Locanda Gulfi opened recently and it is perhaps the best winery restaurant we’ve ever been to. The winery is called Gulfi and you will find it in the region Ragusa on in Sicily. The restaurant is on the floor above the winery and ambition is high, very high. They have recruited the chef Carmelo Floridia to run it. He is originally Sicilian but has worked e.g. at Four Seasons in Milan and in other places and made a name for himself.
This is haute cuisine à la sicilienne, made only with the freshest raw material. You can expect a lot of fish and seafood of course. We tried thin slices of swordfish marinated in olive oil and lemon juice, shrimps from Porto Palo (on the nearby coast), mackerel with a purée of green peas (not a lover of mackerel, but this was delicious!) stuffed with fennel, dried tomatoes and shallots, served with deep fried flowers of squash (zucchini) and a mousse of fennel. The bread is worth a chapter of its own, home made (need we say) with olive oil from the estate made from the tanda iblea olive.
Starters cost around 10 euro, primi piatti 9-13 euro, and secondi 14-20 euro. Wines will be Gulfi’s own (of course!), for example the white Carjanti made from the local grape varieties carricante and albanello – dry and full-bodied with hints of peaches, or the red Nerosanlore, full of aromas and concentration from the nero d’avola grape.
Gulfi opened only three months ago and they also have a small hotel with seven rooms.
