Bàtu Taormina joins the Michelin Guide's Italian selection
Chef Luca Miuccio's restaurant at the Grand Hotel San Pietro gets a Michelin page, not a star: two eight-course menus, one vegetarian, and a €16 million hotel overhaul behind it.
Bàtu Taormina, the fine-dining room of the Grand Hotel San Pietro run by chef Luca Miuccio, has entered the Michelin Guide's Italian selection. The listing carries the guide's "New" tag and no distinction: stars for 2027 will only be announced on 12 November.
The restaurant sits in the hotel's Mediterranean garden at Via Luigi Pirandello 50, above the Ionian Sea, with Isola Bella and Etna in view. Its name refers to the flower of the olive tree. Michelin files it under Sicilian and contemporary cooking in its top price bracket, four symbols out of four, and All Food Sicily reports that it serves dinner only, Tuesday to Saturday.
What Michelin says about Bàtu Taormina
A page in the Michelin Guide opens the door; the stars are decided in Piacenza.
The inspectors' note describes cooking tied to the seasons and to vegetables, built on local produce, with a choice of two eight-course tasting menus: one fully vegetarian, the other pairing garden produce with fish and meat. When the restaurant reopened for the season on 1 May, the hotel also announced a three-course formula drawn from the tasting menus and a wine list of about 700 references, weighted towards Etna and other Sicilian producers.
The vegetable focus is not a new script. When Bàtu entered the Identità Golose guide as a 2025 newcomer, the hotel listed a meat-free route with mock raw fish, peperone ammuttunatu and a rye plin with garden vegetables, alongside "Luca, ago e filo", a menu built around each guest.
"The entry of Bàtu into the Michelin Guide is an important milestone for me, but above all for the whole team," Miuccio said in a statement reported by HorecaNews. Piero Benigni, the hotel's director, called it confirmation that the effort to bring the property back to the top of Taormina's hospitality is paying off.
A €16 million bet on an old hotel
The Grand Hotel San Pietro belongs to Lindbergh Hotels, which has put more than €16 million into a renovation covering rooms and suites, façades, pool, spa and restaurants, according to HorecaNews and Messina in diretta. Bàtu shares the property with four other outlets, from Il Giardino degli Ulivi to the Belvedere Café.
Sicily's top tier is already crowded: in Taormina itself, St. George by Heinz Beck holds two stars, and Giardino Arabo at Borgo Cala Creta on Lampedusa joined Michelin's online selection in July. For the wider island table, see our guide to what to eat in Palermo.
The next stop is Piacenza. The 72nd edition, the Michelin Guide Italy 2027, will be presented at the Teatro Municipale on 12 November, according to the Emilia-Romagna regional government. Until then Bàtu has a page in the guide and nothing more; the stars are handed out on stage.
