Battigran

The beauty of dining in Italy is that many of the country’s most memorable trattorias, especially outside the major cities, are still run by the same families that created them decades ago. Recipes are preserved, refined over time, and rarely shared beyond the kitchen walls. Battigran, in the hills above Santa Margherita Ligure, is one of those places. Their Ligurian scampi, prepared according to a closely kept family recipe, are alone worth the detour.

The restaurant was originally founded in 1963 by Battista Costa, known locally as Battj, and his wife Ida. In the late 1970s, the family relocated the restaurant to the Portofino hills, where guests were brought up the mountain by a modified three wheeler, a journey that became part of the experience itself. After Battj’s death, the next generation continued the business in the centre of Santa Margherita Ligure for more than thirty years before moving, in 2018, to its current setting in Nozarego. Surrounded by terraces of herbs and vegetables and overlooking the Gulf of Tigullio, the restaurant today combines the atmosphere of a countryside trattoria with a more refined approach.

In 2024, the family revived the historic Battigran name, while keeping its most famous dish unchanged: the Scampi alla Battj, a recipe passed down through three generations.