Where to Eat in Pisa: Four Lunch and Dinner Picks

For a short lunch in central Pisa, I Porci Comodi makes a porchetta sandwich you can take away, while Il Montino is the stop for cecina, the local chickpea flatbread. If you have time to sit down, the choice shifts to a shared Florentine steak at Cantina Vasari or seafood pasta at La Pergoletta. Choose by how long you want to spend at the table and what you want to eat, rather than looking for one restaurant to suit every meal.

Where to eat for lunch or dinner

Venue	Area	What to order	Typical spend per person
I Porci Comodi	Central Pisa, near Piazza dei Cavalieri	Porchetta, pecorino and sun-dried tomato sandwich	€10–15
Il Montino	Central Pisa, Via del Monte	Cecina	€8–15
Cantina Vasari	Near Pisa Cathedral	Shared Florentine steak	€35–55
La Pergoletta	Historic centre	Paccheri with fresh catch alla Trabaccolara	€25–40

For a short lunch, choose the sandwich at I Porci Comodi or cecina at Il Montino. The former works as takeaway, while the latter is a local chickpea flatbread served hot. Prices in the shortlist are rounded estimates for those orders, not fixed menus.

For a longer meal, Cantina Vasari suits two people sharing beef, while La Pergoletta suits a seated seafood pasta dinner. The steak is sold by weight, so agree on the cut before ordering. Counter food works for a walk-in or takeaway pickup, but for a seated dinner, arrange a table, especially at La Pergoletta, which takes bookings by form or phone. If your journey continues into Tuscany, restaurants in Lucca for lunch or dinner offer another shortlist for a separate day.

A sandwich at I Porci Comodi

At I Porci Comodi, order the porchetta sandwich with fresh pecorino and sun-dried tomatoes if you want a substantial lunch without a long sitting. Porchetta is roast pork. The cheese and tomatoes make this a particular filling to ask for rather than an unspecified pork sandwich. It is a central stop when a meal needs to fit around sightseeing instead of becoming the main event.

The menu offers several porchetta sandwiches, but the combination of fresh cheese and sun-dried tomatoes gives you a clear order to make at the counter. Unlike a restaurant lunch built around several courses, this is one named sandwich with the roast pork, cheese and tomatoes together. It is useful when you want to choose your food before stopping rather than spend the meal comparing plates at a table.

You can order for takeaway pickup. The shop opens daily with no regular weekly closing day, so it also suits an early evening bite. Its entrance is on Piazza Evangelista Torricelli in central Pisa.

Chickpea flatbread at Il Montino

Il Montino is worth choosing for cecina, the local chickpea flatbread, rather than just ordering a familiar pizza. Cecina is on the pizzeria’s menu and is also recommended here by Touring Club Italiano. On Via del Monte in central Pisa, it suits a short lunch built around one savoury speciality.

Cecina is made with chickpea flour, making it a different choice from a meat-filled sandwich. You can keep the stop brief with a piece of flatbread or sit down for pizza as well. The distinctive order is still cecina: if you are choosing between these two quick lunches, come here for the local flatbread and choose I Porci Comodi for roast pork. The pizzeria has a break between lunch and dinner, so a mid-afternoon arrival calls for a different stop.

Lunch runs Monday to Saturday, 12:30–15:00, and dinner 19:00–22:30. Sunday is its regular closing day. Come during one of those meal windows rather than assuming the kitchen serves through the afternoon.

Florentine steak at Cantina Vasari

Cantina Vasari is the seated choice near Pisa Cathedral when Florentine steak is the point of the meal. This is a Tuscan steakhouse rather than a sandwich stop: its menu offers bistecca alla fiorentina, a thick bone-in beef steak meant to be chosen as a cut and shared. Give yourselves time to eat it rather than treating it as a quick plate between sights.

Choose this place when the steak can be the centre of a shared meal. Ask about accompaniments separately rather than assuming they come with the beef. A solo diner seeking a small, fast lunch will find the sandwich or cecina a better fit.

The steak has a minimum order of 900 g and is priced by weight at €55–€80 per kg depending on breed and ageing. Ask which cut and weight are available, agree on the per-kilogram price and have the total confirmed before it is cooked. Sharing can make sense for two diners, but sides and drinks will change what each pays. The restaurant serves both lunch and dinner, so it can anchor either part of the day.

Seafood pasta at La Pergoletta

La Pergoletta is the longer seated option for paccheri pasta with fresh catch alla Trabaccolara, a Tuscan-style fish sauce. Its menu names this particular pasta, making it a more focused choice than simply looking for any seafood restaurant. The kitchen presents its cooking as Tuscan, and a restaurant directory suggests the place for a romantic dinner. Choose it when you want a meal that has room to unfold.

Paccheri are broad pasta tubes. The catch in the Trabaccolara sauce makes this a seafood-led alternative to sharing steak. Order it if you would rather have your own pasta course and give dinner time to be a seated meal, not a quick stop between sights.

Monday is La Pergoletta’s regular closing day. For dinner on another day, reserve a table through the restaurant’s own booking form or call +39 050 542458. You can have the pasta at lunch too, but this is a seated meal in the historic centre rather than a quick substitute for the counter choices.

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: services, opening hours, and key figures.

• I Porci Comodi — service
• I Porci Comodi — opening hours
• Cantina Vasari — key figures
• Pizzeria Il Montino — service
• Touring Club Italiano — key figures
• Contatti – Ristorante La Pergoletta
• Contacts – Ristorante La Pergoletta
• Menù — Ristorante La Pergoletta
• The Restaurant – Ristorante La Pergoletta
• TheFork — key figures