DaV Mare

DaV Mare is the Portofino restaurant of the Cerea family — proprietors of the three-Michelin-starred Da Vittorio in Brusaporto outside Bergamo, the most decorated Italian-family-run kitchen in the country, opened in 1966 and currently in third-generation ownership — operated as a partnership with Belmond at the Splendido Mare hotel directly on the Portofino harbour-front. The room opened in 2022 and has become the Italian Riviera's most-discussed new dining address.

The cuisine is the Cerea family's signature Italian seafood translated to a Ligurian setting. Signatures include the famous 'paccheri alla Vittorio' — the family's three-tomato pasta that has been on the Da Vittorio Bergamo menu since 1970 and is the canonical Cerea dish; a hand-line-caught Ligurian sea bass with green tomato confit and Cetara colatura; a slow-roasted Adriatic turbot with samphire and lemon confit; a Monterosso anchovy crudo with green olive and sea-fennel; the famous 'cassata alla Vittorio' that uses the family's 1966 recipe.

The wine list runs to 1,200 references with serious Italian depth — deep verticals of Sassicaia, Solaia, Tignanello, Brunello di Montalcino, and the Ligurian Vermentino smallholders that no other Portofino cellar carries. Sommelier Riccardo Rovati runs the floor and the pairing flight at €175 is heavily Italian-led. The Champagne section is a serious grower-producer programme.

The dining room and terrace together hold sixty covers — thirty in the indoor stone-walled dining room, thirty on the harbour-front terrace overlooking the Piazzetta directly. The summer terrace is the most photographed dining setting in continental Europe. Service is family-run and Italian-warm — captains rotate from the Da Vittorio Bergamo team and the Cerea siblings rotate through Portofino and Bergamo on alternating weeks. The 2026 Michelin guide is widely expected to award DaV Mare its first star.

DaV Mare is the proposal-grade table on the Italian Riviera — the harbour-front terrace at sunset is among the most photographed dinner views in continental Europe, the Cerea family pedigree settles the credibility question, and the Da Vittorio cooking translates to a Ligurian seafood register that is genuinely distinctive. Brief Riccardo three days ahead and ask for a corner two-top on the harbour-front terrace — the team have done dozens of proposals across the years and time the moment with the dessert course as the harbour catches the sunset.