Osteria Bellini Catania — Restaurant in Catania

Found this restaurant basically just alright. We had the cheese and cuts platter consisting of Sicilian cheeses and local cuts. The platter was nice, however 16€ is way too much and not worth the amount you are getting! Can say it was nice though and the touch of olive paste and orange marmalade was quite nice. On to the other dishes we had the tagliatta which was disappointed. Firstly the steak was cooked rare but we were never asked in the first place. The issue was that with such steaks, in order to truly appreciate the flavor of the meat, the quality needs to be good, and the cut should be relatively rich in fat. This wasn't. The pieces were way too chewy and hard to eat , because the meat was extremely lean. As a result there wasn't no extraordinary taste. I have had better tagliattas outside of Italy. For a dish priced over 22€ , this was not acceptable, especially considering the prices of other restaurants in the city.

Now the other dish we order was the pasta with pistachios and pork cheek (guanciale). This was good, pasta cooked al dente and a nice starchy sauce to go with the straciatela cheese. Favorite dish.

Now we ordered 2 deserts, a local one which very good and a tiramisu. Tiranisu wasn't good to quite honest. Cognac flavor should be evident in the biscuit and here it wasn't. Cream was also meh.

Now onto the service. Service was very good, both waiters were extremely kind and hospitable. The reason I give 3 stars is the price to quality and taste ratio. 30-40€ per person should get you higher...

We had dinner here on a Wednesday evening and enjoyed the delicious food and warm hospitality. The menu has a good size and includes a well-curated selection of antipasti, primi, secondi and dolci, including meat-based dishes, fish-and seafood-based as well as plant-based dishes, many rooted in regional and local ingredients and recipes, so there is definitely something for everyone. We went for the bruschette Bellini as the starter, the spaghettoni alla Catanese and calamarata rustica Siciliana as the primi and the costata al profumo di bosco (pork) and coscette di pollo all’origano (chicken) as the secondi. The two pasta dishes were definitely the highlight and stand-out, with perfectly balanced and refined flavor combinations. The mains (secondi) were good too, but unfortunately the chicken was under-cooked initially and almost raw - a mistake that was smoothly addressed, however. For dessert, I had the tiramisu and it was a strong finish of a very good meal overall. The service is extremely friendly and professional. Both the charming owner and the other staff make you feel right at home and help with the food and drink selection. The prices are definitely fair for what you get. Overall a very nice experience and we can recommend Osteria Bellini for anyone staying in Catania and...

One of the best meals we’ve had in Italia, not just Sicilia. We were a group of 6 and ordered various dishes for each course so I had a chance to try most of them. Every dish was fantastic and had something unique to it. Even things that seemed simple had an amazing taste and often a surprising twist to it. All meats were exquisite and the steak was one of the best I’ve had ever. The place looked very nice, we had a table on upper level in a private area with plenty of room. The staff were fantastic, super friendly, funny and nice. The menu was in Italian but staff spoke English well and explained everything. We felt taken care of and left happy. They treated us with shots of “espresso killer” on our way out which was very tasty and complemented our evening perfectly. I highly recommend this place, we will definitely go there again when we come back...