Porto Bello — Restaurant in Santa Marina Salina

Unfortunately our experience here was ruined at the last moment. The evening started amazingly well, the service was delightful, nice and very good manners of the hostess, good advice on the local wine and first course. We where recommended by a very regular customer that comes to this place very often so we followed his advice. After a lovely evening we got an astronomical bill that shocked us so badly that we just payed as fair gentlemen as we are and left the restaurant. When we got our thoughts together and confronted by phone the very regular costumer of this place we realized that we were actually been stolen badly so we went back to set things right. After confronting with the owner, always as gentlemen, they realized that they mistook the bill with another one. We got our money back but eventually it was still not clear clear how much we had to really get back. I really hate being in a situation where other clients know that something is not right and people are staring and you can't make a fuss because it's not a nice thing, so we decided just to leave it like that but always feeling heavily robbed. Please control the weight of your lobster or fish before having it cooked. But I do really recommend the food. Errors happen but this...

Bad service, great view, tasty food. There are better options if you prefer, try Didyme (great view) or nni lausta (great secluded terrace upstairs) - better experience, food and value.

About our time at Porto bello…

We were the first to arrive at 730//745pm without reservation and took one of the last available tables. We ordered a bottle of wine and watched the staff send one of the waiters with our wine to a table who just arrived and had not ordered - as a joke not because it was his first day and messed up (I asked). One of the pasta dishes arrived like warm, but tasty. Most of the staff were just interested in chatting to themselves and making fun of their early guests - I could understand a few words. Enough to understand a little of what they said and confident that they should know better.

There was one waiter that seemed nice, and perhaps the owner but the general staff vibe wasn’t good. Perhaps better as a dance/night club...

AMAZING. Honestly, when we visited during October 2023 (off season), we were a bit concerned this may be kind of a 'tourist trap' ... Only because it has an ideal location, situated on a cliff, with incredible views and a gorgeous open air dining room. Sometimes, it seems, you sacrifice good food quality for desirable location/atmosphere. But there wasn't much open and we figured "nowhere in Sicily has BAD food right..?" Well we should have made NO upfront assumptions because this was decidedly one of our favorite and most memorable meals throughout our weeklong charter sailing around the islands (and very reasonably priced!). Mine, a seemingly simple pasta dish of olive oil/cheese/tomatoes, is one I continue to recount to others as the BEST pasta I had during our Sicily tour. We will be sure to return when we visit with new crew on our next charter....