Ristorante Vecchia Marina Cefalù — Restaurant in Cefalù

The restaurant is located in a great spot, right in the center of Cefalù, with a wonderful view of the sunset. The menu looks well-curated and balanced. Unfortunately, the service does not live up to the restaurant’s ambitions at all. Upon entering, there was only one other table occupied in the entire restaurant. We were greeted by an extremely arrogant and condescending waiter named Fabricio, who took our order with clear mockery. When we kindly asked if they could slightly open a window so we could enjoy the sunset, he responded with the same mocking tone, saying they were expecting a storm and that’s why it couldn’t be opened. The octopus was incredibly tough. When we tried to make a complaint, they started explaining that it had just been taken from the sea and that this was its typical taste. However, we’ve had octopus many times before-Italy, Portugal, Greece, Spain and it was clear that the issue was simply poor preparation. The pasta – Pasta alla Norma – was incredibly delicious. However, the first portion had a hair in it, so we had to send it back. The owner personally apologized and changed our waiter. From that point on, we were served by Martina, who was extremely kind, cheerful, and polite – a complete contrast to the rude behavior of the previous waiter. On the contrary, she apologized and genuinely tried to make things right. By the end of the evening, in the relatively large restaurant, there was only one other occupied table besides ours, and there were three staff members present. The quality of service did not match the restaurant’s ambitions in any way. Once again, I want to highlight that Martina did a wonderful job – she was very kind and attentive. However, Fabrizio seriously undermines the reputation of this establishment, if the owner want to have happy customers- he needs to put attention on the personal. (P.s. for the octopus we have been “reimbursed”- which was funny. Portion costs 18E and they discounted at 12e. If you do smth like this- better provide dessert, or wine or anything- not just “removing” the...

The restaurant has a beautiful location nestled into the charming historic centre of Cefalu whilst enjoying a vantage point overlooking the sparkling, azure sea. The views (if you’re seated out in sea front section) are spectacular.

If we continue with the pros: the starters were delicious. We chose the ‘highlights’ of their seafood appetisers which included a delectable twice cooked octopus and a very, very good red shrimp crudo with mango salsa. My husband’s main course, sesame coated tuna steak, was also cooked to perfection and of excellent quality… super fresh. The semi-freddo was nutty, chocolatey ice-cream heaven.

And then we get to the not so nice… the head waiter was clearly not a fan of non-Italian customers, despite our efforts to engage and order in Italian and apologise for our grammatical errors… his desultory, dismissive (and frankly disrespectful) behaviour made it very clear he’d prefer we were not dining with this establishment.

He initially refused to seat us in the section of the restaurant with the view, pointing to a table in the dark interior as the only one available. Given the recommendation we’d received for the restaurant we thought we’d stick it out and asked if we might be able to move if a table became free. He simply huffed, rolled his eyes and tapped at his watch… despite seating others after us. We saw a couple leave and asked again if it might be possible to move - at which point he huffed (again!) and pointed us to a table that had been free all along.

He continued to be brusque, bordering on rude, throughout the meal and it added an unpleasant edge to what would have otherwise been a nice meal and experience. The only other fly in the ointment was a swordfish dish that was overcooked and very dry.

Long story short, if you can suffer bad service this is a well situated spot with good food. But if you prefer to be treated with cordiality and are not local, it might be best to go elsewhere.

A shame that this one (rather important) front of house element let down a rather...

I would not recommend this restaurant. The first courses were served very quickly, so we asked the waiter to wait with the main courses. Unfortunately, the staff did not listen and it was served right away. We got the side dishes before the main dishes were served (very weird, because we didn’t have cutlery nor plates in front of us). The tuna main course was not very tasty, the other dishes were okay - not particularly memorable. Considering the quality of the food, the prices were to high in our opinion.

The staff was very (!) unpleasant from the beginning. A single smile was to much to ask, from either of the three waiters. When you pay €60 pp for lobster, you could expect some service.

Knowing the prices, it is not worth a visit; there were to many mistakes. Main courses were fired before we had finished our starters, courses were served while 2 people around the table were missing, wine was only poured once, there were no amuses (which you would expect at a high-end restaurant like this).

The views were stunning, but to many ‘influencers’ had to take a pictures all the time, which didn’t help the overall atmosphere.

We were not the only one bothered by all this, the two tables next to us were experiencing the same problems and pointed them out as well. The restaurant was not full, not even close, but somehow they wanted the guests gone as soon...