16 best restaurants in Sicily to visit right now

The best restaurants in Sicily aren’t hard to find – in fact, the ultimate way to explore Sicily’s layered history and mosaic of cultural influences is with the palate. Thousands of years of conquest and occupation left their culinary mark on this sun-drenched island, from Spanish chocolate-making prowess (pinched from the Aztecs), and North African couscous and chickpea recipes to the ancient Greeks’ vines and olive groves. Sicilians are fiercely proud of this jumbled culinary heritage, and unique dishes and rituals they can call their own: caponata; busito al pesto Trapanese; pane e panelle (chickpea fritter sandwiches), the irresistibly simple pasta alla norma; sweet granita and brioche breakfasts.

And by no means does a whirl of the island via your stomach limit you to plush, tasting-menu joints. A hole-in-the-wall style café with makeshift tables can rustle up good, honest Sicilian food as exquisite (if not more so) than the Michelin-starred hotspots. Sicily’s age-old, raucous markets are dotted with vendors selling delectable morsels of fried anchovies, hefty, gooey-inside arancini and other island delights – all showcasing this collision of cultural influences, as well as the volcanic soil’s enviable bounty and coastal plunder.

Food is often paired with a dramatic setting: cantilevered over a cliff edge, an inky, menacing silhouette of Etna, in an up-lit, lair-like Hyblean mountain cave, spilling onto a beach with glistening turquoise shallows. From understated, plastic chair haunts that lure in the foodie pilgrims to high octane, theatrical affairs that elevate the island’s enviable produce to alchemical heights, here are the best restaurants in Sicily.

La Madia, Agrigento

Not far from the Turkish steps in Licata, La Madia is the antithesis to your humble trattoria – a swishy two Michelin-starred tasting menu joint that champions Sicilian wine and Trinacria’s gold-standard seasonal produce. You can, of course, go à la carte, but most settle in for Chef Pino Cuttaia’s finely tuned tasting menus (the eight-course Il Mare Inaspettato, or the nine-course Scala dei Turchi). Expect delicate, gauzy dishes such as the deceptive pizzaiola (a crusted antipasto filled with potato foam, tomato and smoked hake that your taste buds clock as a pizza), or octopus crème brûlée, whose meaty centre is blended with cauliflower, and more substantial Nebrodi pig, glazed with Sunday sauce. The chef elevates those nostalgic, Sicilian childhood classics to alchemic heights, with a heavy seafood focus courtesy of the coastal location (the south west coast has a rich history of tonnaras – tuna farms). The restaurant itself is elegantly pared down, with raw plaster walls, white tablecloths, and Scandinavian furniture. Reclaimed brick walls are softly lit, as are the tables, to theatrical effect. The prevailing sense is that you’ve stepped into somewhere special, before even assessing the menus or browsing the Sicilian wines, and the Licata location makes it that much more of a destination restaurant.

Address: Corso Filippo Re Capriata, 22, 92027 Licata AG, Italy
Website: ristorantelamadia.it

SALVO PANEBIANCOfotografo

Palazzo Previtera Kitchen & Bar, Linguaglossa

Wiggle up the narrow lanes of Linguaglossa, a sooty Baroque town on the slopes of Mount Etna, and you’ll reach the mustard, understated exterior of Palazzo Previtera. Inside, a nostalgic feast of Italian maximalism has been scrupulously returned to its former glory by Alfio Puglisi, whose family have owned this shrunk-in-the-wash, flamboyant palazzo since the 17th century. Alfio’s tenure is timely, with Etna’s community-focused renaissance seeing new-wave wine makers, chefs, restaurateurs and creatives moving from European cities to the volcano’s fertile slopes. The guesthouse’s new restaurant, helmed by Chef Alberto Carpinteri and Chef Kaita Osumimoto (of Alto and Gagini pedigree), uses Etna’s mineral-rich offerings for an intriguing blend of Japanese and Mediterranean cuisine (expect gyoza-shaped ravioli stuffed with red porgy, or perciasacchi (a Sicilian ancient grain) tagliatelle with chicory cream and courtyard bottarga). Seasonal ingredients powering the mercifully compact tasting menu are sourced from local farmers or foraged from the volcano’s fertile slopes (grapes, saffron, mushrooms). And the restaurant itself exudes the cosiness of home, with guests tucking into Sicilian gazpacho and hanger steaks marinated in koji beneath the palazzo’s mediaeval vaulted ceilings, and alongside the chefs cooking in the traditional, marble-topped open kitchen.