Food & drink
Four restaurants on one island, none of them mediocre. Italian and French cooking at the water’s edge, a farm restaurant on the island’s highest point, and a beach bar that has been doing this longer than most.
Cavallo has four restaurants. This is not a complaint — it is a description of the island. The cooking at all four reflects the island’s geography: French in technique, Italian in ingredient and warmth, Corsican in the produce that comes across on the ferry from Bonifacio. The fish is always fresh. The wine list at des Pêcheurs is serious. La Ferme will send a golf cart to collect you.
Restaurant des Pêcheurs
The hotel’s main dining room — Italian tradition meeting French technique, served from windows that look directly onto the black Strait of Bonifacio at night. The kitchen uses only fresh, local ingredients prepared with the kind of care that the setting demands. Breakfast on the hotel terrace is a buffet; dinner is a full service inside with sea views. Non-residents may book for dinner subject to availability.
The Shore Club
The hotel’s second restaurant — cocktails, grilled fresh fish, and meat served on a terrace a few metres above the sea. The invitation is to arrive in the morning, swim, eat lunch at the Shore Club, swim again, and order cocktails at sunset without having moved more than twenty metres. This is not a bad way to spend a day. The setting is genuinely among the finest lunch spots in France.
Restaurant La Ferme
The absolute must-visit for day visitors — and the establishment that gives you legal right of way on the island. La Ferme sits at the highest point of Cavallo, with a view across the maquis scrub to the turquoise sea on all sides and Sardinia visible in the distance. Call ahead and they will send a golf cart to collect you from the ferry landing. Authentic Corsican and local cuisine, fresh produce, the view that the island is famous for. Twelve minutes’ walk from the port; much better to get the cart.
Bistro La Petite Place
The island’s most informal option — pizza, Mediterranean dishes, and a relaxed atmosphere at the small central square where the BARNES office, the rental agency, and the island’s modest social life all converge. Open throughout the season. A reservation here also entitles day visitors to explore the island, making it the most affordable entry point for those arriving by boat for the day.
Corsica produces wine that most visitors never try because most visitors never go to Corsica. The island has 9 AOC appellations and a handful of serious estates making Nielluccio and Vermentino in styles that bear no resemblance to what the supermarket shelf suggests. The wine list at Hôtel des Pêcheurs covers both Corsican and Italian producers — the island’s proximity to Sardinia makes the latter a natural choice. Ask for Domaine Vaccelli or Clos Canarelli with the fish.