Sarri

A Waterfront Address Where the Ligurian Sea Sets the Menu

Borgo Prino sits on the western edge of Imperia, a run of pastel-painted houses facing directly onto the water — the kind of seafront that looks like a film set and turns out to be an actual neighbourhood. It is here, on the Lungomare Cristoforo Colombo, that Sarri occupies a converted shed, a space whose industrial origins have been softened into something considerably more considered: bare surfaces, contemporary fittings, and a dining room that earns its own attention rather than simply borrowing from the view outside. When the Ligurian climate cooperates — and its reputation for mildness is well-documented, the coastline between Genoa and the French border enjoying some of the warmest winter temperatures in mainland Italy , tables move outside and the sea becomes the fourth wall. When it does not, the room holds its own.

Service at this level of coastal fine dining can slide toward the ceremonial and impersonal. At Sarri, the room is led by hostess Alessandra, whose presence defines the pace of an evening. The dynamic between front and back of house here is a useful lens for understanding what separates Ligurian fine dining from the more formal register of, say, Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence or Osteria Francescana in Modena: the ambition is comparable in its seriousness of purpose, but the Mediterranean backdrop pulls the mood toward something warmer and less theatrical.

What the Ligurian Sea Puts on the Plate, and When

Italian coastal fine dining at the Michelin level has increasingly split between two camps: kitchens that source broadly and treat geography as inspiration, and kitchens that treat their immediate coast as a hard constraint. Sarri sits firmly in the second group. Ingredients are drawn from the Ligurian Sea directly, with vegetables and aromatic sprouts sourced from organic gardens. This is not a marketing position but a structural one: the menu moves with what the sea yields, which means the experience shifts considerably across the year.

The Ligurian fishing calendar has its own internal logic. Spring brings sea bass, dentice, and the first anchovies, a fish so central to local identity that the town of Oneglia , now part of Imperia , has historically been among Italy's primary anchovy-processing centres. Summer runs into gilt-head bream, cuttlefish, and the lighter, more delicate shellfish that feed the kitchen's rawer preparations. Autumn deepens the register: red mullet, sea bream, and the bolder shellfish that appear as the water temperature drops. This seasonal arc is the editorial spine of the Sarri menu. The kitchen's documented approach of a "vertical of raw food" and a shellfish of Oneglia casserole with aromatic herbs positions it as a kitchen that knows how to interpret both the delicacy of peak-season catches and the more concentrated flavours of colder months.

For comparison, the Italian fine-dining seafood tradition at its furthest reach shows up at Uliassi in Senigallia on the Adriatic, or at Quattro Passi in Marina del Cantone on the Amalfi side. Both operate on similar principles , coastal sourcing, seasonal discipline, and technical polish , but in coastal markets separated by hundreds of kilometres and very different sea conditions. The Ligurian Sea, enclosed and relatively warm, produces fish with a particular texture and salinity profile that rewards the kind of restrained, ingredient-forward cooking Sarri pursues. Further south on the Italian coastline, Gambero Rosso in Marina di Gioiosa Ionica and Alici Restaurant on the Amalfi Coast represent the same seasonal-sourcing commitment applied to different waters and different catch profiles.

The Michelin Recognition in Context

A single Michelin star, held in 2024, places Sarri in a specific tier of Italian fine dining: restaurants that have cleared the bar for technical consistency, ingredient quality, and service coherence, but that operate in a price register , €€€ , below the full tasting-menu format that characterises multi-starred houses. In practical terms, this means Sarri sits alongside serious regional seafood kitchens rather than against the grand-format Italian restaurants holding two or three stars: venues such as Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico, Dal Pescatore in Runate, or Enrico Bartolini in Milan, which operate at €€€€ with formats and price points calibrated accordingly.

A Google rating of 4.6 across 594 reviews adds a different kind of verification. At the €€€ price point in a mid-sized Italian coastal city, that volume of response and that score suggest consistent delivery rather than occasional brilliance , a distinction that matters when planning a visit around a specific season or occasion. Among Imperia's restaurant options, Sarri occupies the formal end of a market where most eating leans casual. For context on what the wider Imperia dining scene looks like beyond Michelin-starred seafood, the city's more everyday addresses include Osteria Didù and Kilo, both operating in a different format and price register. The full picture of what to eat, drink, and do in the city is covered in our full Imperia restaurants guide.

Planning a Visit to Sarri

Sarri opens for dinner only, Tuesday through Sunday, with seatings from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM. The dinner-only, fixed-evening format is standard for this class of coastal Italian restaurant: it concentrates sourcing, preparation, and front-of-house attention into a single daily service. Given the Michelin recognition and the 4.6 rating across nearly 600 reviews, booking ahead is prudent rather than optional, particularly across the summer months when the outdoor terrace draws visitors arriving along the Ligurian Riviera. The €€€ price range positions this as a considered splurge for a coastal lunch or dinner rather than the kind of multi-hundred-euro commitment that multi-starred Italian restaurants require. The address on the Lungomare is directly accessible from Imperia's central areas, and the Borgo Prino neighbourhood is small enough that the restaurant is easy to locate on foot once you are on the seafront road. For those planning a longer stay and wanting accommodation context, our full Imperia hotels guide covers the options in the area. Travellers who want to build a wider programme around the city can also consult our Imperia bars guide, our Imperia wineries guide, and our Imperia experiences guide.

For a broader comparison of Michelin-level Italian dining at different price tiers and regional styles, the EP Club database covers a wide range of starred addresses: Piazza Duomo in Alba shows what the Piedmontese fine-dining format looks like at the highest level, while Le Calandre in Rubano represents the Veneto tradition. Sarri fits none of those inland registers, which is precisely the point: it is a Ligurian seafood kitchen operating at a specific coastal latitude, drawing on a specific stretch of sea, and producing food that makes sense only in that context.