Gambero Rosso awards the Regional Champion of Street Food in Sicily

Sicily is famous worldwide for its cuisine, but the true gastronomic heart of the island beats in its alleys, markets and squares! Sicilian street food is cultural storytelling: each dish is a mix of aromas, local ingredients and techniques handed down through generations. Every city, every neighbourhood, every alley has its own unique flavour: from the famous bread with spleen to Palermo become the symbol of the city's gastronomic history, to the gourmet sandwiches of Trapani celebrating local fish with creative and surprising combinations.

The Gambero Rosso, with its Street Food Guide 2026, has selected the best street food experiences throughout Italy, region by region. The guide lists almost 700 addresses, from permanent establishments to food trucks and the most interesting food markets. It is a veritable journey through tradition and innovation, capable of recounting Italy through its most authentic flavours. Sicily stood out not only for the variety of its dishes, but also for the quality of its products and the passion of its small entrepreneurs, who are able to transform every ingredient into a memorable experience.

Street Food Sicily: The Regional Champion

Representing Sicily among the regional champions troviamo Il Massimo dello Street Food, a historic restaurant in Palermo that celebrates traditional street food. Here, the D'Antoni family continues a long gastronomic tradition, offering arancine, crocché, panelle and a wide range of offal dishes.

Offal – cooked according to traditional Palermo recipes – is the real heart of the restaurant. Among the dishes not to be missed: tripe, caldume, veal stigliola, sweet and sour liver and cuore a sgaloppina. Each dish is prepared according to tradition, with intense aromas and strong flavours, for an authentic experience that takes visitors straight to the heart of Palermo's culinary culture.

Best Street Food on the Road Award in Italy

Sicily has also distinguished itself in the field of itinerant street food, and the award for Best Street Food on the Road in Italy 2026 goes to Il Vecchio Carro, Giuseppe Oriti's farmhouse in Caronia, in the province of MessinaTheir signature product is the sandwich with Nebrodi Black Pig porchetta and caramelised onion, an expression of quality and artisan tradition that won over the Gambero Rosso jury.

The farm was born out of the passion of the Oriti family, who have been breeding Nebrodi Black pigs for three generations. Giuseppe Oriti, together with his wife Eliana Carroccetto, follows a semi-wild breeding method that respects the natural rhythms of the animals. The pigs feed on acorns, roots and selected local cereals, creating meat with a unique tenderness and intense flavour, perfect for the artisanal production of porchetta. The flavour of the meat is enhanced by master butchers through a process of massaging it with Sicilian sea salt and a mix of aromas including wild fennel seeds and flowers, cinnamon, garlic powder, Sicilian orange zest, thyme, sage and bay leaves, followed by low-temperature cooking for about 12 hours.

In 2017, the idea of a food truck was born, to bring this high-quality product to festivals and street food events throughout Italy.

Other Sicilian street foods selected by Gambero Rosso

In addition to the regional champion and special prize, Gambero Rosso has selected numerous establishments that represent the variety and quality of Sicilian street food:

A Nassa Seafood (Trapani)

Al Chioschetto Pani Ca’ Meusa (Palermo)

Antica Focacceria San Francesco (Palermo)

Busiate (Palermo)

Antichi Sapori Palermitani (Palermo)

Antica Friggitoria Stella (Catania)

Assud – Cibo da Strada (Marsala TP)

Baqqalà (Ragusa)

Cannata Sicilian Bakery (Messina)