Restaurant in Palermo, Italy
Michelin-noted Sicilian fish, accessible prices.
L'Ottava Nota holds a Michelin Plate for 2024 and 2025 and a 4.5 Google rating across 575 reviews — strong signals for a €€ Sicilian seafood restaurant on Via Butera in central Palermo. The kitchen works in a contemporary style with clear regional roots, and the room is polished enough to justify planning ahead. Book a week out for weekend lunch; weekday tables are easier.
Seats at L'Ottava Nota move faster than you might expect for a mid-range Sicilian restaurant on Via Butera — especially at weekends, when the lunch service draws both locals and visitors who have done their homework. If you are planning a Saturday or Sunday visit, book ahead rather than assuming walk-in availability. The good news: booking difficulty here is low by Palermo standards, and the €€ price point means you can plan without the anxiety that surrounds the city's pricier tables.
The short answer on whether to book: yes, with one caveat. L'Ottava Nota earns its Michelin Plate recognition for 2024 and 2025 by doing Sicilian seafood cookery in a contemporary register — and doing it consistently enough to hold a 4.5 on Google across 575 reviews. That is a meaningful signal. At this price tier, it competes honestly and delivers more visual polish than most of its neighbours at the same spend.
The room is the first thing that tells you what kind of restaurant this is. Michelin's own assessment describes it as "bright, pretty and modern" , a characterisation that aligns with the contemporary Sicilian format the kitchen pursues. This is not a tratttoria with checked tablecloths and fluorescent lights. The visual presentation here , both the room and the plates , is calibrated for a diner who wants Sicilian identity without the nostalgic furniture. If that sounds like you, L'Ottava Nota is well-positioned to deliver.
Cuisine is anchored firmly in the region, with fish dishes at the centre of the menu. Michelin notes the food is "strongly linked to the region with fish dishes to the fore presented in an attractive and contemporary style." For the food-focused traveller, that framing matters: you are getting a kitchen that treats local seafood as the main event, not an afterthought dressed up in Italian-restaurant clichés. Sicily's Mediterranean catch , the kind of ingredients that make the island's food so compelling , is what this kitchen builds around.
For the explorer coming to Palermo specifically to eat well and understand the food culture, L'Ottava Nota sits in an interesting position. It is not the old-school street food experience you will find at the Ancient Saint Francis Focaccia Shop, nor the creative boundary-pushing of A' Cuncuma. It occupies the middle ground that many visitors actually want: serious Sicilian cooking, presented with enough contemporary care to feel like a meal worth planning, at a price that does not require a rationalisation conversation.
If your trip allows it, the lunch service deserves specific consideration. Palermo's dining rhythms mean lunch remains a substantial, unhurried affair, and a restaurant like L'Ottava Nota , Michelin-recognised, seafood-forward, visually considered , plays well in daylight. The room's brightness, which Michelin flags, is an asset at lunch in a way it simply is not at dinner. For a food enthusiast building an itinerary around the city's restaurant culture, a long Saturday lunch here, followed by an afternoon in the Kalsa neighbourhood, is a well-structured day. The address on Via Butera puts you close to the waterfront and the Palazzo Abatellis, so the geography supports that kind of afternoon.
Book a week to ten days out for weekend lunch to be safe. Weekday availability is more forgiving. There is no online booking data in the public record for this venue, so contacting them directly , in Italian, if possible , is the practical approach.
The €€ designation puts L'Ottava Nota in Palermo's accessible-but-serious tier. You are spending noticeably less than you would at Mec Restaurant while still getting a Michelin-recognised kitchen and a room that does not feel like a compromise. For travellers comparing spend across a multi-day Palermo itinerary, this is a sensible allocation: save the bigger budget for a single high-end meal and let L'Ottava Nota carry one of your other evenings or lunches without financial stress.
The 4.5 Google rating across 575 reviews is, at this price point, a stronger trust signal than it might appear. Volume matters: 575 reviews at 4.5 suggests consistent delivery, not a handful of enthusiastic early visitors inflating the score. For a restaurant in the €€ tier, that consistency is the product.
L'Ottava Nota is one of several competent modern Sicilian options in Palermo's centre, and the right one to book depends on what else you are doing. If your trip involves the full Palermo dining circuit , street food at Buatta Cucina Popolana, pizza at AMMODO, something more exploratory at A' Cuncuma , L'Ottava Nota works as your contemporary Sicilian seafood anchor. It fills a specific slot in the itinerary without overlapping with the city's other strong options.
For the itinerary-builder comparing Sicilian fine dining more broadly across the island, it is worth knowing that restaurants like I Pupi in Bagheria and Shalai in Linguaglossa represent the higher end of the regional spectrum , and that Italy's most decorated tables, from Osteria Francescana in Modena to Uliassi in Senigallia, set the national benchmark. L'Ottava Nota is not competing in that tier, and does not need to. It is competing for your lunch or dinner in central Palermo at a fair price, and by that measure it earns the booking.
If you are building out the rest of your Palermo stay, our full Palermo restaurants guide covers the city's range in full, alongside our Palermo hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| L'Ottava Nota | €€ | — |
| Mec Restaurant | €€€€ | — |
| Charleston | €€€€ | — |
| Antica Focacceria San Francesco | — | |
| Bye Bye Blues | — | |
| Gagini | — |
Comparing your options in Palermo for this tier.
Book ahead rather than walk in, particularly at weekends — this Michelin Plate-recognised spot on Via Butera fills faster than its €€ price point suggests. The kitchen leans heavily into fish-forward Sicilian cooking presented in a modern style, so if you prefer meat-centred menus, adjust expectations accordingly. Lunch is often the more relaxed entry point into the room.
It works for a low-key celebration rather than a landmark dinner. The Michelin Plate recognition gives it credibility, and the contemporary Sicilian format feels considered rather than casual, but the €€ price range and modern-bistro atmosphere suit an intimate dinner between two more than a formal group occasion. For a grander Palermo special occasion, Charleston or Gagini would set a more formal tone.
The menu is fish-forward by design, which works well for pescatarians but means red-meat options are limited. Specific allergen policies are not documented in available venue data, so check the venue's official channels before booking if you have serious dietary needs — the address is Via Butera, 55, Palermo.
Michelin's own assessment points to fish dishes as the kitchen's strength, presented in a contemporary Sicilian style. Specific menu items are not confirmed in current venue data, so treat fish-led courses as the safe anchor of any meal here. Arriving at lunch gives you the full menu in a less pressured setting.
At €€ in Palermo, yes — this is one of the more credible options at its price point, holding a Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025. You are paying mid-range prices for cooking that Michelin considers regionally serious, which is a reasonable deal by any Italian city standard. If budget is the primary concern, Antica Focacceria San Francesco offers a cheaper, more casual Sicilian alternative nearby.
Tasting menu availability and pricing are not confirmed in current venue data, so this cannot be assessed directly. What is clear is that the kitchen's identity is built around Sicilian fish dishes in a modern format, so any multi-course option would play to those strengths. Check directly with the restaurant at Via Butera, 55 before building your evening around a set menu assumption.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
