Trattoria Achille: The Best Horse Meat in Catania, Sicily

I always want to eat where the locals eat. In a new city that's hard. Most top-ten lists send you to places made for tourists, and you pay for it.

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That was our week in Catania. I don't want to say the food was bad. It was good! But it felt expensive for what we got. I wasn't getting the local experience I love.

Then I read that horse meat in Catania is the thing to eat, and every search I did after that pointed me to one street, Via Plebiscito. On that street, Trattoria Achille was the top rated.

We went for Sunday lunch. We were the only non-locals there. We loved it so much that we cancelled the plans we had for Monday and went right back to Achille on Via Plebiscito for lunch the next day. Achille genuinely saved my food experience in Catania.

Is Trattoria Achille Worth It? My Quick Answer

Yes. Trattoria Achille is the best horse meat we've had, and it gets a 10 out of 10 from both of us. Order the thin grilled horse slices and the horse sausage. Sit outside with a jug of house wine. Go on a weekday if you don't want to wait.

Staying in Catania? These are our picks near Via Etnea and the cathedral square.

Via Plebiscito: Catania's Horse Meat Street

I'd go to Via Plebiscito even if you only plan to look. It has tons of restaurants. Every one we passed was packed, so any of them would probably be good!

This is the historic home of arrusti e mangia, Sicilian for "roast and eat".¹ Many of these trattorias started life as butcher shops. They roll their charcoal grills right out onto the sidewalk and cook whatever you order in front of you, the way it's been done here for generations.

Achille is one of them. Its awning says "dal 1998" and its menu and flyer call it Trattoria Antico Corso da Achille e Figli (Achille and Sons). Do a quick search online and almost every list names it the most popular spot on the street. If we'd had more time, I would have tried the other spots too.

What We Ordered at Trattoria Achille

We ordered off the menu, and they even had an English one! Everything we ate was horse except the bacon on the spring onions. Both lunches were a mix of the plates below. We always added bread and house wine.

1. Thin Grilled Horse Slices // Our Favorite

• On the menu: Horsemeat, €5 (about $5.60)
• What it is: thin slices of horse grilled over charcoal

This was our favorite. It was grilled perfectly and still had some fat on it, and the meat was so tender. There was a slight balsamic taste too. That tang probably comes from salmoriglio, a dressing of oil and vinegar that Catania's grill cooks brush on with a bunch of oregano.

2. Horse Sausage // Our Second Favorite

• On the menu: Seasoned horse sausage, €4 (about $4.50)

The sausage was our second best. It had some herbs in it. So flavorful and juicy!

3. Horse Meatballs // Plain in a Good Way

• On the menu: Horse meatballs, €2 (about $2.25) each; with lemon, €3

I'd get these over the pistachio ones. The horse meatballs were really tender and juicy, but they had less flavor than the sausage. They're plainer, in a really nice way. At €2 each, you can add one or two without thinking about it. A lot of people here make sandwiches out of them.

4. Pistachio Horse Meatball // Try One Once

• On the menu: Horse meatballs with pistachio and Philadelphia, €5 (about $5.60)

On our second lunch, we skipped this one and got the regular meatballs instead. It was good! The inside is stuffed with Philadelphia cream cheese, and it comes out melty and really tasty. The pistachio crust just didn't add much flavor for us. It's worth getting one to try. Look for it in the menu's pistachio section.

5. Cipollata // Our Surprise Hit

• On the menu: Cipollata, €2 (about $2.25) each

I want to make this at home! We'd never had anything like it. A cipollata is a whole spring onion wrapped in bacon and grilled, and it was the only thing on our plates that wasn't horse. The onion was cooked a little but still had a bite. The bacon was cooked perfectly: not super crispy, but not underdone either. It had a nice onion flavor. I would get this again.

6. Bread and House Wine // Our Favorite Part of Waiting

• On the menu: house wine, €4 (about $4.50) for half a liter or €8 for a liter, red or white

House wine is always our favorite, and this one was incredible! A liter costs exactly twice the half liter. No deal there. We still ended up getting a full liter. On Sunday our food took so long that we drank half a liter before it came. We sat, drank our wine, and had bread while people watching and talking. The bread was ciabatta with a great chew. It came in small pieces, and you can nibble on one or two while you wait or just keep going until the whole basket is gone.

