Shalai Resort

Wonderful 2-night stay at Shalai Hotel. Breakfast is rich and delicious, though missing vegetables. Dinner is superb - pigeon breast, horse fillet, seabass, and lemon dessert are divine. 5/5, highly recommended.

Not a great experience. We had two rooms. My teens room had a strange window from the shower to the bedroom. So they had to take turns leaving the room when the other showered. Ours had a leak from the window, the shower flooded the bathroom everyone you used it. No functionality in the room- just weird design over function: no bedside lights but instead two spotlights snaking over one side of the bed. No shelf in the bathroom to put you toiletries. The only hotel in Sicily that we weren’t given drinking water. The rooms were boiling, properly sizzling. As the heating was on hotel and couldn’t be switched off. Ultimately we could cope with all of that but the receptionist attitude when we mentioned all of the above was really not great. He really couldn’t care less. And don’t offer any solutions except to remove our duvet from the bed and for our kids to sleep with an external door open. This made us cancel our dinner reservation and take our money elsewhere. |However the guy in the breakfast room was very nice, friendly and helpful.

Delicious food. We went to Shalai for dinner and ordered the meat menu. Great food, extensive variety of local wines, friendly and fast service. It was a great experience

Didn’t stay here but dined at the Michelin star restaurant. The land menu was excellent (better than the sea menu in our opinion). Bread was fantastic, but desserts were not so good which was surprising because other dishes were really well executed. Great service.

Our GPS in the car got us close then some walking did the rest. It was worth the effort|Our host was warm and helpful. The room very comfortable and the next day massage even better. |We had dinner at the Michelin star rated restaurant and it was definitely special

Shalai resort has figured out how to serve their customers from both the front and back of the house. The front desk staff was exceptionally prompt, professional and flexible when I needed to adjust my bookings. This was followed by an outstanding meal in their Michelin starred dining room. The wine card arrived to the table as a large , albeit overwhelming list. The server arrived with a fantastic knowledge of the wines and suggested a perfect bottle of Sicilian wine which aligned to our description of flavor profile. The meal itself was perfect and none of the courses in the tasting menu disappointed us. My friend ordered the “meat” option, I chose “fish.” The kitchen allows you to pick different menus which is also a nice touch. I’ve been many places where the tasting menu is a must for the entire table. My favorite dish was broken angel hair pasta in a fish broth with local red shrimp. The shrimp tasted similar to top quality sushi grade ami ebi. Breakfast the next morning was included in the room price and had a wide variety of food on offer : pastries, fruit and optional cooked dish from the kitchen. The rooms were minimalist in style as shown on their website. For the price point, they were exactly what I expected to see. I will be returning to the property during this same stay in Sicily for 2 additional nights. I would not hesitate to recommend it for its great service across the board and high quality food.

We stayed for three nights at this stylish renovated palace. The rooms are cool and modern. There are little signs of wear and tear. we didn’t visit the restaurant but once had breakfast. The breakfast what delicious but when we asked for a fresh orange juice it was a little bit complicated. What one misses at the Hotel is a warm lobby. It just has a small bar with one sofa and two seats in front. With one word it is very cool. The village has except the restaurant of the hotel at least three more very good restaurants. In walking distance you can go to these restaurants with a high Quality. The staff is very friendly but I had to carry my luggage upstairs on my own. The hotel is a good starting point to visit Taormina.

The restaurant is wonderful and highly recommended. We all had the pescatarian tasting menu which was fantastic. However, the hotel could use some work. In particular, no one in our party ever did get hot water out of their showers; the water wasn't cold, but it never got hot either. The rooms are a bit worn out as well. We also tried to order breakfast off the menu in the morning but after an hour waiting for eggs, we gave up in order to catch flights out of Catania. Worth a stay just for the restaurant, but the hotel seems to prioritize the appearance of luxury over practicality.