Bacco e Arianna

My wife and I had been wandering around trying to find the restaurant near the main entrance, but we were map-​less and ended up further west towards the Villa dei Misteri. We were glad we ended up here though, as just outside the gate there was food that was better than reheated sandwiches and pizza.
And older gentleman who appeared to be the owner chatted with us as sat down to re-​charge after a long day walking in the sun. We told we him that we were just married, and without skipping a beat he asked us whether we wanted a boy or girl; we laughed it off and gave some non-​committal answer. He even suggested a couple foods, gnocchi and seaweed fritters, as aphrodisiacs. It was all pretty amusing, and not being easily offended, we took it all in stride as being par for the course for an older Italian man.
The place was cute in a very touristy way– lots of masks, greenery, and tons of lemons and oranges available that you can have in freshly squeezed drinks. In addition to the large sit-​down area, you can get drinks and snacks to go if you just want to quickly pop in and out of Pompeii.
We ordered a grilled/​pickled veggie plate to start, and my wife ordered the gnocchi in red sauce for her main, and I just got the sausage dish.
The veggie plate was very good; the peppers and grilled zucchini slices in olive oil were the best items on the plate, and they made for nice toppings on the table bread.
We were also given a plate of seaweed fritters that were airy, just a little vegetal and quite salty, but that was right up my alley. I wouldn’t call them an aphrodisiac, but they were very good.
The sausage came with fries instead of salad but that’s OK. It was thick and butterflied but was still very juicy and had a really good char flavour from the grill. The fries weren’t anything special, just from frozen, but they were crispy enough to not be bad, and were good for dipping in the oil of the veggies. With the fries and apps that we had, it was a lot of food.
My other half’s gnocchi portion was huge. It was served on something more like a platter than a plate. It was in a simple red sauce, and the gnocchi seemed to have some sort of skin on them that made me suspect they were from a bag as well, or at least not particularly fresh.
The food was kind of hit or miss, but was likely still better than the reheated options in Pompeii itself, and the relaxed atmosphere and entertaining owner made it worth wandering off track for.