Restaurant in Taormina, Italy
Wine-first Michelin star. Book early.
Vineria Modì holds a Michelin star (2024) and a 4.7 Google rating in Taormina's competitive fine-dining tier — at €€€, it is the sharpest-value starred option in the city. The kitchen delivers creative, Sicilian-influenced contemporary cooking alongside a wine list that reflects the restaurant's origins as a wine bar. Dinner only; book well in advance for summer.
4.7 across 681 Google reviews is a strong signal in a city where tourist footfall keeps average scores artificially inflated. Vineria Modì, tucked into the historic centre of Taormina on Via Calapitrulli 13, holds a Michelin star (2024) and a Google rating that suggests the dining room is doing something right with both first-timers and returning guests. If you are deciding whether to book one serious dinner in Taormina, Modì belongs on the shortlist alongside La Capinera and Principe Cerami. The question is whether its format suits your evening.
Modì began as a wine bar, and the room still reads that way: the kind of place where the wine list arrives before the bread does, and the staff talk about producers with the enthusiasm of someone who has actually visited them. The dining room is described as elegant without crossing into formal, which matters in Taormina where the dress code gap between a beach hotel lunch and a starred dinner is sometimes only a change of shoes. In summer, the outdoor tables overlooking a pedestrianised street are the prime seats. The street itself is quiet enough for conversation but lively enough to feel like you are in a Sicilian town rather than a sealed dining room. If you are returning for a second visit, request those outdoor tables specifically — they change the rhythm of the meal.
Chef Dalila Grillo runs the kitchen; her brother Ettore manages the front of house. The menu offers two tasting menus or an à la carte format, with a minimum of three courses required when ordering à la carte. The cooking draws on Sicilian ingredients and technique as its base, then reaches outward — the menu description references influences from elsewhere, which in practice tends to mean the kind of contemporary Italian approach you find at places like L'Olivo in Anacapri or, at a different scale, Agli Amici in Rovinj: technically considered, locally grounded, not bound by tradition for its own sake.
The hours matter here. Modì runs dinner-only, opening at 7 PM most nights and pushing to 10:30 PM on Saturdays. Wednesday is the closure. That 10:30 PM Saturday finish makes it one of the more accommodating options in Taormina if you want a full, unhurried meal that ends late rather than one that has the kitchen winding down at 9:45 PM. For a late-arriving summer crowd checking into hotels after a long travel day, the Saturday extension is genuinely useful. If you are arriving mid-week and want to eat after 9 PM, confirm your booking in advance , the 10 PM close on weekdays means a late table could be tight depending on how the kitchen is pacing the room.
The wine list is the connective thread throughout. The restaurant's origins as a wine bar mean this is not a list assembled to satisfy a sommelier requirement , it is the reason the place exists, and the staff enthusiasm for it is documented in Michelin's own description. For a dinner where the pairing matters as much as the food, this is a stronger choice than most of Taormina's other starred options, which tend to treat wine as secondary to the kitchen story. If wine-forward dining in Italy is your reference point, the kind of depth you find at Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence provides the high-end benchmark; Modì operates at a different price tier but shares the same orientation.
This is a hard booking. A Michelin-starred restaurant in a high-season Sicilian resort town with a limited number of tables fills early. Book as far in advance as possible for July and August , four to six weeks is not excessive. The shoulder months of May, June, and September offer better availability, and the outdoor terrace in those months is arguably at its leading when the summer heat has dropped slightly. Walk-ins are unlikely to succeed except potentially on a midweek night in low season. No booking platform is listed in the current data, so contact the restaurant directly via a search for current reservation channels.
Address: Via Calapitrulli 13, Taormina. Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday 7 PM–10 PM; Saturday 7 PM–10:30 PM; Wednesday closed. Price tier: €€€ , expect a tasting menu to sit in the mid-to-upper range for Taormina's starred tier, though specific per-head figures are not confirmed in current data. Dress: Smart casual at minimum; the Michelin-starred context and elegant dining room suggest stepping above resort casual, though Taormina's general atmosphere means strict formality is not expected. Reservations: Essential; book well in advance for summer months. Group size: The wine-bar origins and elegant room suggest this works leading for two to four guests; large groups should confirm availability and format suitability directly.
Taormina's restaurant scene at the leading end is well covered: St. George by Heinz Beck and Otto Geleng operate at €€€€ and offer a more theatrical, destination-dining proposition. Modì sits at €€€, which at Michelin-star level represents a sharper value position. For the diner who wants serious cooking without the full ceremony of a €€€€ room, it is the most practical entry point in the city's starred tier. Explore our full Taormina restaurants guide for a complete picture, or check our Taormina hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide to build the rest of your stay. For context on how Sicilian-influenced contemporary Italian cooking sits within the broader national conversation, reference points include Osteria Francescana in Modena, Le Calandre in Rubano, Dal Pescatore in Runate, Enrico Bartolini in Milan, and Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico , all of which show where the Italian Contemporary format is operating at its furthest reach.
