Osteria Lo Bianco — Restaurant in Palermo

This restaurant overall was good not excellent not bad but good. I wouldn’t return but I enjoyed the food.

We started the meal off with the “pano e coperto”. This complementary but paid for bread which was ok. Nothing special, quite hard and difficult to eat. Oil was offered however could not save what tasted like very stale bread. Did not finish.

For starter we had the caponata which was very flavourful, rich and delicious. 10/10 one of the best things we ordered that day. The aubergine, olives and everything were incredibly cooked. A bit oily but it made the dish more delicious. Highly recommend.

For main we had the zucchine fritte (zucchini pasta) which was incredibly underwhelming and the Sarde (sardine tomato pasta) which was so flavourful and tomatoey. I would say the Sarde was a 7/10 but if it came with cheese it easily would have been a 10/10. We were not given cheese, as we have not visited Italy before we were unsure if cheese would have been included with the pasta. If I came back I would ONLY get the pasta with cheese. The flavour of the sardines tastes very similar to tuna. A very delicious tomato fish pasta… missing the cheese. The Zucchine Fritte was a bit bland. We had to add left over caponata to it, to add some flavour. Bland. Cheese did not also come with this pasta… I wish it did to bring some sort of flavour to the meal. The portion sizes were very good, we could not finish it all and we were able to take the rest for dinner. I very much appreciated the takeaway tubs provided!

The waiters were lovely and happy to recommend specials. Very friendly and they spoke enough English where we ordered knowing what it was. The food arrived quickly but it took FOREVER to get the bill. We had to wave down a server after an hour. If we did not do this I think we would still be at the restaurant to this day.

We sat outside which was lovely, great vibes and good location of the restaurant.

I wouldn’t come back just because I wasn’t wowed overall by the restaurant. If you do go I recommend the caponata and the Sarde but with cheese. Do not get the zucchine fritte. Also be prepared for a long wait for the bill (fast enough for...

Let's cut to the chase.... NOT the best place if you speak any language other than Italiano. This is a painfully honest review of Osteria Lo Bianco.

First, the owner has EVERY RIGHT to cater to the clientele he desires to patronize his restaurant - hard stop, no exceptions. Unfortunately, we speak almost exclusively English and Osteria Lo Bianco clearly markets to solely Italian-speakers (again, with no apologies). The menu is solely in Italian and the wait staff and cashier solely speak Italian. There was ZERO effort on behalf of the young lady waiting on us or the young man attending to the cash register to help in any way facilitate us having a good experience. None, zip, nada.

This is the honest truth - the "attitude" and approach of the staff is clearly "hey, you're in Sicily, either learn the language or the lack of communication is NOT our problem". Again, I have no problem with a locally-focused restaurant. So, if you do speak any language other than Italiano, I do recommend any one of 100s of other places to eat in Palermo.

My food was truly outstanding, but my wife's was pretty average. When we do return to Palermo - if I've done a much, much better job at learning my Italian - we would give it...

Nefasta experiencia. Yo no sé si fue por el hándicap del idioma o qué, pero todo salió mal desde el principio. Éramos un grupo grande, 17 personas, y nos sentaron en algo que parecía que era exterior, pero no, era un invernadero. Había un aire acondicionado, pero totalmente insuficiente para 17 personas. Por tanto, estuvimos toda la comida sin poder disfrutarla debido al excesivo sudor, la falta de aire, la necesidad de abanicos....

Quisimos pedir dos o tres antipasti para compartir pero nos propuso hacer un mix y nos puso lo que le dio la gana, que no estaba malo, pero es que fue casi una imposición, y no supimos qué comimos ni las cantidades, y de hecho se quedaron cortas y hubo que pedirle más. Luego pedimos un plato de pasta individual cada uno, y la verdad que los platos estaban bien servidos en cuanto a cantidades, pero eran muy sosos, e incluso me atrevería a decir que fue la pasta más insípida que he tomado en mi vida.

También tuvimos que ser muy insistentes en pedir las cosas que se nos iban acabando, como la bebida, el queso parmesano, el pan...

A la hora de pagar también tuvimos historia, pues fue super difícil pagar entre todos, y al principio no querían que pagáramos por separado, y tras mucha "lucha" lo conseguimos.

Todo esto hubieran sido pequeñas historias sin importancia si no fuera porque el trato recibido en ningún caso fue el que esperábamos y estaba todo el personal hastiado, atendiéndonos de mala gana, y la comida tardó muchísimo, más de media hora en servir los antipasti, y luego más de media hora en hacernos llegar los principales. Menos mal que no pedimos postre, pues imagino que todavía estaríamos allí esperándolo.

A su favor, he de decir que de precio no está mal, pues fueron 17€ por barba.

P.D. Siempre acompaño mis opiniones con fotos. Si en este lugar no hice,...