Is This Sicily’s Best Restaurant?

Hidden inside Taormina’s famed San Domenico Palace, A Four Seasons Hotel, is the property’s crowning jewel: Principe Cerami. With a Michelin star at the door, we’re hardly trekking off the beaten path – but treading in worn footsteps is often just as rewarding as going rogue. Indeed, set back from streets teeming with bustling restaurants, live music and granita galore, Principe Cerami is a hushed haven of culinary magic.

Restaurant Review: Principe Cerami, Taormina

Named for Prince Cerami – a descendant of San Domenico Palace’s first owner, Baron Damiano Rosso d’Altavilla, who transformed the beautiful property into one of Europe’s first grandly luxurious hotels – Principe Cerami is the Four Seasons Taormina’s flagship restaurant, exuding all the elegance and grandeur the hotel has become known for. Guests travel from far and wide to wander the hallowed halls of San Domenico Palace, famed for its appearance in season two of The White Lotus. While some settle for aperitivo with a side of live music in the leafy Grand Cloister (a perfect way to start the evening), others check in for their Sicilian escape, but the luckiest of them all dine at Principe Cerami.

A kind of drama nucleus in The White Lotus is this magnificent restaurant with a cocktail bar and grand piano – but the cameras hardly do Principe Cerami justice. Rather than your typical hotel restaurant – you certainly wouldn’t dine here every night, even if solely to preserve the magic of the place – this special spot is the stuff of dreams. A sumptuous menu and exciting wine list is matched by an idyllic view that redefines ‘mesmerising’: sea blending with sky, Taormina tumbling into the sea, waves floating onto shore, the Italian mainland on the horizon, Mount Etna looming over it all, the hotel’s gardens blooming in the corner of your eye. The whole dining experience holds you in a reverie.

Helmed by Etna-born chef Massimo Mantarro, after a gracious entrance into the grand dining room (or onto the spectacular terrace), settle at your white-table-clothed table – complete with a classically Sicilian Moro head vase – to peruse the authentic menu. Mantarro marries his heritage with his wealth of fine dining experience to produce a quintessential Sicilian menu with gastronomic flair, earning the restaurant one Michelin star in November 2022. With local cuisine drawing on Italian, African and Arabic influences (thanks to a history of being conquered and claimed), Mantarro’s most authentic Sicilian dishes of all are demarcated with the island’s symbol, a triskelion of legs, noting the heritage you’re about to tuck into.

Uniting Sicily’s abundant local ingredients – from the sea and from the Etna exalted land – expect the produce to take centre stage. Dishes are playful, uniting unexpected, long-estranged pairings, from foraged herbs to ancient legumes. To start, this means delicate langoustine lounge in a pool of green apple, celeriac, spices and coffee – or passionfruit and truffle bounce off the tongue, bringing sweet and earthy elevation to celeriac, beetroot and carrots. The pasta course is, naturally, a must: the ‘Mount Etna’ spaghetti, served in a squid ink-crumbed pile is decadent yet humble, featuring local tomato fondue and salty ricotta; spiralling the tagliolini pasta dotted with juicy red shrimp around my fork and into my mouth is a heavenly pleasure.

Once dishes have been delivered (by the friendliest of staff), chatter quiets and the tables around us merely murmur with satisfaction. Eyes widen as flavours erupt on the tongue. After, gazes soften as they return to that view. Indeed, tucking into seafood and fish while watching the soft waves that carry such a bounty roll into Taormina cove is all the more pleasing.

It’s best washed down, naturally, with a glass of wine – and if you’re overwhelmed by the comprehensive list of options, leave it up to warm and welcoming head sommelier Alessandro Malfitana to choose. If in doubt, there’s no better time to take a sip of Etna wine: mineraly, citrusy and, best of all, incredibly local.

For secondi, ingredients shine once more, whether that’s seabass with bell peppers, tomatoes and a moreish crumb, or piglet with courgette sprouts and seasonal fruits, or traditional aubergine with tomatoes, ragusano cheese and basil. Dessert, too, is not to be missed: the pistachio cream creation with lemon sorbet and coffee really underscores Mantarro ‘unexpected’ philosophy, while local fruits and nuts shine across the board.

No detail too small, every morsel of deliciousness is delivered on locally-crafted crockery, from an amuse bouche served on a cylinder of volcanic rock – delivered in the shadow of Etna herself – to hand crafted, glazed and painted plates, cups and bowls.

The Final Word

Marrying fine dining with ancient tried and tested Sicilian recipes and ingredients, Principe Cerami is a real triumph. Perched in the lofty hills of Taormina, come for the panoramic Ionian-Etna views, stay for the impeccable cuisine, and return for the friendliest of service.

BOOK IT

Principe Cerami is part of San Domenico Palace, A Four Seasons Hotel, but you don’t need to be a guest to book a table. Book at principecerami.com