Best Burgers in Palermo: Street-Food Guide

The best burgers in Palermo sit close to the city’s street-food circuit: around the Ballarò, Capo and Vucciria markets in the old town, in the Kalsa near the sea, and along the wider streets of Politeama and Via Libertà. In summer, part of the city’s evening life moves to Mondello, the beach suburb to the north.

Palermo had a sesame-bun sandwich centuries before the hamburger. Pani câ meusa is a soft round sesame roll, the vastedda, filled with veal spleen and lung fried in lard. It comes plain, schettu, or with caciocavallo or ricotta, maritatu. Panelle, chickpea-flour fritters, are also eaten in a bun, and arancine, the fried rice balls, are sold all over the centre. The local twists to look for on a burger follow the same lead: a sesame bun, caciocavallo and something fried.

Burgers in Palermo: key facts

• Neighbourhoods to explore: the Ballarò, Capo and Vucciria market areas, the Kalsa, Politeama and Via Libertà, and Mondello in summer.
• Local bun: the vastedda, a soft round sesame roll.
• Cheese to look for: caciocavallo, the stretched-curd cheese of southern Italy.
• Local word: in Palermo the fried rice ball is an arancina, feminine, not an arancino.
• Currency: the euro (EUR), used in Palermo as across Italy.

Every guide we publish on Palermo is dated and lists only venues, addresses, prices and ratings we could verify. Sicily is one stop among many in our burger restaurant guides worldwide.