Restaurant in Noto, Italy
Noto's Michelin star. Book early.
Crocifisso holds a 2024 Michelin star and is the most accomplished restaurant in Noto for contemporary Sicilian cooking. Chef Marco Baglieri's kitchen applies serious technique to local seafood and produce at the €€€ price point, with a wine cellar worth exploring across multiple visits. Book three to four weeks out minimum — dinner only, no lunch service.
If you are choosing between Crocifisso and a more casual dinner on Noto's main corso, book Crocifisso without hesitation — but go in knowing what it is: a Michelin-starred contemporary Sicilian restaurant where the cooking is ambitious, the room is intimate, and walk-in availability is essentially zero in peak season. This is the restaurant that puts Noto on the map for serious diners, and at the €€€ price point, it delivers more culinary precision than most restaurants in its tier across southeastern Sicily.
Crocifisso sits in Noto's historic upper quarter, close to the church of the same name, on via Principe Umberto 46. The rooms inside are modern and spare — dusky evening lighting, clean lines, nothing fussy. The atmosphere is quiet and considered rather than lively; this is not a room where you come for energy and noise. Conversations carry. The pace is unhurried. If you are arriving from a full day exploring Noto's baroque architecture and want somewhere that matches the seriousness of the surroundings, this fits. If you want a loose, convivial Sicilian dinner, look elsewhere.
The glass-walled cellar visible from the exterior sets the tone: the wine program here is treated as seriously as the food. On your first visit, lean into the tasting menu format if available , it gives you the widest view of chef Marco Baglieri's cooking, which moves between classical Sicilian references and contemporary technique. Documented dishes include artichoke cooked two ways on brioche with anchovy sauce, and cod with leek foam and cuttlefish ink finished with black truffle and basil oil. Both show how Baglieri works: local, recognisable ingredients pushed into more structured, precise territory. The menu also covers meat and vegetarian options, so dietary range is not a concern.
One visit gives you the headline. Two or three visits give you the full picture of what Baglieri is doing across the seasons. On a first visit, prioritise the seafood-led dishes , the cod preparation and anything involving anchovy or cuttlefish ink. These are where the kitchen's relationship with the sea around Sicily is most visible, and where the contemporary technique adds the most to familiar local flavour profiles.
On a second visit, shift attention to the vegetable and meat dishes. The menu's scope beyond seafood is deliberately broad, and the same brioche-and-anchovy logic applied to artichoke suggests the kitchen treats vegetables with real ambition. A third visit is when you go deeper into the wine list , the cellar, prominently displayed, is a signal that the wine program rewards exploration rather than just ordering the obvious pairing. Ask for guidance from the floor on lesser-known Sicilian producers; the selection reflects regional depth.
The kitchen's direction is described as sophisticated and almost baroque , an appropriate word given the city it operates in. Each return visit tends to reveal more of that layering. Repeat visitors to Noto who make Crocifisso the anchor of their dining across a longer stay will get considerably more from it than those treating it as a single-occasion tick.
Booking difficulty is hard. Crocifisso holds a 2024 Michelin star and operates in a city that draws significant tourist traffic during summer and Sicilian festival periods. Reserve at least three to four weeks out for summer visits; for high-demand weekends around Noto's Infiorata festival in May, book further in advance. The restaurant opens every evening across the week, with service running from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM (Wednesday from 7:00 PM). There is no lunch service. That narrow evening window means the restaurant fills to capacity most nights in season, and last-minute availability is rare.
Reservations: Book as far in advance as possible , three to four weeks minimum in summer, longer for festival periods. Hours: Mon–Tue, Thu–Sun 7:30 PM–9:30 PM; Wed 7:00 PM–9:30 PM; dinner only. Budget: €€€ , expect a meaningful spend per head at a Michelin one-star level; factor in wine if you plan to work through the cellar. Dress: Smart casual at minimum; the room's modern, serious atmosphere calls for it without being formally prescriptive. Address: via Principe Umberto 46, Noto 96017, Italy.
At one Michelin star and a €€€ price point in a mid-sized Sicilian town, Crocifisso occupies a specific and useful position: it is the kind of restaurant that proves destination fine dining does not require Milan or Rome. For context within Italy's broader Michelin tier, it sits below the multi-star heavyweights , places like Osteria Francescana in Modena, Le Calandre in Rubano, or Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence , but it competes credibly with other ambitious one-star regional addresses such as Quattro Passi in Marina del Cantone or Piazza Duomo in Alba for the quality of the regional story being told through the plate. If contemporary fine dining in Italy interests you beyond the standard northern circuit, see also Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico, Dal Pescatore in Runate, and Enrico Bartolini in Milan for comparison points at different price tiers and styles. For contemporary fine dining beyond Italy, César in New York City and Jungsik in Seoul offer useful reference points for what the format produces in other urban settings.
Crocifisso is the dinner anchor for a Noto stay, but the city rewards deeper planning. Browse our full Noto restaurants guide, our full Noto hotels guide, our full Noto bars guide, our full Noto wineries guide, and our full Noto experiences guide to build out the rest of your itinerary.
