Dolce Vita

On the Placencia Road, a short walk from Turtle Inn and Los Porticos Villas, there is an Italian kitchen that has been feeding this village for more than twenty years. Dolce Vita is a restaurant and bar in Placencia Village, and the reason to walk in is the food on the plate: pasta made by hand, pizza out of a wood-fired oven, and seafood pulled from the same water the peninsula lives on.

The man behind it is chef Simone De Angelis, who owns and runs the place and has done so for over two decades. That kind of tenure is rare anywhere, and on a peninsula where kitchens open and close with the seasons, it tells you something before you ever sit down.

What the Kitchen Actually Does

The menu runs on three things: handmade pasta, wood-fired pizza, and fresh seafood, built on Italian ingredients that are imported rather than approximated. That last detail matters in Belize, where an Italian restaurant can just as easily lean on whatever is on the grocery shelf. Here the choice is to bring the real thing in.

Two dishes come up again and again. Reviewers frequently cite the penne dolce vita, in a shrimp and zucchini sauce that shares its name with the house, and the linguini with calamari, octopus, and shrimp. If you want to know what this kitchen is trying to be, order one of those. The seafood versions in particular put the local catch to work inside the Italian technique, which is the whole idea.

The Bar and the Shop Next Door

Dolce Vita is a bar as well as a restaurant, so it works for a full dinner or for a drink at the end of a day on the peninsula. Next door is Simply Wine, a wine shop that De Angelis also runs. Two doors, one chef, and a wine selection a step away from the table.

Who It's For

This is a sit-down Italian dinner, not a walk-up counter, and it suits travelers staying around the north end of the village near Turtle Inn who want handmade pasta and a proper pizza oven rather than another plate of rice and beans. If Italian is what you are after on this stretch of coast, this is the address.

You can find it among the rest of the peninsula's kitchens on our Placencia Village page, alongside the other Italian and pizza spots in Belize. For more of what the local water brings in, browse our seafood listings, or start from the full restaurant directory.