141 Best Restaurants in Sicily, Italy

A tiny shop mere steps from the Santa Marina port is chock-full of delicious delicacies and gastronomic products from the Aeolian Islands, so you can bring a taste of the Isole Eolie back home with you. But with their selection of seasonal salads, panini, Sicilian wines and spirits, and their outdoor seating, Terre di Salina is not just a one-stop shop for the tastiest souvenirs, it’s also a great spot for a quick and casual lunch. 

This buzzy spot is an ideal destination if you are looking to share a selection of Sicilian antpasti dishes in tapas style, in a relaxed, contemporary, stone-walled dining room. The magazine-style menu has info about the dishes, including Cefalú's favorite for All-Saints Day pasta a taianu, an earthenware platter heaped with oozing layers of rigatoni and a hearty meat, tomato, and eggplant sauce.

With a terrace by Ragusa Superiore's cathedral and a smart and slightly quirky coved-ceiling dining room, this restaurant serves largely simple, classic Sicilian dishes with a few modern touches. After a hearty pasta alla Norma (with eggplant, basil, tomato and gooey ricotta), consider a subtly experimental main like seared ricciola (amberjack) with herbs and crunchy fennel slices and foam.    

Steps from the staircase of Santa Maria del Monte, you'll find this cozy trattoria serving traditional Sicilian fare. Be sure to start with a typical Sicilian antipasto—with grilled veggies, mini arancini, and cured meats. The owner's recommendations for the main course are spot-on, and even if you're not overly hungry, the delicious food will entice you to indulge. In the warmer months, dine outside for people-watching as you sip on a glass of Frapatto. 

This café, bar, restaurant, and pizzeria has a daily menu of specials to choose from, including starters, pasta dishes, meat-based mains, sides, and desserts. Your charming and helpful hosts will guide you through the selection of reasonably priced dishes.

Tucked away from the main tourist areas, this local favorite offers an authentic taste of the region with its fresh seafood and a fantastic selection of starters like grilled shrimp and octopus. Beyond the area's classic seafood dishes, local vegetables, including steamed artichoke, are also popular with regulars. The dining room is unpretentious, but the dishes are reasonably priced and packed with flavor. 

The word "trattoria" usually suggests somewhere casual and even slapdash and while this place has an informal feel, there is nothing at all lacking in the level of service or the quality of the food. Dating back to 1963, the place has a classic feel, as reflected on an extensive menu that focuses on fish (there's a display of what's on offer as you come in), but also includes very acceptable versions of old favorites such as lasagna, couscous, escalopes in Marsala sauce, and, for dessert, cassata siciliana. Also noteworthy are the tasty busiate garibaldine, local pasta prepared with pistachio paste, red prawns from Mazara del Vallo, and burrata. Tables are distributed In a series of well-lit rooms with wooden beams, arched doorways, and white walls adorned with portraits of the hero of Italian independence to whom the place is dedicated. Locals come here in droves, often with families in tow.

Locals flock to this elegant, modern restaurant down by the port, whose white walls are embellished with the colorful ceramics for which Sciacca is renowned. Seafood is the top choice (you'll see what's available as you enter), served in basically every form, from zuppa di cozze (mussel soup) to squid ink pasta, grilled calamari, and red prawns from Mazara served on the skewer. There are fixed-price menus and a long list of reasonably priced wines.

In a town where life still has a small-town village feel, locals fill the outside tables of this trattoria in the central piazza at the base of the castle. The menu is full of seafood specialties, but your best bet is to ask the server what the chef is suggesting that day. They'll guide you to the best fish brought in that morning. 

This rustic restaurant promises good home-cooked meals in a cozy and friendly atmosphere. It is housed in a typical Sicilian trattoria, with a very casual and relaxed ambience. The menu has the usual appetizers, pasta dishes and mains, and wood-fired pizza—all very generous servings at a very reasonable price.

Specializing in regional Sicilian cooking, this intimate little trattoria focuses on meat with a wide selection of certified Angus, Sicilian, and Wagyu beef, donkey steaks, sausages, and meat involtini. You can shop the meat locker to choose your cut. Start the meal with the nduppa puttusu appetizer, which includes 10 different typical dishes, including parmigiana, caponata, arancini, chickpea salad, and sweet-and-sour yellow pumpkin.

An amicable beach bar-restaurant right on the harbor at Marinella di Selinunte, Tukè is ideal for a simple hearty lunch after seeing the temples. They have two daily fixed menus, comprising pasta (they do an excellent Norma), a main of grilled meat or fish, a salad, water, and coffee. If you want a lighter meal, the shared aperitivo platter of locally cured olives, salami, cheeses, and caponata is rather exceptional. In summer they rent umbrellas on the beach below.

This cool, relaxed café-bar-restaurant is the hub of Scauri life, and has very loyal local following since it stays open all year long. The menu—written on a chalkboard—is strictly seasonal, featuring a nice mixture of traditional Sicilian dishes and more creative dishes, all focusing on island and mainland Sicilian produce and served on blue-rimmed white enamel plates.

Run by the charming and dynamic Davide di Salvo, nephew of chef Giuseppe of nearby Nangalarrini fame, this rustic, convivial spot does tasty plates utilizing the best meat, vegetables, and seafood of the Madonie and coast. The name alludes to the Unione Volontari Alcolizzati, and the restaurant has a well-rounded wine cellar and ethos fit for relaxed dining and friendly chat.

Book a table on the cobbles by the empty river basin or in the sleek dining room and let talented chef Roberta's inventive seasonal dishes take you to new culinary places. The young, friendly staff are happy to talk you through the seasonal menu of exquisite pastas, fresh seafood, steaks, and imaginative veggie creations.  

Warm, inviting, and unassuming, one of Taormina's best pizzerias makes use of traditional grains to produce deliciously seared crusts with fresh, well-balanced toppings, plus fresh fish in summer, all paired with Sicilian wines. If a Nutella pizza doesn't appeal, there are a host of ice creams and granitas for dessert. You cannot fault the view.

This unassuming little spot tucked on a side street between Via Umberto and Piazza Verga consistently underpromises and overdelivers. It portends to be a little neighborhood eatery, but it's a destination in its own right with chef-owner Ivan Siringo serving classics like pasta with squid ink, roulades of stuffed chicken, and salmon carpaccio with tropical fruits. Every dish has a subtle elegance and ingenuity to it that transcends the plate as pure joy in your mouth.

For some of Taormina's best granita, with changing flavors depending on the season, try Bam Bar. It's so popular that it's likely you'll have to queue, but it's worth it.

Delicious ice creams—and the granita di mandorla (almond granita), available in summer—make for a must-try treat.

No marzipan devotee should leave Taormina without trying one of the almond sweets—maybe in the guise of the ubiquitous fico d'India (prickly pear) or in more unusual frutta martorana varieties—at Pasticceria Etna. A block of almond paste makes a good souvenir—you can bring it home to make an almond latte or granita.

On your way to the Archaeological Park, stop in at this bar-cum-pasticceria for some great Sicilian cakes and ice cream. It's popular with the locals, so you may have to line up for your cakes during holiday times.