MEC Restaurant — Restaurant in Palermo

MEC is a fine-dining Michelin star restaurant located in Palermo, Italy. My wife and I went there to celebrate our wedding anniversary and were super excited about the opportunity to try local Sicilian fine-dining.

The entry into MEC and location is badass. You enter into a courtyard off Via Vittorio Emanuele and ring a bell to walk up a beautiful set up stairs into an exhibit dedicated to Steve Jobs and Apple. The owner's love for Jobs is clearly felt as he has artifacts from each decade: inception to now; this part of the experience was fantastic. Now to the service and food: I'll preface by saying that this was a Monday - the A team might not have been there along with the A quality food:

1.) We get sat down; I was sat down in a chair where the sun was shining directly in my face for an hour. The staff didn't seem to care or even ask if they could shut the blinds until the sun passed. At a Michelin star restaurant these kinds of details are meticulously watched and handled by service; this was not.

2.) Drinks: The Sommelier comes by and drops a dictionary of a wine list down at the table. Doesn't mention a single word about "hey these are some of my favorite wines, or here's what the menu looks like and the journey you guys will be on; I suggest xyz wines." I ask about cocktails "we can make you basic cocktails at the bar." ... Again at a Michelin caliber restaurant where you'll almost certainly be shelling out 300+ Euros this is just unacceptable. The Somme made us feel almost inferior for not knowing which wines we wanted or should order for the tasting menu. We order a bottle of wine and move on to the menu hoping it will be a better experience than the drinks.

3.) Food - picking the menu: my wife is Pescatarian, I don't have any restrictions. We wanted to do the tasting menu vs. a la carte. The non-vegetarian tasting menu looks interesting but has 0 meat. The entire menu is seafood forward (which is fine). Some of the seafood (cuttlefish, uni, octopus) aren't up my wife's alley so she decides she'd like to eat the Vegetarian tasting menu; should be fine right? Wrong. The Somme tells us that we both have to order the same tasting menu and that my wife can't have a separate tasting menu... what...? I've eaten at several Michelin star restaurants and have NEVER heard this. At this level of cooking and service you adjust and adapt to your customer/guest. The Somme also doesn't explain the menu ONCE; doesn't explain the inception of the menu, how the chef thought about these dishes or the story. Just a few more examples of not giving an ounce of care to our experience.

4.) Food - taste: The food was just not good. a.) Amuse comes out - small bites of the sea; if you like seafood these aren't bad except for the final one - the scallop mouse inside a candied shell; they flash froze it and I think were wanting this to be a final bite to kick start your pallet before the courses started... it was disgusting. The shell was way too thick and chalky; it ended up tasting like a candied scallop.

b.) Bread comes out - why this course even exists? God only knows. It's a filler dish and although the different kinds of breads are good, it makes 0 sense with the tasting menu; which again, was not explained to us.

c.) Cuttlefish - cuttlefish quality was excellent; I liked the combination with peas and almonds; it lacked the little bit of acidity that would make this course go over the top

d.) Sea Scallop Pescaccio - the texture of this dish was off-putting. It was stodgy and the potato mouse was over-worked causing it to all taste like starch and cutting the sweet flavor of the scallop. The entire dish was one-note and fell flat.

e.) Goat Cheese Risotto - arguably the best dish we had and it was basic; goat cheese was a nice differentiating take to the classic parm and the eggplant sauce the rice was cooked in shined through.

f.) Turbot - arguably my favorite fish to eat; overcooked.. Nail in the coffin. This restaurant is not worth a Michelin star or worth you going to eat. Save your money...

