Made with ❤ by Sicilian Official Guides
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Made with ❤ by Sicilian Official Guides
We have selected some restaurants or similar from the 574 open in Syracuse, in our opinion, among the best for taste, location, fair price or elegance.
A riot of freshness and taste to try among the local products: watermelon, white melon, yellow melon, strawberries, peaches, grapes, lousies, oranges, lemons, almonds, pistachios, plums, apricots,, pomegranates, fig and more
Informal places and street food
All the flavor of the Sicilian tradition.
Syracusan cuisine already famous in ancient Greece for its fish sprinkled with flavored cheese, wheat pastes, sweets made with Honey from Iblei Mountain and its muscat at the time called "Polio" was synonymous of abundance and sophistication: the proverb "like a Syracusan banquet ' was used to indicate particularly rich and elaborate canteens. Plato criticized the lifestyle of the Syracusan and their cuisine: they, said the Athenian, have lunch twice a day and corrupt with their cuisine the soul and body of the Greek warrior. Since then that jubilation of flavors has become a unique product with quality brands :
DOC: Controlled Denomination of Origin
DOP: Protected Designation of Origin
IGP: Protected Geographical Indication
PAT: Traditional Italian food Product.
Local SHELLFISHES including SHRIMPS, RED AND VIOLET KING PRAWNS, SCAMPI, LOBSTERS, MANTIS SHRIMPS are a real treat, the price can be high depending on the period but it's really worth to have it;
SEA URCHIN: collected by local fishermen, for whom their sale has become a form of sustenance, are a real delicacy and nevertheless have a moderate cost (a dish with sea urchin is around €15). In May and June it is forbidden to fish and consume sea urchin, penalty of salty fines. You can buy them directly from the street vendors at the cost of (10-15 euros per glass) and consume them at home simply on top of a bruschetta (toasted bread).
BEST BLUEFISH with a dark blue back and silver belly, is rich in Omega 3, has a more intense and wild taste than "white" fish and costs less; excluding the sword and tuna that might be imported, it is always FRESH.
MACKEREL, HORSE MACKEREL, NEEDLE FISH AND MORE
THE EXQUISITE WHITE MEAT FISH with a delicate taste, little fat and very digestible: excellent roast or cooked into salt shell, scorpionfish is exquisite in soup, red mullet and small cod are amazing fried. It is a bit more expensive than blue fish.
COD, TURBOT, SOLE, HAKE.
THE 10 RULES TO RECOGNIZE FRESH FISH
1)At the restaurant ask to see the available fish.
2)The fresh fish is compact, tense, if very fresh can even be curved;
3)The skin must be firm, smooth,brilliant not wrinkled and not flaccid.
4)The belly must be adherent and not leaning.
5)The eye is domed outwards (convex), the cornea must be transparent and the pupil bright black;
6)The gills are bright red and mucus-free. The smell of gills (and abdominal cavity) is of seaweed;
7)The slice of tuna should not be flabby (pressing NOT must remain the imprint of the finger), the smell pleasant, deep red blood colour in case of bluefin tuna (defrosted bluefin tuna has a dull red color). Yellowfin tuna although less valuable and less red is good too.
THE 10 RULES TO RECOGNIZE FRESH FISH
8) The swordfish slice should not be flabby (Same proof of the imprint), it must have a color between white and glossy pink and not opaque (+pink = +exquisite)
9) Imported squid are perfect, compact skin, same size, no defects. Local squid are peeled, have different sizes and are more expensive. Putting your finger inside you have to see it (Raw).
10) Fresh shrimp has the head darker than the body. The imported shrimp is red-orange because of the sulphites used to store them.
RAW FISH MUST BE FLASH FROZEN BEFORE BEING EATEN.
MUSSELS MUST BE ALWAYS COOKED being filters may contain harmful bacteria. The mussels already open before cooking and those left closed after cooking are DIED MUSSELS and should not be eaten.
Among the good things about Sicily its pastry definitely occupies the top position, great variety of choice between cannoli ice cream cakes , all yummy, a ranking would be subjective so we just list the sweets worth to be tryed:
CANNOLI STUFFED WITH SWEET RICOTTA CHEESE OR CHOCOLATE, BIGNE' (CREAM PUFF) STUFFED WITH WHITE CREAM OR CHOCOLATE, ALMOND PASTRIES , SICILIAN CASSATA (CAKE), PISTACCHIO AND CIOCCOLATO PIE, GRANITA (CRUSHED ICE) OF PISTACHIO, MULBERRY ,MALMOND, LEMON , COFFE' CHOCOLATE .
Perchè visitarlo:
Palazzo Nicolaci dei Principi di Villadorata è un simbolo che oggi, riportato
agli antichi splendori, dà la dimensione della ricchezza artistica e
dell’opulenza del centro netino, in un periodo ormai passato.
La facciata è caratterizzata da un ampio portale fiancheggiato da due grandi colonne ioniche e sormontato da una balconata in pieno stile barocco.
Ai lati troviamo una sequenza di balconi delle inferriate in ferro ricurvo, sorretti da mensoloni in pietra scolpita con le sembianze di figure grottesche quali sirene, leoni, sfingi, ippogrifi, cavalli alati e angeli.
I balconi pare riprendano quelli del Palazzo del Barone di Trezzano a Noto antica. Fra i mensoloni che li reggono, la figura chiave è quella al centro del terzo balcone da sinistra, l’uomo con il flauto, che incarna una frase del testamento di Giacomo: “Nulla giova all’anima esser dotto, se nello stesso tempo non è Santo”.
La costruzione si articola su quattro piani: il pianterreno, il piano “dammusato”, era destinato alle scuderie ed ai magazzini per le scorte di generi alimentari; il primo piano detto “mediastino”, era l’abitazione del barone Giacomo; il piano superiore era adibito a residenza nobile dei familiari; l’ultimo piano, il sottotetto, era destinato alla servitù.
DA NON PERDERE: visita del Piano Nobile e i suoi ambienti
L’elegante scala ottocentesca di stile Neoclassico, con stucchi che simulano il marmo, vi condurrà al piano nobile.
Un corridoio vi porterà alla prima sala, la “Sala del Tè”, decorata con motivi orientali e dove noterete due intriganti figure cinesi.
Si passa quindi al Salone delle Feste, con decorazioni “Trompe I’oeil” che simula una balaustra sovrastata da colonne laterali sulle pareti. Al centro del soffitto troviamo invece l’allegoria del Carro di Apollo che insegue l’Aurora, una copia dell’originale di Guido Reni.
Dal salone delle feste si passa ad una successione di saloni finemente arredati con mobili ottocenteschi provenienti da varie parti d’Europa. Non sono purtroppo i mobili “originali” usati dalla famiglia Nicolaci, ma la scelta degli arredi di ogni ambiente suggerisce le attività e le atmosfere che animavano questi ambienti fino agli ultimi anni del Novecento.
Un’ala del Palazzo Nicolaci accoglie oggi la Biblioteca Comunale, fondata nel 1817, ricca di migliaia di volumi e manoscritti latini e spagnoli a cui va aggiunta una galleria di ritratti degli uomini illustri di Noto, dono del barone Astuto.
