Anciovi — Restaurant in Taormina

If on the fence, this review might help.

I read every review and had a bit of trepidation. I can tell you Anciovi provides a terrific experience worth including in your visit to Taormina.

Caveat: If you are someone that finds some fault near everywhere you go, especially if paying premium pricing, I guess you can find one here. But good luck having an amazing dinner in Taormina without something to nitpick. If you want an amazing view, very good service, a fun experience and generally very good food, I can attest Anciovi delivers.

We did not stay at Four Seasons. We were staying in a private villa (managed by Villa Carlotta) closer to the center of Taormina. Somehow we managed to get a table for four at 9pm. Realizing it might be dark, and having never seen the Four Seasons (or that end of town for that matter) we opted to arrive early to see the views and maybe get some family photos. Very glad we did. The Four Seasons itself, a converted convent, is gorgeous. When traveling as a family, we prefer villas to hotel rooms, but make no mistake that the architecture, gardens and views are stunning. Keep in mind, this is part of what you are paying for. Yes, the prices are higher than in town. Yes, if you pick wisely, you might be able to find a few better dishes here or there in town. But the total experience of Anciovi is very hard to beat.

When we arrived a full 45 minutes early any trepidation was easily put to ease by the gracious and wonderfully hospitable hostess. I wish I knew her name so I could call out just how great she was. She said our table was ready and asked if we wanted to sit now or wait. We chose to sit and were delighted to have a four-top right along the glass railing with a fantastic view. We had already had some great views on this trip, but from Anciovi the view is epic.

Here is what you need to know. The service is very good. We had no less than 3 different people attending on us (probably more) and never went hardly a moment without a water refresh or checking on us. If you find their service unsatisfactory, you probably have not eaten outside the hotel. We have had other dinners we would also rate highly where we went long periods with no attention. This is Europe. This is Italy. This isn’t Eleven Madison in NYC (been there). But I must say the serice was very good even on that measure and we were well attended to at all times.

We chose to start with signature cocktails, including a mocktail for our underage daughter. They were all both tasty and interesting, just as we like craft cocktails to be.

The food was overall very good. Were any of the dishes we had the best of our entire trip? Nope, but close. We’ve had dishes covered in truffles and whatnot that blew our mind but even those dishes didn’t elevate those restaurants above Anciovi. I can put your mind to rest and say with confidence the food is both very good and very authentic. Oh, and finally some portion sizes that make sense. I don’t want a pound of pasta that leaves me stuffed to the gills.

We had one service hiccup of our own making that they did a nice job of remedying. I told the sommelier of another wine on their list we liked and asked him to pick something different that might appeal to our taste. When they opened the bottle to try, I did not like it. It was not corked, so I wasn’t going to ask that they send it back, but I was disappointed. The rest of my family thought it was fine and, for me, they opened the other bottle that I referenced and filled my glass from that. As the meal wore on, I tried my son’s glass and found the wine actually quite nice. Turns out I had tasted it right after finishing off my cocktail and my taste buds were just off. I appreciated their effort to remedy.

Lastly, after paying the bill I noticed on the receipt a spot to enter a gratuity. First time we have seen that in Italy. I had already paid, and presume that the Four Seasons adds the typical service fee as they always do, but with no cash on hand, a little shout out of thanks to the staff for making the evening...

If you would like to visit the hotel that is in season 2 of white lotus then I would recommend booking a dinner at this beautiful restaurant. A booking to the restaurant gets you entry into the hotel where you can wonder around and explore this beautiful hotel which used to be a monastery before. Once you walk in you are greeted and served by the most friendly and caring staff I have ever dealt with. They truly want to make sure you are enjoying yourself and having a good time. As for the restaurant we got there for a 9:30 reservation after walking through the beautiful gardens and past the pool that stars heavily in the show. We were first seated away from the beautiful view but upon asking managed to get a table for 2 right along the glass railing overlooking the bay. We didn’t have any fish but the pasta and the Sicilian pasta were delicious. Their pizzas are also worth trying. My favorite part of the meal however was the dessert and the deconstructed mango passion fruit cheese cake that we had. I will definitely be returning again soon, hopefully as a guest of the hotel...

You are definitely paying mainly for the opportunity to experience this beautiful hotel. The food was nice but not outstanding (except the bread). My main concern was that when we asked for the bill we told we hadn’t spent enough and that there was a minimum 80 Euro charge per head. While it would be easy to spend that much, given the prices, we were there for lunch with our kids & didn’t have wine as we had a trip planned later in the day. We also didn’t fancy dessert as the pizzas we had were pretty filling. They said that the minimum charge would have been shown when booking but I definitely don’t remember seeing this (I rechecked the booking page on Four Seasons and nothing is shown before you click ‘confirm reservation’ to enter your credit card details; similarly there was nothing in the confirmation email from Open Table, which does include other conditions like the cancellation policy and 50 Euro charge per head for a no show). When I raised a concern the staff did agree to waive the minimum but the whole experience left...