This has to be one of the worst fine dining experiences we have ever had. My opinion is the owner of this restaurant is money hungry and does not care about its patrons. I will never go to this establishment again and would urge others to restrain as well. To be honest we were looking forward to eating at this restaurant as this was going to be the highlight of our trip to Sicily and our anniversary dinner but it has left such a bad taste in our mouth due to the behaviour of the staff that it is appalling. My problem started today as my 20 month old started throwing up out of no where. She threw up 3 times in 2 hours possibly because of something she ate elsewhere. We called the restaurant and asked them to either cancel our booking or move it to a different date but we were told clearly that we will ah e to pay a fine of €50 per person or call them back post 6pm. At 6pm when we called we were told there is no option but we will have to show up. We said fine we will and will put it up in the review. I reached the restaurant while my husband was searching for parking which he couldn’t find as we are not locals and don’t speak Italian. When I reached the google maps location I could not see a restaurant. I asked other establishments and no one had a clue, fortunately someone said try inside the museum and I found someone else trying to get to the restaurant and made my way in with them. This took about 20 minutes. My reservation was at 7pm and I reached inside the restaurant at 7:20pm. I would have been in the restaurant at 7:02pm had I known where to go or if there were signs large enough that someone can see them from a distance. Also surprising was no one else knew where it was either. Now while I was searching for the restaurant I got an email that they have charged me a no show, they have not mentioned anywhere in their email that they will charge no show if someone doesn’t show up on time. Inspite of explaining that I couldn’t find the restaurant. They said that now that we are here they will give us credit in the bill but we will have to spend atleast €100(no show fee) we were going to spend way more than that but the way the restaurant handled this was shameful. The restaurant was almost empty and I think this is why the owner behaved this way to get whatever money they could. So much grace for being a Michelin star restaurant. The other couple was also late as they couldn’t find the restaurant but guess what they didn’t get charged a no show fee. When my husband enquired why they said that when he called he didn’t confirm if we will show up so they charged us €50 each. What sense does that make? You are forcing us to come to your establishment when our baby is unwell and just because we did not explicitly tell you that I am coming or not, gives you the right to assume that we won’t and charge us money? The other reason the lady gave us was after 15 minutes the table turns red and it gets charged automatically. That didn’t happen for the other customer. Only happened to us. How do I know, I asked the other couple. After about 10-15 minutes they offered us to return the money but my husband was also on his way and my baby was finally settling in so we decided to eat a little as it was our anniversary dinner as well. Coming to the food it was absolutely tasteless. Little seasoning can’t ruin the food (try it). I’ve eaten all over the world but this food was one of the worst I’ve eaten. The breadsticks were amazing everything else bland and lacked any sort of real flavour. I’ve given 2 stars for the service we got at the table other than that I wouldn’t have given them any stars other than the mandatory 1 star No restaurant should behave this way. Throwing up 2 hours before we went for dinner. Where was the compassion; this rule was to protect establishments from getting booked and people not showing up. It should have not been used as a tool to forcefully take money from customers. As an adult I can control my actions but a baby throwing up is not in my control, little empathy was...

I have found this restaurant on Michelin’s website and it is quite a surprise to find out that it is also a museum dedicated to computer science and Jobs. The collections of iPhones, old computers and iPads gives the restaurant a quite chilling atmosphere. The settings of tables in four corners, with the gentle lightening behind each table makes each table, seeing from other tables, a nice picture itself. This restaurant boasts inspirations of Sicilian cooking. The tasting plates provides four snacks with the tastes of four kinds of seafoods, which are quite innovative in the de ce of texture and flavour. Four different kinds of breads are offered: Sicilian wheat sour dough bread, long olive flavour stick, a croissant and a brioche. My favourite is the Sicilian sour dough bread combining the apple icon shaped butter with anchovies. The butter is very tasteful and has a good touch of seafood. The first antipasti made from tomato provides a strong contrast of sweetness and sourness. I like the second antipasti, sea scallop. The texture is very creamy and the fresh and thinly sliced scallop provides a smooth feeling. The pasta, Giro Giro Tondo gives a different perspective of pasta. The pasta itself is neither too hard nor too soft, saving a nice texture of chewiness. The seafoods hidden inside the pastas are quite fresh and tasty. The piece of fish on top tastes a bit of fishy smell, but the rest is good. The main dish is made from chicken breast, which according to the restaurant staff is quite a gamble, as chicken breast is not considered as a food that to be put in main dishes in fine dining. I must say the chef’s technics in cooking a chicken breast into a super tender piece is very high, however, the sauce accompanied the chicken breast tastes a little bizarre. I think there is too much rosemary in the sauce and makes the sauce a little bit bitter. The tacos accompanied with the main dish is crispy outside with sweet corns inside. For the desserts, the jellies are quite refreshing, combining sweet and sour flavour. The four apple icon plates offer desserts that increase in their sweetness. My personal favourite is the one on the red apple, it is not too sweet and has a mild sweetness. On the big plate, mangue chops and sorbets are relatively sour, providing a contrast to sweetness of creamy cake. Generally speaking I enjoyed this evening at MEC, and I like the taste experience it has provided. The staffs are very friendly...