Travelling Palermo, Sicily is not just about what it offers as a city and surroundings in terms of landscape, history and art, it is also about food. Sicilian culinary culture is just an amazing experience that all foodies must try.
Palermo is particularly big in this area, counting vibrant and delicious ingredients, and known for the richness and variety of recipes.
Palermo is home to the best street food such as arancini, where the historic recipe tradition has been maintained over the generations by the most humble citizens.
Arancini are amongst the most delicious comfort foods that you can find in Palermo and after trying so many during my trip around this city, we can confidently state that they are addictive! But, who serves the best arancini in Palermo, Sicily?
Sfrigola Palermo. This is the number one Arancini rice ball place in Palermo. Their specialties are ragú, mozzarella and prosciutto and swordfish. There are other excellent places, Bar Rosanero, ChePalle, Rosticceria Ganci and Bar Alba.
We would undoubtedly recommend you join our favourite wine and food Palermo’s culinary delights tour, to take your food journey in this vibrant city to the next level, you won’t regret it! The friendly and passionate locals will guide and take you to the best authentic spots where you will not only taste the best arancini but also will introduce you to other local specialties and hidden gems. It is a fantastic way to immerse yourself in the vibrant food culture of Palermo. Due to its history, Palermo food is just worldwide known that brings back the past from their Roman and Greek history in every single bite.
Experiencing the food culture in Palermo goes beyond the actual food but also the atmosphere of walking through the street markets, such as the Ballaro Market, as well as, passing by cafes and street food stands where you are trapped by explosions of smells and vendors’ screams.
Within the same city, you will find the strongest and tangiest flavours to the most gourmet and fancy touches, making Palermo a cuisine and cultural heritage of the world.
Would you like to stay right in the heart of Palermo, just a few steps from some of the best food in the world? These are our top recommended places with the best reviews in town:What are Arancini rice balls?
Arancini are essential, risotto rice balls stuffed with a creamy heart of ragú (tomato sauce and minced beef), mozzarella and prosciutto, which then get deep-fried.
The origins of Arancini go back in history to the times when Normans were ruling Sicily and they introduced wheat cereal into the Sicilian cuisine, which quickly developed as a method for taking away food.
They were given that name because of the ball that resembled in size, shape and colour of an orange (Arancia in Italian).
In the first instance, rice was made as risotto in an Arabic way mixed with vegetables and veal.
As the times became harder in terms of being able to hunt due to the famine, this risotto turned into a takeaway food when hunting veal become challenging but soldiers and working people had to keep it up.
It is also thought that Arancini were originally of a sweet taste with dried fruits, also proper of the Arabic food heritage, that was then decorated with orange leaves to imitate the appearance of a real orange.
They started to get coated with breadcrumbs and chickpea flour later in time to make it more efficient as a takeaway food.
These days, you can get Arancini with pretty much any kind of filling, even vegan options are available to please all visitors.
But actually, in the beginning, these heavenly crispy rice balls didn’t contain any tomato sauce or mozzarella, because the tomato was not introduced in south Italian cuisine until the IXX century.
Instead, they were filled with other spices more typical of Arabic cuisines, such as saffron, shredded veal including lard and seasonal vegetables.
This is actually, how the original recipe also started shifting to tomato sauce in the middle, as tomato once introduced in Sicily, was much cheaper and more manageable in large quantities ingredient than saffron was.
Due to the importance of what Arancini meant to the population of Palermo and its surroundings back in the 16th century, Palermo and towns nearby, such as, Trapani, celebrate, what they call “Santa Lucia” on December the 13th.
Are you interested in experiencing the lively “Santa Lucia” festival around Trapani? These are our honest recommendations for nearby places:
They do so to commemorate the introduction of wheat on the island from the port of Palermo and Syracuse coming from the Santa Lucia ship that ended up terminating the long-lasting famine.
This is the reason why Sicilians and particularly Palermitans are so devoted to Santa Lucia and they celebrate with families throughout the city by cooking their best Arancini on the 13th of December of each year!
Where to eat the best arancini in Palermo, Sicily?
You can find Arancini pretty much anywhere in Palermo, at snack bars, street food kiosks or stands, in cafes and restaurants. There are many good places in the city whether you would prefer them to take away or whether you feel a bit more sophisticated and prefer to dine in.
After trying out so many places in Palermo in my efforts to find the best Arancini in the city, we can confidently state that the place that serves the best Arancini in Palermo is a cute little business called Sfrigola Palermo.
Sfrigola Palermo, is one of those vintage and bohemian-styled places, which started very early in the day following the traditional Arancini recipe with the intent to promote Palermo street food as a lifestyle not just for only the humble population.
The place has become one of the best places on the whole island for making up to 30 types of different Arancini varieties in an open kitchen where you can enjoy seeing the meticulous process of cooking your heavenly crispy rice balls.
The staff involved in making them, treat the ingredients with care and you would be amazed how thorough they are in weighing each ingredient to match up the numbers for a perfect recipe.
They use the perfect combination of rice, 70% of Carnaroli rice, which will add more starch to the mix and 30% of Parboiled rice which will help with the consistency and won’t overcook when in the deep frying process. Thus, making the rice ball a creamy, yet crispy shell.
They make them fresh every time rather than sitting on a shelf for a couple of hours and then reheating them in a microwave like some places do. This little touch makes the whole difference!
One of their specialties is the swordfish, eggplant, mint, provolone and orange scampi mixture. They are absolutely incredible.
You can go for something simpler, yet delicious as well, like porchetta and mushrooms or the never-too-old ragu! you will be absolutely amazed.
They differentiate from other places in the fact that they use sunflower oil to fry them instead of peanut oil to avoid a popular allergy.
