De Fiore Nuova Trattoria del Forestiero — Restaurant in Catania

We went to this restaurant because I read a few great reviews on travelers forum on Catania. People said that it is unique family restaurant where you can try the best local meal.

We came at 6:30 pm, we asked if the restaurant is open, we were told “yes, welcome”. We were one is the first tables for dinner; we ordered and the food took 1 hour and 10 min to arrive. I am not sure whether something happened at the kitchen, or is it always likes this…. But if the server knows that it takes so long, I think they need to inform the people that wait is more than an hour.

The other table who came after us, left after an hour waiting. Within this hour we were given only bread, which looked like this bread was there for 3 days, tasteless and hard, so we could not even eat the bread…

One of the starters we ordered was Caprese salad, which takes 10 min to cook, so we could not understand why it takes so long. Maybe there’s was only one person in the kitchen, then I can understand, but it should not be this way.

Caprese salad was tasty, but extremely extremely salty.

Octopus salad and roasted octopus was ok.

Caponatina was the only dish that I ate in full, it was well made, I loved it, but again it was too salty for me (not as salty as caprese)

Swordfish was good as well, I did not take a picture, because my husband ate it as soon as we got it, because we were starving.

Pasta alla Norma that I wanted to try the most left mixed feelings. Aubergine with cheese (top part of the dish) was delicious, but pasta itself was horrible. Maybe I can not understand the hand made pasta, but I could not eat it (neither my husband or my daughter)

At the end, when we asked for the check, we waited again for some time and server said if you pay cash it will be quick, if you want by card it will take much longer time…..we paid cash.

I am sorry, but as much as I wanted (because I think family business are great), I can not recommend this restaurant for great...

This was my worst restaurant experience in Sicily. Before the trip to Catania I was reading about this restaurant and it’s history so of course I wanted to try their famous pasta. As soon as we walked in the place was off ( the chef of the kitchen was changing in front of the bar) but we ignored it because of the family atmosphere this place was supposed to have. We sat down and ordered food even tho the waiter didn’t speak English. While we where waiting someone at another table returned his food so we got a bit scared. Then the craziest thing happened when suddenly some lady walked in with the camera and it turned out the police came to the restaurant to do the control check. We waited 1.5 h and food didn’t come. The waiter was only speaking Italian so we didn’t know what was going on. Gladly a couple siting next to us was kind enough to translate. After all this we just wanted to leave ( we still didn’t get any food) so we asked the couple for help. The waiter was very rude and kept telling us that the food was coming even tho we told him we want to pay only for wine we had. We were the only non Italians in restaurant and we were the only one’s that didn’t get the food even tho some people came after us. The waiter didn’t want to talk to us and on purpose ignored us until he thrown the pasta on our table and then because our dishes was served he wanted us to pay full bill (40 euro). Eventually after being extremely disrespectful he took the pasta from us and demanded the 25 euro for wine ( for 4 euro) and the served dishes (he took from us). Finally we had enough and we gave him 20 euro and left hungry and very disappointed and it was only thanks to the kind couple that helped us. I don’t recommend this place and i suggest to stay out of there especially if you are a tourist in Catania. Trust the negative reviews and don’t ignore them...

We had wonderful dinner here yesterday with pasta alla norma and one with artichoke. Both were very nice, i'd say that alla norma had a bit more interesting palette but it was expected.

We also ordered a horse steak that was quite thin and veal rolls 'alla Rosanna', both delicious even though i'd prefer a bit less vinegar on my steak.

House wine was light and easy and made a good company to the food. Unfortunately we didnt have any more space for desserts in our bellies, otherwise I'd definitely try their tiramisu.

Waiting time for our order was around 15 minutes, very reasonable for home made pasta. But we were quite early for dinner as per Italian standards, the restaurant kept getting fuller by the time we finished our course around 9pm.

I feel a lot of bad reviews here come from wrong expectations. It is a family run traditional Sicilian trattoria with food cooked by your Italian Mamma. It is cozy, warm and attentive. It is NOT an instagram like serving or a michelin star experience with a €100 price pp. you come here for authenticity and soul and experience of local life.

Overall we had a very nice experience here and will definitely recommend this place...