I’m gonna be extremely honest with you all for this blog post: Sicily was a very slow month for us in terms of dining out. We spent most of our time relaxing at our oceanside Airbnb (can you blame us?), and it was the middle of October on the Italian coast, so all the beachside restaurants were shutting down one by one for the season anyway. Our flat was also one of the only accommodations I’ve stayed in abroad that’s actually had a full kitchen, so naturally we took advantage of that and cooked our own meals more often than we ate out.

However, the restaurants we did go to during our time in Sicily, though a bit scattered across the island, were all wonderful! Unsurprising, I know–but some of the meals I had in each of these beautiful cities were truly among the best I’ve eaten yet. Sicily was the place where we embraced simplicity and truly embodied the slow traveling lifestyle we set out to accomplish last year, and that meant we ate at a lot of average restaurants in between the really great ones. But I really believe that some of the best food comes with an unassuming appearance. It doesn’t always have to be flashy or expensive to be good, folks–especially in a country like Italy where all food is truly cherished.

I realize that Letojanni isn’t exactly the most sought after town in Sicily to visit, but if you ever find yourself there (or any of these other more prominent cities), rest assured that these dishes have been tried and approved by yours truly!

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LETOJANNI

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1. Lido Blue Sea

The very first meal we ate in Letojanni was at Lido Blue Sea, a very unassuming little beachside restaurant that was open late–or so we thought. We headed down the beach on our first night in town after taking a much needed nap, and we ended up at this nearly empty, very blue restaurant. We felt like toasting to our newest city on the travel roster, so we each got a drink (I unsurprisingly got a Negroni), and when I tell you I’ve never drank anything stronger in my life, I’m not joking. I was absolutely hammered after just two drinks, and the massive plate of pasta I ordered did absolutely nothing to help. It wasn’t anything crazy, but it really hit the spot at about 8:30pm when we dragged ourselves out of bed to go eat after a long travel day.

STANDOUTS:

Negroni (caution: deadly)

Ciao Ciao

Ristorante Ciao Ciao was a great little restaurant for late night meals. It was one of the few that stayed open the entire time we were in Letojanni, so we visited a couple times and always had great meals. I’m not the biggest seafood pasta girl, but I fully inhaled this risotto with shrimp and eggplant. I don’t think I even need to defend the pizza choice… I mean, just look at it. I feel like you can’t go wrong with a dish named after the restaurant, so both of these choices were made confidently (and correctly). The ambiance here was also my favorite of all the beachside restaurants in Letojanni. It was almost casually elegant; nice tablecloths and mood lighting, but fun music playing and definitely no dress code. We also witnessed a woman wearing a napkin as a shawl here, which was funnier after a few glasses of wine, for sure.

STANDOUTS:

Risotto Ciao Ciao
Ciao Ciao pizza

Ristorante Da Nino

We ate our last dinner in Letojanni at Ristorante Da Nino; it was one of the more fancy restaurants we walked by nearly every day but just hadn’t gone into until the end of our stay. It was a little pricier than the other restaurants nearby, but the food was outstanding! I got a gnocchi dish with shrimp that was delicious paired with a house white wine, and we split a pistachio cake with raspberries for dessert. Our waiter even brought us out some freshly roasted chestnuts, which aren’t really my cup of tea, but were really cool to try!

STANDOUTS:

Potato dumplings with fennel and shrimp
Pistachio cake

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CATANIA

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Mariano’s Ristorante

We only visited Catania a few times during our month in Sicily, but we liked this spot so much that we ate here just about every time we came to the city! The food was good, the location was great, and the staff were incredibly friendly. I still think about that carbonara when I crave pasta, and the Rossini was a perfect sweet cocktail to cool down on a warm day spent walking around the sunny streets of Catania.

STANDOUTS:

Pasta carbonara
Pasta alla norma
Rossini (cocktail)

Caffe del Duomo

This was a great little spot for breakfast that we ended up at every time we visited Catania. We initially went here just because it was busy and in a convenient spot after we saw the Duomo, but we kept going back because the croissants were so damn good. They were freshly made, filled with apricot jam and topped with a little handful of sprinkles–paired with a cappuccino, there’s no better breakfast!

STANDOUTS:

Jam croissants

Don Peppinu

A trip to Sicily isn’t complete without an authentic Sicilian cannolo, and Don Peppinu absolutely knows how to make ‘em. They’re also home to the most famous gelato in Italy, but I’d already had so much gelato and zero cannoli, so I made the obvious choice here. Their pistachio filling was out of this world; I never liked pistachio until I visited Italy, and now it’s ruined all other pistachios for me. Topped with a little bit of chocolate chips, this was the absolute best dessert to enjoy on the train ride back to Letojanni. If you only get one thing in Sicily, make sure it’s cannoli!

STANDOUTS:

Pistachio cannolo (with chocolate chips)

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TAORMINA

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Ristorante La Botte

Taormina was a one-time day trip for us, even though we were only 15 minutes away by train. If we had wanted to do more shopping and dining out during our month in Sicily, we absolutely would have spent the money to travel there more and explore more of the city, but even just the one day was a lovely little trip. We had a hard time deciding where to go for lunch, but when we finally settled on La Botte, we were easily satisfied. The grouper sauce wasn’t super distinctive to me and just tasted like tuna, but the ravioli itself was delicious (and gorgeous). You know we had to get some white wine and, obviously, the tiramisu. Both were also delicious!

STANDOUTS:

Ravioli in grouper sauce
Tiramisu

L'Oblò Cafe

I found this cafe on a travel blog when doing some research on Taormina, and the view was definitely worth the small hike to get there! The cafe itself was very small and looked like it only had outdoor seating, so it was more of a lookout spot. We got some cocktails and small plates to enjoy while relaxing before we headed back to our Airbnb, and after a long day of walking the streets of Taormina, it was a great spot to relax. It was also right near another awesome lookout spot where you can see Isola Bella in all its glory. Unfortunately I think this spot is permanently closed now, but I hope I’m wrong!

STANDOUTS:

Arancini
Misc. cocktails

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PALERMO

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Villena

This is a very short section because we only spent about 4 hours total in Palermo, sadly. We were staying on the complete opposite side of the island, so train rides took about 4 hours one way to get between cities. Doable in one day, but it made for an extremely long one. We had a bite to eat for lunch at Villena, a nice little restaurant right off of Quattro Canti (the famous intersection). I got a pretty standard tomato and ricotta pasta, but had never had the busiate shape before, which was cool! Amanda’s was made with saffron and bacon, and that had a much more unique flavor. Their Hugo spritz was really good, too–I may have begun to like them better than Aperol spritzes…shhh.

STANDOUTS: