Most food experiences in Lecce take you walking through the streets tasting small bites. This one is different. At 73cento, a genuine local restaurant just 5 minutes from Porta Napoli, you sit down to a full, unhurried traditional Salento meal — course by course, the way locals actually eat.
No decisions, no menu navigation, no searching for a table. You arrive, you sit, and the food begins.
Your meal follows the natural rhythm of a traditional Salento dinner, built entirely around seasonal ingredients and recipes passed down through generations in this corner of Puglia.
It begins with a traditional Salento starter — a selection of seasonal vegetables prepared the old way: sautéed wild chicory, rape nfucate, oven-baked cauliflower, and cabbage slowly cooked with cherry tomatoes and sausage. These are the dishes that appear on family tables in Salento every week, rarely seen on tourist menus.
Next comes a homemade fried selection: traditional pittule, handmade meatballs, and potato croquettes prepared to order. Crispy, generous, and deeply local.
The heart of the meal are the two pasta dishes — both icons of Salento cuisine. Orecchiette with turnip greens and crispy peperone crusco, one of the most representative dishes of Puglia. And ciceri e tria, a centuries-old recipe of pasta with chickpeas and fried pasta pieces that dates back to the Arab influence on southern Italian cooking. You won't find this on many menus outside of family kitchens.
For the main course, beef strips slowly braised in beer — rich, slow-cooked, and deeply flavoured. A dish that reflects the rural character of Salento's inland cuisine.
The meal closes with fava bean purée served with wild chicory and crispy bread — a dish of ancient origins, once considered peasant food, now recognised as one of the most honest expressions of the Salento table.
This is not a tasting of small bites. This is a full meal, designed to leave you satisfied and with a genuine understanding of what people in this part of Italy actually eat. Perfect for couples, small groups, and food lovers who want to go beyond street food and sit down to something real.