Back in 2021 worldwide known chef Simone Rugiati, participated in a TV documentary on the Food Network channel, where he visited different places around Palermo to find the best Arancini street food and concluded that, indeed, Sfrigola Palermo, was the best one of them all!
He agreed, that they make it with care and effort, very crispy and buttery with a goey heart, freshly prepared in front of you with your chosen ingredients, and lastly sold to a cheap price of just 2 euros. Thus reflecting what historically, Arancini should be, humble, poor and street food.
The owners, Adriano and Emanuele Pizzurro, pride themselves on high quality and local raw ingredients, yet, simple and their cooking style is based on transparency towards the clients, who can visualise the entire process.
Given their success, there are now four establishments in Palermo and Cefalù where the same touch and recipe are maintained as the owners invest a fair bit of money and time training any new crew member to keep the identical standards of flavour in all stores.
You can find the best stores in Palermo in Corso Calatafimi, 11 90120 Palermo (PA) and Via Maqueda, 223, 90133 Palermo (PA).
Give them a try when travelling to Palermo and trust us, you won’t regret it!
We actually stayed so close by this place, right in the middle of Palermo historical center that we didn't have another choice but to go crazy and eat them all the time! If you are interested in staying nearby the historical center and super close to the best food gems, check out our accomodation:
Grand Hotel Piazza BorsaOther great Arancini places in Palermo.
If you happen to skip Sfrigola because you ran out of time or simply you forgot, there are other good alternatives to indulge yourself when walking around the historical centre. There are loads of street food markets:
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Bar Rosanero
You can find it in Via Lincoln. Try their specialty, Arancina Bomba! Simply unbelievable and a very decent size. We were pretty full after eating two or three. -
ChePalle
They make them wider, and the Salmon variety is pretty good, perhaps not too traditional, but very good. - Rosticceria Ganci
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Bar Alba
They also offer a dine-in option in case you want to sit for a bit.
These places offer different variations as well, such as:
- “Arancine al Burro” containing mozzarella and prosciutto.
- “Arancine Pistaccio e Scamorza” with pistachios and scamorza cheese. We would definitely invite you to try this one out, as pistachio dishes in Palermo are exceptional and very local.
What do you eat with Arancini?
As mentioned above, in Palermo you can find Arancini filled with basically any ingredient of your taste, from meat to vegetarian options. The truth is that ever pretty much everybody likes them.
But some people wonder: what do you serve arancini balls with? Do you eat them by themselves or as a side dish?
This is an excellent question and in Palermo, you can find restaurants, trattorias and street food stands selling Arancini as a meal with a side dish of your liking. The combinations are infinite.
The most popular ones we have had and tried in Palermo are rich tomato sauce (made fresh with oregano, Italian basil and pecorino cheese), aioli (served as a dipping sauce, this roasted garlic and lemon mixture takes your Arancini experience to the next level).
These two options are more proper for street food or snack bars, whilst, in restaurants or trattorias, you would find more time-consuming side dishes, like grilled parmigiana eggplant or asparagus.
We actually never found a moment to do this, as we were always on the go, trying to explore every corner of Palermo. Also, Arancini can get you pretty full very quickly so we never felt that we were missing a proper side dish.
But if you haven’t eaten much throughout your day and you feel like elevating your Arancini game then you could pair them with:
- A cheese platter side dish (with figs and grapes to give some fresh taste to the rich risotto balls), never too old!
- A cold-cut salami, olives and bocconcini buffalo mozzarella platter could also pair fantastically.
What is the difference between Arancini and Arancino?
This is the never-ending debate! Conceptually speaking, there is pretty much no difference, as they are both risotto rice fried balls, stuffed with incredible fillings.
The whole argument and discrepancies come about because the two major cities in Sicily, Palermo and Catania disagree over how they should be called more appropriately.
People in Catania would call it Aranicino as it describes the male version of the word, whilst, in Palermo, they use the female word Arancina.
To outsiders of Palermo or Catania, this debate may sound like a silly thing to fight over, however, Sicilians are extremely passionate about their food, just like they are about soccer.
Originally, in the Sicilian dialect, the fruits are always described with the male-gendered word and that is the reason why Catanians claim that Arancino would be the correct way to say it.
But in Palermo and perhaps due to the influx of different populations and especially from other regions of Italy, they use the word orange in its female-gendered way.
Up until we travelled to Italy for the first time, we only knew Arancini! and we have always called it like that, honestly, because it has never been the occasion in which we had only had one Arancino/a! Turns out Arancini is the plural form of Arancino, opening again the whole dispute!
Which one is right and which one is wrong?
We are not Sicilian, so we can’t properly state the answer, but we have been told by a neutral Sicilian from Agrigento (South of Italy, hence, out of the conflict) that since Palermo and Trapani make these rice balls rounded like an orange instead of conical like in Catania, they should be called Arancini!
Definitely, a sensitive topic! There you go! Now you know that when travelling and visiting Palermo, it is a must to try Arancini. These delectable rice balls are a regional cuisine masterpiece that reflects the Sicilian street food tradition. To finish up your trip in Palermo with “cherry on top”, please join one of the top recommended local cooking classes quite known in the city, where you will learn how to make arancini and other incredible goodies from scratch. They are among the most copied food in the world, due to their incredible taste. Arancini are genuinely a regional cuisine masterpiece that all visitors have to experience, as they reflect the Sicilian street food tradition that tastes like history!
There you go! Now you know that when travelling and visiting Palermo, it is a must to try Arancini.
They are among the most copied food in the world, due to their incredible taste.
Arancini are genuinely a regional cuisine masterpiece that all visitors have to experience, as they reflect the Sicilian street food tradition that tastes like history!