Book well in advance , this is a Michelin-starred restaurant in a tourist-heavy Sicilian city with no lunch service and a short evening window. Expect a quiet, composed room rather than a buzzy atmosphere. The cooking is contemporary Sicilian: local ingredients handled with precision and some technical ambition. The menu covers seafood, meat, and vegetables, so dietary range is not an issue. Budget at the €€€ level and factor in wine , the cellar is a genuine draw.
Smart casual is the safe choice for a one-star room at this price point. Noto is a formal baroque city and the restaurant's atmosphere is modern and considered rather than relaxed. There is no documented strict dress code, but turning up in beachwear or very casual clothing would feel out of place. Treat it like a serious European dinner: dressed but not black-tie.
Yes, at the €€€ level with a 2024 Michelin star, Crocifisso delivers a level of technical cooking that is hard to find elsewhere in southeastern Sicily. For comparison, Principe di Belludia sits at €€€€ and represents a step up in price; Orti di Villadorata at €€€ offers a country-cooking alternative at a similar price tier without the Michelin credential. If the question is whether the star is earned, the documented dish work , cod with leek foam and cuttlefish ink with black truffle, artichoke two ways with anchovy sauce on brioche , suggests the answer is yes.
Yes, this is one of the stronger choices in Noto for a special occasion dinner. The room is intimate and the lighting is designed for evening atmosphere. The cooking is ambitious enough to mark the meal as a genuine event rather than a backdrop. For milestone celebrations, book ahead and consider asking about the wine program in advance , the cellar is displayed as a feature and the selection is clearly a point of pride. For a larger group celebration, check whether private room options exist at the time of booking.
The two most direct alternatives are Principe di Belludia (Creative, €€€€) , the better choice if you want to push the budget further for a more experimental, creative menu , and Orti di Villadorata (Country cooking, €€€) , the better choice if you prefer a more rustic, produce-driven approach over contemporary technique. Il San Corrado di Noto is also worth considering depending on your format preference. For the full picture, see our Noto restaurants guide.
Based on documented output, the seafood preparations are the kitchen's strongest territory: the cod with leek foam and cuttlefish ink finished with black truffle and basil oil is the most technically detailed dish on record. The artichoke cooked two ways on brioche with anchovy sauce shows the kitchen's ability to apply the same level of attention to vegetables. On a first visit, lean toward the tasting menu if offered , it gives the broadest view of what chef Marco Baglieri's kitchen does across both technique and local ingredient range.
Dinner only , Crocifisso does not serve lunch. The restaurant opens each evening between 7:00 PM and 7:30 PM depending on the day, with service closing at 9:30 PM. Wednesday is the earliest start at 7:00 PM; all other days begin at 7:30 PM. If your schedule allows, Wednesday's earlier opening gives slightly more flexibility, but all evenings follow the same format.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crocifisso | Contemporary | €€€ | Hard |
| Principe di Belludia | Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Orti di Villadorata | Country cooking | €€€ | Unknown |
| Il San Corrado di Noto | Unknown |
What to weigh when choosing between Crocifisso and alternatives.
This is a one-Michelin-star restaurant (2024) run by chef Marco Baglieri in Noto's historic upper quarter. The format is dinner-only, the rooms are modern, and the menu is contemporary Sicilian with seafood, meat, and vegetarian options. Book well in advance — Noto draws heavy tourist traffic in summer, and tables here do not hold. The address is via Principe Umberto 46.
The interior has a modern, spare aesthetic with evening lighting that reads as quietly formal. A one-Michelin-star room in a Sicilian baroque city warrants at minimum a sharp casual approach — think collared shirts and clean footwear for men, a dress or equivalent for women. Beachwear and flip-flops will feel out of place.
At €€€ and one Michelin star in a mid-sized Sicilian city, Crocifisso delivers serious value relative to equivalent-level restaurants in Rome or Milan. The menu range — seafood, meat, and vegetarian — means the price point can be justified across different orderings. If €€€ feels steep for your trip budget, the casual dining on Noto's main corso is sharply cheaper, but the gap in ambition is wide.
Yes, it works well for this. The combination of a Michelin-starred kitchen, a glass-walled cellar wine display on the exterior, and evening-lit modern rooms gives the meal a considered atmosphere without being stiff. Anniversaries and milestone dinners fit the format — request a table in advance rather than relying on a walk-in.
Principe di Belludia and Orti di Villadorata are the nearest comparisons in the broader Noto area, both operating at a similar premium register and suited to readers who want an estate or countryside setting rather than an in-town dining room. Il San Corrado di Noto is a closer geographic alternative for a fine dining dinner within the city if Crocifisso is fully booked.
The documented dishes from Michelin's coverage include an artichoke cooked two ways on brioche with anchovy sauce, and cod with leek foam and cuttlefish ink with black truffle and basil oil. Both represent the kitchen's approach: Sicilian ingredients handled with technique. The menu also covers meat and vegetarian dishes, so non-seafood diners have options.
Crocifisso is dinner-only, running 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM most nights (Wednesday from 7 PM). There is no lunch service listed. Plan your day in Noto accordingly and book your dinner slot before you arrive in the city.
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