Brunaccini Restaurant — Restaurant in Palermo

This courtyard is so beautiful that I would love to come back. So here are a few, hopefully constructive, comments.

First of all: this courtyard is a jewel, and anyone who walks through the empty Ballarô market in the dark, which looks like a film set in the dark - but also offers glimpses at night (small hidden African bars, barbecuing Africans, kiosk operators sitting in front of their kiosk doing work...) ...

...you will find an oasis of elegance in this hotel restaurant, in this inner courtyard.

My first dinner here, however, was not as successful as my walk here.

Why not?

The beef carpaccio was cut too thick for my taste. Personally, I prefer the version from New York to Berlin: sliced wafer-thin. Under the beef was a salad of tomatoes, rocket and other salad leaves - unfortunately with a very sweet flavour.

The Palermitani are passionate "sugar snobs" and consume sweets around the clock.

I can't relate to that myself and therefore need savoury spices to be happy with a meal.

Pepper and salt were available here on request. It's not on the table. There's no olive oil either.

After many months in this city, I realise that the best Italian food is more likely to be found in Hamburg, Sydney, Bruges or New York than in Palermo.

And yes, Sicilian food is also Italian cuisine ;-).

Before I could ask to wait at least 20 minutes for the next course, the risotto was already in front of me.

That's not possible.

At this point, I hadn't even had half a glass of wine.

As for the wines: there were only 2 open white wines, both of which were very warm... ...so I opted for a bottle of wine (and thus had the benefit of a wine cooler).

I decided in favour of one wine, which was then no longer available. And got a good recommendation for another wine.

The wine selection in terms of bottles is also limited to a few grapes.

Given the international clientele, I had expected a larger selection.

About the service: A charming young woman, very pleasant and friendly.

The fact that there are no cloth napkins for the high prices: doesn't fit.

The fact that there was no spoon with the risotto was also not ideal.

The vegetable risotto was very tasty, by the way.

Conclusion: The courtyard is a fabulous place. However, it could be designed much more elegantly with more light sources.

Otherwise, I feel like I paid far too much for my dining experience today.

The carpaccio was boring in terms of flavour and appearance. The risotto was good. The open wine initially offered and tasted was clearly (!) too warm. And my bottle of wine, from which I was allowed to pour myself a refill.

No spices in the carpaccio, initially no spices and generally no oil on the table.

The bread served is soft and sweet. Not home-baked. Not even delicious ciabatta.

A mild late summer evening, with plenty of room for improvement in culinary terms.

☆☆☆

...now that I've been sitting here for a long time without anyone being interested in whether I want to order anything else...

...I think: this restaurant might not be worth my money after all. You pay a small fortune here and are completely ignored.

☆☆

After 3 hours I now know that nobody here is interested in whether I want to order anything else. Nobody wants to know whether I was satisfied here. This evening turned out to be one of the most disappointing in 9 months, during which I went out to eat once or twice a...

For the nights where you don't want to people watch but instead want to just chill with your dinner party (2-4 people), this is the place. This is just 100m from Mercato Ballaro, but in the evening the inner courtyard at a 4 star hotel exudes tranquility with few distractions beyond the conversation and the next bite. A seafood focused menu when we went with squid and octopus items. They did not have a wine list, but instead we told our waiter what we were looking for and they acted as our sommelier--nailing our desires, but with a big price tag. As the place got busier later into the evening, the server had a harder time keeping up, but we were not in a rush to make the theater or catch a bus back to the cruise ship. We loved the Torre di Melanzane (eggplant) and two orders of the Scrigno di mare with gigantic squid landed at our table and quickly disappeared. My squid ink with swordfish had the fish in tiny cubes so there was no chewing on potentially tough flesh. Tiramisu was tasty and the Lemon-basil sortbetto was also a winner (that could be shared). TheFork promotion helped keep the bill in check, otherwise this would be on the...

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