Il Castello Ristorante - Pizzeria - Albergo — Restaurant in Petralia Sottana

We decided to stay in this town and hotel as was we heard the restaurant was so good, and we were doing a bit of a "foodie" trip. But no where on booking.com did it say that the restaurant was not open on a Wednesday, which was very disappointing. ||It has to be said that Francesca who was running the place when we arrived, was very, very nice and arranged a lovely tuna salad lunch (with wine) when we arrived which was kind as she advised us the night before we arrived the restaurant was closed. Very disappointing.||The lunch did end up costing us 30euros at check out though, which we felt was a bit too much money (we didn't expect to pay nothing - but 20euros would have been fair) since we thought it was the hotel's way to make us feel better about our disappointment the restaurant was closed, and the lunch price was not mentioned...but..oh well, I guess we learnt a lesson.||The hotel location was great. Easy parking nearby and not hard to find at all. Charming town. Hotel was clean. Cute natural springs grotto in lobby of hotel. Our room was quaint. Bed was okay. Shower was fine. Lined and towels were basic. Wifi was good. Peekaboo view over valley from our room, but not a "great view room" - still fine all the same. Breakfast was okay, not amazing, but okay. ||If we go back to the town, we would stay here and will be sure to go when restaurant is open. Once again, we do feel Francesca and the girl helping her at breakfast in the morning was very kind and almost the best...

We decided to stay in this town and hotel as was we heard the restaurant was so good, and we were doing a bit of a "foodie" trip. But no where on booking.com did it say that the restaurant was not open on a Wednesday, which was very disappointing. ||It has to be said that Francesca who was running the place when we arrived, was very, very nice and arranged a lovely tuna salad lunch (with wine) when we arrived which was kind as she advised us the night before we arrived the restaurant was closed. Very disappointing.||The lunch did end up costing us 30euros at check out though, which we felt was a bit too much money (we didn't expect to pay nothing - but 20euros would have been fair) since we thought it was the hotel's way to make us feel better about our disappointment the restaurant was closed, and the lunch price was not mentioned...but..oh well, I guess we learnt a lesson.||The hotel location was great. Easy parking nearby and not hard to find at all. Charming town. Hotel was clean. Cute natural springs grotto in lobby of hotel. Our room was quaint. Bed was okay. Shower was fine. Lined and towels were basic. Wifi was good. Peekaboo view over valley from our room, but not a "great view room" - still fine all the same. Breakfast was okay, not amazing, but okay. ||If we go back to the town, we would stay here and will be sure to go when restaurant is open. Once again, we do feel Francesca and the girl helping her at breakfast in the morning was very kind and almost the best...

We stayed here for two nights at the beginning of a week's walking trip to the Madonie mountains. Room was great- comfortable and with character. breakfasts were excellent, Francesca was very attentive - very good service. Our first evening in the restaurant for dinner was not a good experience unfortunately. Because the rest of our stay was so good I won't go into too much detail, but to serve the main course (pizza) almost an hour apart to a table of two people is a new experience for me, and to try to defend it without saying sorry was indefensible. This wasn't the only problem that night and other several other customers were also not happy. I couldn't do a genuine review without mentioning this - every restaurant has a bad night occasionally but most would apologise. The second night however was like visiting a completely different restaurant - excellent service, excellent food and an excellent night. I've rated our stay as 4 out of 5. It would have been 5 out of 5 if not for that first evening's experience - this really is a great place to stay and eat when they are...