Da Egisto

Strada Satatle 131, km.62.500

Mogoro 09095

Sardinia

Tel. +39 3476170726

The dishes

Mussels

Octopus salad

Trofie al ragù

Mixed Seafood Grill

Grilled cuttlefish

Swordfish

Given how beautiful Sardinia and the vacation destination that it is, having a mixed list of solid restaurants to go to ranging from expensive and special to those offering hearty food and great deals is always a good thing. This is where Da Egisto comes in, especially if you are looking for a place that delivers very solid cooking, good wines, and fair prices. In fact, Da Egisto is the classic Italian countryside restaurant that actually punches a little above its weight class. Located near Mogoro, in the central-southwest part of the beautiful island of Sardinia, the restaurant offers a very hearty, solid cuisine that won’t let anyone go hungry. The décor is sparse but comfortable, the design bright and luminous, with lots of room between tables. In short, anyone visiting wineries in Sardinia or just going on vacation to the area can certainly look Da Egisto up and be none the worse for wear, as the food, though simply cooked, is flavourful and copious. Add a good wine list of local wines and a good lunch or dinner are virtual guarantees.

My appetizers were delicious: the mussels are farm-raised but have more flavour than usual. The bright and zingy octopus salad is a perfect summer dish with the crunchy octopus meat fresh and briny. My pasta dish was the Dish Of The Day: the trofie al ragù were simply so delicious I would have had another order all to myself, and let me tell you that’s really saying something because the portion is huge. Trofie are a short pasta (so not at all a long pasta like spaghetti or tagliatelle) that are twisted on themselves (so as to hold on better to the sauce they are cooked with), thicker in the center and pointed towards the thin ends. They are a highly traditional fresh pasta of Liguria, where they are most typically cooked with pesto sauce (but there are other sauces too that are typically used in Liguria with trofie: for example, potatoes, green beans and pesto; tomato sauces; and seafood sauces). Apparently, trofie , that are made with only a few ingredients (durum wheat flour, salt and water, and no eggs) were invented by the ladies of Recco, a Ligurian town most famous for its delicious focaccia, but trofie are no sloppy seconds in the importance department, so Recco is one little mouse of a town that can roar. However, trofie are also used in many southern Italian regions, and here in Sardinia they like to pair them with a tomato-infused seafood sauce, such as was the case this time around. The combination of sweet tomatoes and intensely flavourful fish made for one heavenly morsel after another. Also excellent and flavourful were the mixed seafood grill (rich with swordfish, prawns, shrimp, and cuttlefish, all grilled to smoky perfection) as was the thinly cut swordfish, nice and lemony-fresh.

The wines

Cantina di Mogoro 2024 Semidano Mogoro Anastasia Sardegna 92

Cantina di Mogoro 2023 Semidano Mogoro Puisteris Sardegna 95

With the food I had the two new vintages of the Cantina di Mogoro-Il Nuraghe’s two outstanding white wines made with the fantastic but unfortunately rare Semidano grape variety, the 2024 Semidano Mogoro Anastasia Sardegna and the 2023 Semidano Mogoro Puisteris Sardegna. The former is the easier-going and fresher of the two wines, while the Puisteris is rich, layered and not just the winery’s top white wine, but also one of Italy’s best white wines. The Anastaisa is bright and vertical, lemony and fresh but I found the 2024 to be a little simpler than some other recent vintages of this usually very intriguing wine. By contrast, the 2023 Puisteris is a work of art, just brimming with tropical fruit, beeswax and honeyed aromas and flavours (red my upcoming vertical tasting report on this marvelous wine to know not just more about it but also about the outstanding Semidano variety).

Mogoro is a little off the beaten track of most vacationers, though winery lovers should make a point of visiting the area, and in that case, make sure to stop for a bite at Da Egisto.