, a kind of ‘mini Magnum’ combining white chocolate with frozen raspberries and gold leaf.

All in all, my dinner at Hotel Villa Blu’s Capriccio restaurant was a real success, charming the eye and the palate with tastes not just typical to Capri, but of many shades of Italian influence and origin.

Remember, while Capriccio offers a full gourmet dining experience by night, the poolside lunch menu at Villa Hotel Blu is also worth a look, offering simple dishes rich with Mediterranean colours and flavours that really define the summer. Just take a look at this frise with fresh salad for inspiration. All in all, highly recommended!

Capriccio restaurant | Hotel Villa Blu Anacapri | Via Giuseppe Orlandi, 103 | Capri island | Tel 081 837 3924

Testaccina was a guest of Capriccio and Hotel Villa Blu, Anacapri