Ristorante Il Cappero — Restaurant in Lipari

We went here as a family of four for a fabulous meal. We opted for the full 7 course menu for €155 per person, which when you consider the superb quality of the food and experience, is good value. This is a magical restaurant with an amazing view at sunset and precise, elegant and superb cooking. Like many tasting menus it does blur somewhat when rememebring it but I was struck with the overall creative presentation and bold use of flavours and ingredients. The best dishes for me were the chicken ravioli dish and the build-your-own dessert at the end. That dessert was a huge amount of fun and a brave way to end a superb meal. Every single dish though was loyal to its roots and all of us enjoyed pretty much everything from the amuse bouche onwards. The food service was equally elegant and precise and led by the helpful and charming Michaela. Each dish was coordinated carefully and delivered with a flourish and an excellent explanation from her. The only reason I dropped a star from the review was the service from the Sommelier that night. He clearly had a great knowledge of Italian wine but he just didn’t put the customer first. We wanted to have the individual wines to accompany the 7 course menu but this was 6 glasses each which we simply find to be too much alcohol for us. So we asked for the wines for the 5 course meal instead which was 4 glasses in total and about right. We were told several times this was impossible but not why (I assume a policy or just intransigence?). This was not a financial decision for us but just a health one and I can’t see why the restaurant couldn’t do this. It would just mean that we overlapped 2 courses with out of sync wine but that was our choice. In the end we just opted for a basic bottle of Etna Bianco instead which neither matched every dish, cost way less and made us less happy as customers. So from a culinary, customer and financial perspective this was a poor decision and ought to be reviewed in my opinion. Perhaps just do what the customer asks next time - it wasn’t an unreasonable or cost cutting request and this is a basic rule of hospitality. To add to this, at the end of the meal my wife asked for an Amaretto and me a Vecchia Romagna. We were told by the sommelier that this was not possible and we should have an Amaro and Grappa instead. Remember this is a restaurant attached to a hotel with a fully stocked bar about 25meters away so it would have been a simple job to arrange this. So my wife had an Amaro that she really didn’t like (and mostly left) but to add insult to injury when he fetched the Amaro from a nearby cupboard to pour it, it was sat next to - you guessed it - a bottle of Disaronno Amaretto. So either this was ignorance, arrogance or inflexibility none of which befits a Michelin star restaurant. In fairness my grappa was an excellent Nonino grappa so I was not so put out. After my previous rebuttals I didn’t feel like complaining and trying to put this right either. Just exasperated.

I feel bad dropping a star for these points as the food and setting are absolutely 1 or 2 star Michelin quality. But at this level you must have everything right and I was left disappointed and annoyed at two key stages of the meal, which is worth noting.

If you are staying at the Therasia I would still say this is a must do experience and actually good value when compared to the other more basic restaurants in the resort when you consider the superb food...

Absolutely exceptional. Every bit of it. From the 7 course meal to the reception, to the wine pairing, to the sommelier, to the view, to the attention to detail from the staff and synchronised service. We had an amazing time. Some of the mains even matched what you could expect in 2/3 Michelin star restaurants. The view from our table was stunning, we came before sunset and saw the sun set on the islands.

The food had us stunned. Some of the meals even made us feel nostalgia and experience emotion. Truly recommend this experience, don’t want to spoil the surprise on the meals, it was amazing. We won’t forget it

One note of improvement I could give to the resort is please improve the booking process! We were coming as guests as a group of 5 and could not book online and had to book over the phone. We had to call 5/6 times to get our reservation right and get the email address correct to confirm the reservation. Booking of up to 6 guests should be allowed online, would make things a lot easier for non Italian speakers :)

Another small note is the last wine of our wine pairing (red) was opened a little late, and got better towards the end of our meal. We felt like I didn’t match the last dish as well as the others (rabbit). Everything...

A Michelin star restaurant, with an 8 course tasting menu. You are not offered a food menu, the courses are what the chef chooses- mainly fish such as amberjack, sea bass, mussles and cuttlefish. But also some meat such as hen and rabbit. Beautifully presented, and the service is impeccable. There is a huge wine menu and wine parings available. We choose the five glass wine pairing which was really well picked, but slightly disappointing in that the wines offered were not high end at all, despite the $80 pet person cost. Another gripe was being suggested glasses of champagne when we arrived, and not told prices- ended up being $65. Same at end of meal with sweet wine, another $50. Go in expecting to pay a third more than you expect. (Our total bill was €647...