Yes, for a Michelin-starred dinner in Taormina at the €€€ tier, Modì offers strong value relative to its peers. The €€€€ alternatives , St. George by Heinz Beck, Otto Geleng, and Principe Cerami , carry higher price points and a more formal register. Modì's star, 4.7 Google rating, and wine-forward identity justify the spend if contemporary Sicilian cooking and a serious wine list are what you are after. If budget is the priority, Blum sits at a lower price tier without the star.
The tasting menu is the better choice for a first visit if the wine pairing matters to you. The restaurant's origins as a wine bar mean the staff are at their leading when building a meal around the list, and a tasting format gives them more to work with. That said, the à la carte minimum of three courses gives experienced visitors more control , if you are returning and know what the kitchen does well, ordering selectively is a reasonable approach. The Michelin recognition specifically notes the skill of chef Dalila Grillo, which suggests the tasting menu reflects the kitchen's full range.
Smart casual is the safe call. Taormina is a resort town, so the local baseline is casual, but a Michelin-starred dining room in an elegant interior warrants more effort than a polo and sandals. Think linen trousers and a shirt for men, a dress or equivalent for women. The outdoor terrace in summer is slightly more relaxed in feel, but the same dress standard applies. Turning up in beach attire would be out of place.
Dinner only , Modì does not serve lunch. The restaurant opens at 7 PM daily (except Wednesday). This makes it a dinner-only decision, and the evening timing suits the Taormina rhythm well: most visitors spend the day at the beach or sightseeing and move to dinner late. The Saturday 10:30 PM close is the most accommodating if you want to arrive after 8:30 PM and take your time.
Three things: first, the wine list is the backbone of the experience, not an afterthought , engage with it. Second, book well in advance, especially in summer; this is a hard reservation in a high-demand city. Third, if the summer outdoor terrace is available, take it. The à la carte minimum of three courses means you cannot treat this as a quick bite , plan for a full evening. The kitchen draws on Sicilian flavour with contemporary technique, so expect creative plating rather than traditional cucina siciliana.
No confirmed information is available in current data about specific dietary accommodation policies. Given the tasting menu format and minimum three-course à la carte requirement, dietary restrictions are worth flagging at the time of booking rather than on arrival. Contact the restaurant directly when making your reservation to confirm what adjustments are possible. The contemporary kitchen format generally allows more flexibility than a strictly traditional menu, but this is not confirmed for Modì specifically.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vineria Modì | Italian Contemporary | €€€ | Hard |
| St. George by Heinz Beck | Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| La Capinera | Sicilian | €€€ | Unknown |
| Otto Geleng | Mediterranean Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Principe Cerami | Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Kisté - Easy Gourmet | Modern Cuisine | €€ | Unknown |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Yes, at €€€ in a tourist-heavy resort town, a Michelin star (2024) with strong crowd validation — 4.7 across 681 Google reviews — is a reliable signal of genuine quality. The combination of a serious wine list and Dalila Grillo's Sicilian-influenced kitchen gives you two reasons to spend the money, not one. If you want the same price point without the wine focus, Principe Cerami offers a more formal, destination-dining format instead.
For most first visits, yes. Modì offers two tasting menus alongside à la carte, and the tasting format is the cleaner way to experience Grillo's creative, Sicilian-rooted cooking in sequence. The à la carte is viable — with a three-course minimum — but the tasting menus let the kitchen and the wine pairing work together as intended, which is the point of a venue that started as a wine bar.
The venue data describes an elegant dining room, so treat this as proper dress-up territory: polished casual at minimum, and more formal if you're doing a tasting menu. In summer, outdoor seating on a pedestrianised street is available, which relaxes the tone slightly, but a Michelin-starred kitchen still sets an expectation. Avoid beach or resort casual.
Modì is dinner-only, opening at 7 PM every day it operates (closed Wednesdays). There is no lunch service to compare. Saturday runs 30 minutes later to 10:30 PM, which gives slightly more flexibility on arrival if you're coming from elsewhere in Taormina.
Book as early as possible — a Michelin-starred room in a high-season Sicilian resort town fills fast, and the number of covers is limited. Modì started as a wine bar, so the wine list is a serious part of the experience, not an afterthought. If you're ordering à la carte, note that a three-course minimum applies. The outdoor summer terrace overlooking a pedestrianised street is the preferred seating when available.
The venue data does not specify a dietary restrictions policy. Given the format — two tasting menus plus an à la carte with a three-course minimum — it is worth contacting the restaurant directly before booking if you have specific requirements. Creative tasting-menu kitchens can often accommodate with advance notice, but confirmation is your responsibility before arrival.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
