Cafe Sapori di Sicilia — Restaurant in Winona

My wife and I had a great meal at this little gem of an Italian restaurant in Winona. We were thrilled with the quality of the food which brought back fond memories our recent trip to Italy. All the food tasted authentic to the food that we while in Italy which I think is a great tribute to the chef/owner at this restaurant.

To start off, the freshly baked rolls were very good.

We decided to take a chance on an interesting menu choice of Brussels sprouts of all things and found it to be a surprisingly good dish and certainly worthy of a try if you'd like to be adventurous or simply enjoy Brussels sprouts.

We then moved on to the pasta which was simply delicious. We were curious as to why it was so much better than the pasta served at American restaurants as compared to Italy. The chef explained that they use bronze cut dyes to extrude the pasta giving it the ultimate texture and flavor in the same way that it is made in Italy for generations. You just do not find that quality in the US very often in either restaurants or grocery stores. It was great to come to enjoy this incredible pasta locally.

We then moved on to tarts and cannoli for dessert. We were incredibly pleased with the decadent flavors. Finally, we could not resist the Gelato getting Black Cherry and strawberry Gelatos. Both were fantastic and filled with flavor.

It was a great experience for us and we look forward to getting back to Winona just to get some more of the wonderfully authentic Italian food at Café...

I have never dined in yet as their business hours / days don’t align well with my schedule. But I have ordered here many times and absolutely in love with the “Tutto”sandwich and although I love it my only annoyance is the inconsistency on how it is prepared, it’s like a roll of the dice. They use different types of bread on it, sometimes it’s stale or the preparer is stingy on the ingredients. It’s a guessing game each time I order on how it will taste, I wonder if they have a high rollover on employees? But I still keep coming back because it’s a reward when you get someone who makes it right. My husband tried recently asking for “extras” on it to see if that would ensure consistency and that version was better on filling but the bread used was thick and heavy so it was too much. (I think they should stick to lighter breads as heavy/thick breads suppress the flavor of everything inside) And finally the CANNOLIS!!! Oh my goodness those cannolis, seriously so delicious!! They make them correctly y’all with ricotta cheese and then they dip one side in candied orange peel and the other side in pistachios. So crispy and decadent but not overly sweet. 🤤 I love how they come in (2) different sizes lol. Ofcourse I go straight for the bigger version, if you like cannolis you would too. I wish I could order more often but their prices, yikes to my budget but when I can treat myself or more like when my husband wants to treat me that’s where he goes 😉❤️. Sorry no pictures, I would...

This an excellent small Italian restaurant. It is an order at the counter, but don't let that dissuade you from visiting. They bring your orders to your table. We ordered the carbonara which was excellent, very smooth with a creamy egg based sauce and wonderful crispy pancetta. I had a taste of that. I ordered the shrimp and pasta which had a tasty oil sauce and seasoned delightfully with black pepper, garlic and parsley. One of our party had the pesto pistachio dish with olive oil and parmesan. She was delighted by it. But the topper of the visit were the cannoli. Excellently stuffed with a ricotta cheese and garnished with pistachio bits and fruit slivers. We also had their lemon gelato which was superb. You could smell the delightful essence of the lemon flavor as you lifted the gelato to your mouth. Bye the way, the gelato servings are large enough to share. The pistachio gelato was flavorful but left us wanting. Everything, yes everything, is made on site. The onion rolls were a great side. There were plentiful onions. These are keepers. Our big mistake was not buying several loaves of the breads displayed on their shelves. But we were out-of-towners and mesmerized by our delicious dining experience. Hard to believe that this 5 star fantastic Italian restaurant is found in the wonderful...