Sicilia's Cafe de Mar — Restaurant in Aci Castello

A very shameful and disgusting service! And snobbish! Would not recommend the place to anyone. The only good thing is the location, nothing else. Went there yesterday with a friend, after a full day tour of beautiful Catania and Etna. We wanted to have a nice light dinner, and I chose the place by its nice look without reading the reviews. My mistake… Firstly, the reception was not very friendly. At the entrance, which is closed out with a tape, the waiter (who seems to be a head waiter) snapped that unless we have a reservation we can take a table only inside, although there were plenty empty places on a terrace. As soon as we sat down the waitress asked if we were ready to order, even before we could scan a QR code for a menu (no printed menu in sight). Apart from food, I ordered a Limonata, which from a picture in the menu was supposed to be the usual bottled very tasty Sicilian lemonade, but instead got a 0.33 L Schweppes with lemon taste, without any explanation… While waiting for our food, other people came, with no reservation, but for some reason now the head waiter had a place on a terrace for them, but again not for us. Coming down from Etna tour we were not dressed for a Gala obviously, however still dressed too good for that place. Anyway… The toilet not too clean and hand soap ran out. The food that arrived was just OK, but not ok for the price we paid. But the last part was just shocking. We asked for the bill, noting a payment by card. The answer we got was that we have to go ourselves to the cash counter because the card reader could not be brought to the table ))) 🤷🏻‍♀️ once we paid at the counter and were just too ready to leave, we encountered again an exit blocked with a tape and asked if someone could open it for us. In response a waiter started waiving hand in discontent, very rudely, murmuring and indicating that we should have just done it by ourselves without disturbing them 😂🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ What a service, Mamma mia! I’ve never seen such a disgusting service anywhere! Let alone in Italy where the service is always top. Just don’t go there unless you wanna waste precious hours in this snobbish and rude...

Stayed next door at the Grand Hotel Faraglioni. Their Michelin restaurant was way too expensive & only open indoors that night. We went here instead for a late dinner 8:40pm on Friday Sept.13/24. Chose table on the terrace w/ seafront view & were served by Antonio, Roberta & a younger man whose name I forgot. The younger man was clearly expert at taking tourist photos as the ones he took of us were perfectly lit & showed the Cyclops rocks, the moon & the moon’s reflection on the sea! Ordered arugula/ rocket salad, grilled seafood platter (grilled octopus, large shrimps, swordfish) & seafood linguini with a bottle of Sicilian red wine & Amara d’Arancia on ice with the most fragrant orange rind garnish for use as a stir stick (2 each). All fresh & delicious! Simple flavours. Add your own olive oil & balsamic vinegar to the salad & grilled seafood for more flavour as we did. The view is the best in Aci Trezza directly across the little street from the sea, nightlit Cyclops rocks (Faraglioni), under the moonlight, with a view of the also nightlit Aci Castello (Norman Castle). A guitar playing busker was playing music across the street. He was excellent!!! It made for such a romantic setting all around! There were mostly Italian customers — families of all ages dining, younger couples on a date (drinks & dessert) — & some tourists like us. We preferred sitting on the breezy outdoor terrace right in front facing the sea. They had an indoor Air-conditioned dining area also with Seaview from floor to ceiling windows. Or you can sit beside the small pool @ the back near the bar (this must be popular during the day in the hot summer!). We had such a lovely experience that we went back for lunch on our last day a week later. That was not as good an experience due to different young staff & limited menu. See our other review. Note: the table & chairs are plastic so sitting for long periods may be uncomfortable but we found it...

The place is beautifuly located, amazing view on the sea, and the interior is very nice BUT sooo understaffed, I feel bad to say that the service was bad, but it really really was! The guys are good guys, but with just 2 or 3 of them on a saturday night whitch was very busy, they just couldn't arrive to evedyone and we were waiting for half an hour just to order! After that, not polished glasses, quite dirty, changed them 2 times, white wine warm, on the bill is not what you ordered, but different things whitch according to them are equivalent in price... I need to say that our waitedwas really sorry about all the problems we had,changed our bottle with different one on his recomendation from the ones that were actualy cold, it was nice wine, but still we didn't saw him much, since he was always busy with other tables, we waited for the bill as well quite a lot and at the end went to reception to pay (ohhh yea, the same thing was with menus, we went to reception to take them after 10min of waiting)... But the food and drinks were nice. Nothing to say there... Kind msg to the owner, please take more staff, it is such a shame for this beautiful place to have such a bad...