An "Italian Crab House" in Rimini: Italy's Best Seafood Restaurant?

We were on vacation in San Marino 9/3/10 before we went to Rimini we had lunch at la Puraza and we arrived at 12:30 and left 3:30, needless to say it was an experience. We sat and was greated by our waiter Rocco with a smile and a plesant way about him. Of course we read Joe's review and also read reviews on other sites, many written by Italians and nost were negative. I have no idea why anyone would write anything negative about this place. We sat outdoors under an arbor and while the place was busy there were many seats, it is a very large building with inside and outdoor seating.
We did not order off of the menu and were given suggestions because we looked around and saw the giagantic platters coming out of the kitchen we ordered in waves. 1st the hot annd cold appies. Almost every type of sea food on earth, It's very big for two people but we managed to eat every thing on the platter, anlong with starters on the house. We had for our primo a pastaa dish served on a large platter with a large whole fish in the flounder family tRocco deboned the fish served the fetticini and placed athe white meat of the fish on top. It was as good as anything I have eaten in my 60 years, After THAT WE WERE STUFFED BUT MANAGED TO ORDER TWO other fish dishes grilled and fried , we had a bottle of local white4 and coffee desert and an after drink, when the bill came I told my partner it's either very cheap or overly expensive, I was right the total was 47 Euro's for the entire lunch, 3 hours worth. I spend that for a small lunch in New York. It was so good we asked Rocco to reserve a table for us the following night.
When we arrived for dinner ay 8:30 the place was startingto fill up. Some how we were not seated on Rocco's table but the waiter was just as much fun as Rocco. WE spreak Italian so we ordered water and spakling wine He brought over a menu, so for those who claim there is no menu they are wrong. We noticed on the menu they have a full course tasting menu so we order two, the waiter asked us if we wanted to share one because it is really alot of food, but we thought we wwould rater have too much than too little, well was that a mistake, the food started to come out 5 full courses of it everything in the kitchen, it's really not a tasting menu its the whole kitchen menu, we ate for 3 1/2 hours it never stopped ubtil we asked them to stop, coffee, cake, icecream cookies and any after dinner dirink we wanted I had not eaten llkie that since I was 20 and never so good. This is a MUST, regardless where in the US you live you will never find the quaility of seafood like this, not in San Fran, nowhere in NJ, CT or Fla. nowhere! . Thereis no comparision belive me. I have eaten in every sea food rest. in New Yok and in italy this is the best experience I have had . To call it an Italian Crab House is almost an insult as the cooking is far better that 99% of the fish houses I.ve eatten in.and believe me I did not get to be 290 pounds by not eating. One dish you nust try is the smoked lagostinos unbelievable. Forget the menu let them suggest for you. They will not push you to order more that a person should eat, Thanks for letting us know about this great place, let's keep it quite so all the american 30 somethings don't find it and distroy it for the rest of us.

busterkittycat in Italy