Vineria Modì

A Michelin-starred wine bar that earns its star on the plate as well as in the glass

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.

The space

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.

The food and late-evening format

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.

Ratings and trust signals

• Michelin: 1 Star (2024)
• Price tier: €€€
• Cuisine: Italian Contemporary with Sicilian influence

Booking

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 finest 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.

Practical details

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 well for two to four guests; large groups should confirm availability and format suitability directly.

How Vineria Modì fits the Taormina picture

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.