What Does Horse Meat Taste Like?

We'd had horse meat before, in Kazakhstan. And I think this was better! It had more flavor and came in more ways, and it wasn't as lean as the horse we had there.

Honestly, if you didn't know it was horse, you'd think it was beef. It was so good. The bit of fat is what kept the thin slices tender.

Catania's butchers say any cut works on the grill. Their saying is cavaddu curri, u viteddu zappa: "the horse runs, the calf plows". I'd still skip the horse fillet. It's known as the cut that does worst on the grill.

Sunday or Monday? When to Go to Trattoria Achille

We went on a Sunday around 1:30 p.m., and it was busy. Like super busy! We got a table quickly, but almost nobody was seated after us and everyone who came later had to stand around and wait for one.

Our food took an hour and a half to come out after we ordered, so we sat with our wine and bread and watched the whole neighborhood come out for Sunday lunch. There were families and teens. There were groups of older friends. Everyone was there!

Monday was totally different. People were there, but it wasn't packed and our food came out quickly. I think Sunday was more fun, but Monday was more our vibe because we like going places when they aren't busy. I still loved seeing everyone on Sunday and just being a fly on the wall.

If you're okay with a crazy busy lunch, Sunday is great for the culture. If you want something more approachable, I'd go on a Monday or any other weekday.

How It Works: Ordering, Seats, and the Bill

We thought it was so fun. You sit outside at plastic tables and eat off plastic plates. You order, the waiters are busy with half the street, and your food comes out whenever it's ready, so I wouldn't plan anything tight right after lunch.

• Ordering: from the numbered menu, in Italian or English. Point at the number if it's loud.
• Service: the drinks menu lists €2 service per person.
• Wine and water: house wine by the half liter or liter, water from €1.
• Fish: dishes marked with an asterisk are frozen, the menu says.
• Reservations: the menu flyer lists a phone number (095 2180456).
• What we paid: €32 (about $36) on Sunday and €38 (about $43) on Monday, for two with wine

It was so much food that we didn't eat dinner either day.

Not Into Horse? What Else to Order

My tip is to look around at the other tables. A lot of people ordered what looked like the nonna's salad. It was tomatoes and onion under a pile of grated cheese. That cheese is usually ricotta salata, and the salad is the classic side on this street.

Lots of younger locals walked off with a panino to go, and it looked like a big sandwich stuffed with the horse meatballs. That's Catania's classic panino con la polpetta.

If horse isn't for you, there's so much more. The menu has pasta and plenty of pork and chicken, and there's grilled swordfish and squid too, all on the same numbered English menu.

Is Horse Meat Legal in Italy? The 2026 Ban Bill

If horse meat in Catania is on your list, I'd try it soon. As of November 2026, it's legal to sell and eat in Italy. But a bill to change that is moving through Parliament.

The bill would give horses and donkeys the same legal status as dogs and cats. Slaughtering them for food would be banned. Italy's Chamber of Deputies debated it on October 26, 2026. There was no vote.² A separate citizens' bill passed 50,000 signatures the same month.⁴

Catania would feel it most. The local restaurant association counts about 300 places in the city tied to horse meat, from trattorias like Achille to the grill shops and street food stands.⁴ We'll update this page if the law changes.

Who Should Go, and Who Should Skip

I'd send anyone here who wants good food, a good experience, and a chance to see where locals in Catania really eat. If you're willing to try horse, go for it! It's the best horse I've had.

I'd skip it if a real local experience feels intimidating. It's loud. Nobody slows down to walk you through it. If that sounds like too much, a Catania street food tour with a guide is an easier way to try horse meat for the first time.

Why Achille Was Our Best Meal in Catania

I wish we'd found Achille sooner, or gone sooner! Most of our meals in Catania were good, but they felt touristy. This was the local experience I wanted. We got it twice in two days, sitting at plastic tables on Via Plebiscito with a jug of house wine and a plate of the best horse I've had.