6 Best Restaurants in Sicily, Italy

A gracious series of delicately arched rooms at this beloved local eatery are lined with wine bottles and sepia-tone images of the old town. À la carte preparations bring together fresh seafood and inspired creativity: sample, for instance, the sublime spaghetti delle Sirene (with sea urchin and shrimp in butter) or cod with saffron from the Ibleian hills with a courgette puree. If you want, you can put yourself in the hands of the chef and opt for one of the exquisite tasting menus, which start at €75 excluding wine. The wine list is, in a word, extraordinary, and allows you to choose from the best wines in Italy and beyond.

Although the restaurant gets decidedly mixed reviews, the Archimede pizzeria offers well-made pizzas with classical names, such as the Teocrite, topped with fresh tomato, mozzarella, garlic, onion, and basil. For those who can't face the full-size offerings, minipizzas are also available (albeit at the same price), and everyone should find enough space to sample one of the many bottled beers on the menu.

With tables on one of Ortigia’s most picturesque piazzas—right below the rose-window of the roofless church of San Giovannino—the pizza chef here creates magnificent light crisp, blistered pizzas made of a tasty dough slow-risen for 48 hours. There’s a dazzling and inspired choice, but the best pizzas are those with gourmet toppings—San Daniele prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, burrata, chopped cherry tomatoes, homemade pesto, and even raw prawns, smoked tuna and thyme-infused octopus—added as soon as the pizza base leaves the oven.

For some great Sicilian cakes and ice cream on your way to the Archaeological Park, visit this bar-cum-pasticceria. It's popular with locals, especially on Sunday mornings, when they come for a late breakfast and take away golden trays of exquisite pastries for lunch, so you may have to line up for your cakes.

At this slow-food tavern, conveniently located right behind the Castello Maniace, you can sit back and enjoy both surf and turf dishes in the vaulted interior or—even better—on the outdoor terrace. One major plus is that you can order half portions of several pasta dishes or opt for a secondo, like the unusual pesce in crosta di patate (grilled fish in a potato crust)—all served on hand-painted ceramic ware.

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.