Trattoria Il Mare — Restaurant in Catania

I never give out 1 star reviews. I am a very forgiving and patient person. But the experience I had at Trattoria Il Mare in Catania was the worst dining experience I have ever had. I do not understand why it is so highly rated. It was more expensive and less delicious than every other restaurant we went to in Sicily and service was disastrous.

The restaurant closes at 11pm, my boyfriend and I arrived at 8:30pm. We waited 5-10 minutes to be sat at a table, and when we were... We were sat at a dirty table that had not been cleared/reset from the previous customer. There was a single waitress working and I knew it was a family restaurant so I approached the situation with patience hoping the food would make up for it.

After 20 minutes of sitting, she finally cleans our table, gives us a fresh table cloth. And then another 10 minutes later, gives us the menu. There were only five other tables in the restaurant and she seemed to really cater to the bigger groups. It was approaching 9:30pm when she finally took our order. After an hour of being in the restaurant. We wanted seafood, so we tried to order the antipasto Seafood platter for 2. She told us it was "finished for the night" so not available. Lots of other items were also not available. So we ordered what we could from the few options we had left.

25-30 minutes later, our food arrived. A small plate of marinated fish and a plate of small, unappetizing shrimp. The shrimp smelled not so fresh. We had planned to order several courses but we'd been at the restaurant for nearly 2 hours and the first course was seriously underwhelming. We decided to leave. The waitress cleared our plates and could sense that we did not enjoy our experience so she brought us some complimentary bruschetta with roasted tomatoes on top. Which was a sweet gesture but I went there hoping for lots of delicious seafood, not tomatoes.

We asked for the bill, we waited, and when we handed the waitress €50 so that she could bring us our €20 change, she asked us immediately what we plan to leave for a tip. It was an awkward situation as we did not want to leave any tip.

We walked out of the restaurant after 2+ hours and we were still hungry. I don't know if we were there on an unusually unfortunate night or what but I would advise anyone going to Catania to avoid...

We had a very disappointing experience at Trattoria Il Mare. The female waitress was friendly and welcoming, but unfortunately, the male waiter was extremely rude. While I was still eating, he abruptly took my plate without asking. We had ordered both appetizers and main courses, but everything arrived at the same time, making the dining experience feel rushed and chaotic.

To make things worse, the grilled aubergine we ordered arrived very late and, instead of placing it on our table, the waiter insisted on leaving it on an empty table next to us. When we wanted to have it at our table, he insisted it had to stay where he put it — very strange and unprofessional behavior. My wife and I were sharing different dishes, and while we were still serving ourselves, the waiter rudely removed the plate from under my food without a word.

The grilled aubergines were so bitter that they actually hurt the throat — truly unpleasant. Everything seemed to be frozen, and definitely not fresh, including the fish. It was obvious that only tourists were dining there, which probably says a lot about the quality, as no locals seemed interested.

In all my travels, I have never encountered such rude service. I cannot recommend this...

My husband and I usually eat at quite refined restaurants, but we decided to give Trattoria Il Mare a try despite it looking quiet and unassuming — and it was absolutely worth it. Inside, the restaurant was empty, with only two tables outside, but from the moment we arrived, we were welcomed warmly and given some bruschetta while the chef personally took over our table.

We started with an octopus salad that was incredibly tender and generous, followed by pasta ai ricci, which was good and my first time trying it. The absolute highlight, though, was the pasta con le sarde — easily the best pasta I’ve had in Italy this year. The combination of sardines, pine nuts, and raisins was sublime. Service was relaxed rather than rushed, which suited the atmosphere perfectly. Wine was extremely cheap 3€ for 0.5l carafe) but good, and prices overall were excellent. This is one of those hidden gems that doesn’t look like a win from the outside but absolutely is — don’t miss the...