Best Places to Eat in Syracuse and Ortigia: A Guide to Great Restaurants August 13, 2024 – Posted in: Italy, Travel – Tags: Food, Holiday, Italy, Ortigia, Restaurants, Reviews, Sicily, Syracuse, Travel, Vacation
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Best Restaurants in Syracuse
You can easily spend an entire week exploring Syracuse, but if you’re on a whirlwind tour, be sure to allocate at least two days for your visit. The city has a lot to offer in terms of sights and a variety of excellent dining options! It’s wise to make reservations or arrive early in the evening to ensure you get a table.
Please note, that in Syracuse, you’ll encounter the coperto fee – a standard cover charge of a few euros per person that goes towards the cost of table linens, settings, and bread. For a quick snack, there are numerous fast-food stalls offering arancini – large rice balls filled with cheese, meat, or mushrooms.
Discover more travel tips for Syracuse and Ortigia – click here!
Recommended Restaurants in Syracuse
Best Sandwich in Sicily
No matter what else you try while in Syracuse, you absolutely must sample a sandwich from Caseificio Borderi. It’s the one shown in the top picture. Located by the fish market, just follow the long line of people waiting outside the shop. Without a doubt, it’s the best sandwich we’ve ever had, made with local Ragusano cheese, ham, and grilled eggplant, all wrapped in the crispiest bread. You can pay the coperto to sit down or take your sandwich to the nearby bridge to enjoy the view.
French Mediterranean Delicacies
During our four-night stay in Syracuse, we dined at Le Vin de L’assassin Bistrot on our first evening. This spot offers French-inspired dishes with a Sicilian base. For starters, we had Burrata con Gazpacho and Tortino Melenzane, eggplant slices layered with tomato sauce and ricotta. For the main course, we enjoyed tuna lasagna and ombrina, a local fish similar to trout, served with pistachio sauce. It was an exciting and delicious meal, though we were too full for dessert.
Best Pizza in Town
The following evening, we dined at Era Ora, overlooking the harbor. We’ve had many great pizzas, but these might be among the best we’ve tasted. After enjoying a pizza with mortadella and pistachios and another with prosciutto, burrata, and yellow cherry tomatoes, we were pleasantly full. Luckily, there was a nice walk back to our hotel, and we capped off the evening with a glass of wine at the wonderful wine bar Enoteca Solaria.
Fish Fast Food in Cones
Directly across from the wine bar is Pane di Mare, a fish fast-food bar with outdoor seating. When we passed by on a Saturday for lunch, it was packed with locals. On our third evening, we decided to give it a try. Their large Sicilian-shaped antipasti platter included arancini, small sandwiches, and fried sardines. After a long day of sightseeing, it was just what we needed.
However, their most popular items are the cones of fried fish – a quick and tasty snack. Because of its simplicity, it’s a great spot for families with children or for anyone who has just arrived in town and needs a quick meal on the first night.
A Great Restaurant in Syracuse
On our last evening, we decided to explore “the other side.” Locals don’t live in Ortigia but in the newer parts of Syracuse – so there must be great restaurants here as well. And there were! In fact, there were so many that we had a hard time choosing. If you cross Ponte Santa Lucia and take a left when you arrive in Syracuse, you’ll find a trendy neighborhood filled with restaurants and bars.
It was refreshing to step out of the vacation bubble of Ortigia and see how the locals really live. The area isn’t just for the younger crowd, as we found when we finally chose to dine at Piano B, where we were joined by a delightful group of older gentlemen at the neighboring table.
A Great Tip for Sunset Cocktails
As the day winds down and the sun sets over the sea, tourists flock to the west side of Ortigia. Here you’ll find the most stunning sunsets and a variety of excellent bars where you can enjoy a delicious cocktail. While prices here are higher than in the old town, they are still reasonable considering the sea view. It’s well worth it! The Sicilian evening sun makes for a wonderful and cozy atmosphere.
Our hotel in Ortigia, Syracuse – Alla Giudecca. Click the image to read more.
Find a Great Hotel in Siracusa
For a truly romantic getaway, like the one we were on, you should definitely stay in the historic center on the Ortigia peninsula, where there are plenty of small, charming hotels. We stayed at the super-romantic Hotel Alla Giudecca in the old Jewish quarter.
In the old 15th-century buildings, you’ll find a charming hotel, beautifully decorated with slightly old-fashioned rooms arranged around an atrium courtyard. It’s not hard to imagine how the medieval building originally looked, as the walls on the ground floor are exposed down to the large limestone blocks, and just below the large arches, you can see the exposed beams.
We were upgraded to a double room with access to our own rooftop terrace, meaning that besides our own bedroom with wrought iron canopy beds (as you can see in the picture), we also had an extra bedroom. From the room, we also had a view of the Greek well located at the entrance to the Jewish mikveh.
Breakfast was served in the medieval dining hall, offering a bit of everything, including some warm dishes. We could have also cooked for ourselves in the small kitchenette in our hotel room, but the hotel is located in the heart of Ortigia and so close to many excellent restaurants that we never even used a spoon.
Read more about the hotel here: Hotel Alla Giudecca
If you find the hotel prices in Ortigia completely unreasonable, you can easily stay on the other side of the two small bridges in Siracusa itself and walk over to Ortigia. You can see the hotels in Ortigia and Siracusa by clicking here – or search for beautiful hotels in Sicily on your own: