Trattoria Trapani — Restaurant in Palermo

I'm in Palermo for a month. I stopped in one night and had the best spaghetti bolognese I ever had in my life, along with the most amazing strawberry cheesecake (Better than NY cheesecake). In fact, when I paid my bill, I asked the young woman to add two more pieces of cheesecake to my bill to give to other people who were dining. I enjoyed my leftovers when they packed them up for me to enjoy the next day. I've been looking forward to going back ever since that day. Today is my last day and decided to go get the bolognese and cheesecake to take away and bring back to my apartment as I had studying to do. I waited outside until they opened, went in, told them what I wanted and that I would like to "take away". They refused. They told me I had to eat in the restaurant. I asked if I sat and ate some, if they would allow me to take my leftovers, they refused. I was shocked and really sad. I walked a couple minutes away and got my lunch/dinner to take away from another restaurant. This place would have gotten 5 stars across the board. Too bad for them...passed up money/business today and future business when people would have read my review. Now, maybe people won't go to their restaurant because of my experience. All the young people were so pleasant, worked hard and gave me an excellent dining experience. The other people that were there today ruined it. Wishing the young people success in whatever...

Horrible service: this goes to the old man who runs front of the house that speak little English & just has a rotten attitude from start to finish. All the guests that were tended to by the younger fella who's multilingual were treated quite well but this old guy (who apparently from the young fellow is not his father...not sure what the relation is) has got a major chip on his shoulders. I try to give him the benefit of the doubt but from the moment he told me to go back to the front of the room after signaling me to follow him with the menu, to just saying "have the swordfish" without any humor at all, to the end asking me why i dind't have cash and wanted to pay with card. Food was just mediocre but the few times when the younger fella served the food it was pleasant and felt like he was genuinely interested in knowing about his diners, where they came from, and how they like the food. Not sure why the old man is put in front of the customer as it really degrades the whole dining experience. If you do visit, ensure you are waited on by the English speaking younger guy. Avoid the old man or you will walk out regretting even...

After reading many good reviews, we intended to try this restaurant as soon as we arrived in Palermo but only managed to dine for the lunch on the last day of our two week trip. The staffs are helpful and friendly. We tried spaghetti with clams, spaghetti with squid ink and grilled sword fish steak accompanied by a basket of bread and a bottle of home-made white wine plus a bonus plate of chickpea fritter. All are good but squid ink spaghetti and fish steak stood out. Both are not on the regular menu but they were recommended as off-menu dishes of the day. Squid ink added aromatic savoury seafood taste to perfectly cooked spaghetti. My personal favourite was grilled sword fish. It was cooked to perfection, marinated with olive oil and aromatic herbs, The meat was tender on surface and started to melt in mouth as soon as it was chewed. White wine was served at chilled, not too sour, not too strong, just well-balanced and it exceeded our expectations. Crispy chickpea fritter was also delicious and reminded me of soya-bean fritter from my homeland. Overall, this restaurant lives up to the good reviews and...