Maccarruni - Osteria, pizzeria, wine bar — Restaurant in Catania

Late night hunger pangs in Catania led me to Maccarruni just before closing. Honestly, I was a bit nervous I'd be turned away, but what I received instead was pure Sicilian warmth! 🤗

From the moment I walked in, every single staff member made me feel incredibly welcome, ushering me straight to a table. Since it was late, the vibe was calm and quiet - exactly how I like it, though there were still other happy diners enjoying their meals.

Now, the FOOD! 🤤 I went for the Pizza Margherita (€6) - the tomato sauce was unbelievably sweet and delicious - and the Mixed Grilled Meat (€12.50), which was perfectly cooked, juicy, and flavorful. Honestly, it was so good I had to put my proper camera down (just snapped a few phone pics!) to truly savour every bite. 🤌

The service was just as wonderful as the food. We shared smiles trying to bridge the language gap (my Italian needs work, but their English efforts were so appreciated! 🙏). Even the chef (maybe the owner?) came out to chat and make sure I was having a great time. You could feel the genuine hospitality.

My Ratings for Maccarruni: Food: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (Absolutely amazing, fresh, and flavourful!) Service: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (Incredibly warm, welcoming, and attentive, even late at night!) Ambience: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (Quiet, relaxed, and comfortable - perfect end to the day!)

Seriously, if you're in Catania and looking for truly delicious food served with genuine kindness, you HAVE to check out Maccarruni.

Highly...

Visited for dinner for 2 on a Monday, waiters were friendly, but a little forgetful - but overall nice. Starters and wine were great, we then ordered 2 pizzas, which took over half an hour to come out when the restaurant was basically empty and the starters had come out within less than 10 mins. Pizzas were both raw, soggy and honestly tasteless, we each ate a slice and a half each before stopping - not pleasant at all. When our plates were collected the waiter was apologetic, and really seemed genuine in his apologies, we weren’t rude at all as this was not the waiters fault, but we did ask if we would need to pay for these pizzas, to which the waiter replied ‘I’ll take care of it’ and went to speak with who I presume was the owner.

Upon paying our bill, the owner hadn’t removed anything from the bill, we queried this to which he unapologetically and dismissively replied ‘you ate them’ - remember we had eaten barely a slice each. The owner kept insisting they used fresh ingredients which may well be true but the issue was that the pizza was raw and soggy and tasteless, there was no apology offered or anything.

Overall, I feel a restaurant which somehow has such a high review rating should take more seriously complaints of this nature - we are in Italy - where is the pride in making PIZZA?

I would not recommend this restaurant, not at any fault of the waiters who were polite but due to the extremely poor food...

Came here for a dinner for 2 ordered a bottle of wine 2 starters and 2 pizzas on a Monday, staff were friendly ( a little forgetful) but good nonetheless. Starters were great. We waited a long time for pizzas after starters but we had our wine- pizzas came and were extremely under done, tasteless and raw. The dough was visibly raw under the toppings and the only taste was the olives. We both ate 1 slice of each and then left the rest, at this point it was 10:30pm so did not want anything else. The waiter was apologetic and said he would ‘take care of it’. When we went to pay our bill the owner kept all our food and drink on the bill saying that we had eaten the pizza, we explained again that we had 1 slice and it was raw- he said we should’ve have said for them to make it again and they only use fresh ingredients. The owner was not very apologetic and frankly rude. He was insistent on their use of fresh ingredients neglecting the problem which was that the pizza was raw and tasteless, he was completely dismissive of our complaint.

My partner speaks Italian which made communicating a little easier, however there was no attempt to communicate to me, making this interaction and experience frustrating and impossible for a non-Italian speaker.

Overall I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant, there are better pizza places around and MUCH better, friendlier...