Taormina Restaurants

If you just want a snack for lunch, you can get an arancino (Sicilian rice ball) and a soft drink here for 4 euros 50. They come with a range of fillings, from the traditional meat and peas, to tuna or sausage.

Favorite Dish: Arancini, obviously! They do sell other snacks,such as pizza, but I didn't try those. The arancini, however, are the best we had in Taormina.

I had the ‘Tradizionale’ (rice, meat, peas, parmesan), my husband had ‘Porcellino’ (mushroom, tomato, sausage, peppers).

After in-depth research, my husband declared that this was the best gelateria in Taormina (which is an accolade indeed - I have to say that all the ice-cream I ate in Taormina was delicious).

His favourite was the strawberry. I can recommend the coffee ice-cream, but they do a huge range of flavours. If you can't face a cloying ice-cream, they sell granitas as well. The peach flavour is very good.

Favorite Dish: Strawberry ice-cream.

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This restaurant is on via Roma. The outdoor seating area is next to the tennis court entrance to the Giardino Pubblico, and has a wonderful view over the bay and Mount Etna. It's one of the more reasonably-priced restaurants in Taormina, but the food is good. Just watch out for the fish-loving wasps, which are a hazard when eating outside anywhere in Taormina.

Favorite Dish: I had a starter of a very simple dish of spaghetti with olive oil, chillies and garlic, which was excellent, followed by grilled swordfish (which they do well everywhere in Taormina). My husband went for spaghetti with mussels followed by swordfish with prawns.

The pizzas I saw going to other tables looked good, too.

The night we visited this restaurant they were catering for a christening party, so it seems to be somewhere the locals go. Certainly the food was excellent.

I had ravioli with ricotta in a pistachio sauce, followed by sarde beccafico (sardines stuffed to resemble small birds), both of which were absolutely delicious. The creme caramel I had for dessert was also good, but my husband's enormous helping of tiramisu was definitely 'historic'.

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This restaurant specialises in fish and seafood, and has a very impressive display of fresh fish and a very enthusiastic owner.

This is very tempting, but do be aware that a lot of the fish is charged by weight. (They will weigh the fish and tell you the weight and cost before they cook it for you, but if you get carried away, it can be an expensive option). If you want to keep an eye on costs, stick to regular menu options rather than the speciality of the day! [The fish here isn't really any more expensive than at other restaurants - fish by weight is sold elsewhere for similar prices. It's just that this restaurant is somehow more tempting]

Favorite Dish: We had whitebait, which was excellent, followed by sea bass. All very good, but rather expensive, as the sea bass, which we shared, weighed 900g at 6 euros per 100g!

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This is one of several restaurants on Corso Umberto which has a terrace with great views. The entrance is down a short alley off the Corso.

We visited an lunchtime and just had a pasta dish each. Both were traditional Sicilian dishes and delicious. Pasta alla Norma is with tomatoes and aubergines, pasta con le sarde is with sardines, sultanas and breadcrumbs.

The bill for two, with coperto and water, was 28 euros.

We went twice last month and took a taxi who also brought us back to Taormina and with tip that was 20 euro
The Restaurant is way above Taormina on the way to Castelmola and we sat outdoors on the patio and shared great pasta dishes and also each of us had seafood dinners.
Desserts are also excellent and do yourself a favor and go here if you are in Taormina as it is worth it just for the view--Gene

Favorite Dish: Main course Tuna with onions grilled from Tropea- Also we loved the Pasta with clsms which we split both times. The onions are the best maybe world wide coming from Tropea--

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This restaurant is named after the nearby ruins of the ancient Greco-Roman Naumachia. The food and its presentation is however very modern (though one or two dishes are what Michael Winner might term 'historic').

Bread comes with olive oil for dipping and an assortment of different salts (plain, orange and sage.

A 'carpaccio' of local cheeses was an interesting starter, served with orange slices, almonds and a pear 'jelly' (more like a sauce). My other half opted for the more traditional arancini. We both selected fish for the main course: sea bream in white wine sauce for him, and a 'fishcake' of sea bass for me. The latter was unlike any fishcake I have ever seen. No potato, no breadcrumbs, no frying - just a delicious concoction of sea bass, covered in slivers of zucchini and an orange sauce.

For dessert, I had a small, but perfectly executed creme caramel - one of the best I have ever tasted. My husband went for the restaurant's interpretation of the local speciality cannolo. It turned out to be a deconstructed version, with the pastry in slices, rather than a tube, but it tasted very good.

Favorite Dish: The fishcake was excellent, and the creme caramel was also delicious.

The bread, which had tomato inside was also delicious.