Osteria&PizzeriaDaiPazzi — Restaurant in Catania

I was here with two friends having dinner and the food was truly delicious. We ordered two pizzas and both were amazing…there is no question about that! They brought out a heart-shaped pizza after noticing my friend was having a little mental breakdown, which was especially sweet and brightened the mood, so thank you!! Moreover, the location is nice and calm while still being central.

However, there is something that we found odd and uncomfortable. Some of the staff patrolled around our table for the duration of our dinner and would remove our plates and cutlery as soon as they were cleared (even though not everyone had finished their meal). For instance, after the meal we wanted to check the desserts but we barely had time to scan the menu before a waitress swiftly removed it from my friends’ hands (she did not properly ask us if we needed it). This felt a bit overbearing and quite rushed, considering the restaurant was still not full. Not to mention some of the waitresses constantly hovering around our table, preemptively taking the olive oil, the water glasses, and the menu card without asking. In turn, we felt pressured to hurry and leave. Overall it felt like we were monitored, watched and listened-to excessively. There is a fine line between being attentive and making guests uncomfortable. Fortunately, the food and the very kind spanish-speaking waiter made up for...

Food was just simply amazing - that was the luck of the place. Service is fast and organised - it is visible that the place is managed by people who know what they are doing. Sortiment is quite copious - though my wife missed some filled pastas. E-menu is a good idea, though a multilingual option could be helpful (auto-translate could be an option, though it is far from perfection) ... Luckily I am quite experienced in Italian gastronomy, so we worked it out. What made me unsatisfied and screwed (other than close to perfect...) dinner is the behaviour of our waitress. She was unmotivated and does not seem to be friendly at all (although here in Sicily I was impressed by how friendly everyone is). When they brought our dessert, she asked who it was for - I said it's for my wife, but she just threw it in front of me and ran away. I asked for the bill 4 times (all times politely) - that's even okay, they could be overloaded, but the way she reacted - that was far from nice. While looking at other tables, most probably this is not a general problem, maybe we just got to the wrong person. All in all, it is a good restaurant I believe, I would give another chance to it for sure, hopefully next time we get a bit...

During our visit to Catania, we visited Osteria & Pizzeria Dai Pazzi twice - the first time, because it was convenient and the reviews looked good, the second because it was SO GOOD we had to have it again! On our first visit my partner and I shared a margherita pizza and linguine with seafood, and spritzes to go with. On our second, we doubled down on pizza and a glass of local red from Etna. All of it was delicious but those pizzas were incredible. All of the ingredients tasted so fresh, the pizza was perfectly crisp on the bottom and the crust was pillowy and light. It has set a high bar for our pizza experiences while we're in Italy! The glass of red wine on their menu paired beautifully with it and was a great way to try out the local offerings without jumping into a full bottle. The atmosphere of the restaurant is lovely and the servers were kind in entertaining my limited Italian and filled in the gaps in English when I got stuck. You have to try this place, you won't be...