Taverne Vigata — Restaurant in Porto Empedocle

Unfortunately, we had not the best dining experience here recently on a weekday evening. The restaurant was very quiet when we arrived. In fact, we were the first patrons, so we had the full attention of the team. A female waitress and a male waiter served us and it wasn’t always clear who is responsible - and there were some smaller communication issues when ordering too. When we entered, the music was blasting loudly but the music player didn’t work properly, so the sound constantly looped and broke up, which was super annoying. The waitress said that it would be fixed shortly but it kept being a problem for a large part of the meal and instead of turning off the sound system, they just turned it down, which didn’t solve the problem. We ordered the bruschette as the starter, the taglietelle al ragu as the primo and then the stinco di maiale al forno con patate as the secondo (pork knuckle). The bruschette were unfortunately a letdown and were not very good to be honest (the tomatoes lacked freshness and tasted bland and the bread was too hard and uniform). The taglietelle were good but not great and the stinco was the highlight and indeed tasty. The portion size of the primo was very large though, so when the secondo arrived, I was already rather full. A slightly smaller size might go a long way here, especially if people order primo and secondo. The male waiter, while initially polite, became very pushy towards the end of the meal, especially when it came to paying and leaving a tip. We paid with card and were about to leave a modest but not completely unreasonable tip in cash (given the issues with the food and music) but he quite bluntly insinuated that this was too little, making for an awkward situation, and we left without a tip. While the food was decent (certainly not outstanding), there is a lot of potential for improvement regarding the service and attitude of the staff. The wait times were also on the long side in light of...

Allora: è stato un gioco duro, e quando il gioco si fa duro, i duri cominciano a giocare! Di passaggio a Porto Empedocle durante la nostra vacanza in Sicilia, mia moglie ed io decidiamo di fermarci in questo locale per cena... Prendiamo il menù fisso e da li comincia il delirio. Doveva essere un semplice assaggio di antipasti ed invece si è rivelata una vera e propria orgia culinaria! Arriva di tutto! Da destra a manca , da sopra e da sotto arrivano piatti in continuazione! Tutti buoni, profumati e invitanti! Mia moglie si arrende quasi subito ma io cerco di resistere! Ne va del mio onore! Attacco gli arrosticini con veemenza mentre la caponata mi assalta da dietro . La trippa cerca di sfondare le mie linee difensive ma ho ragione di lei e della fagiolata con il pane! Ma purtroppo sulla porchetta cado sconfitto e sono costretto ad issare bandiera Bianca! Manco lo stomaco ma non il valore! A parte gli scherzi: il locale è molto accogliente e il personale gentilissimo! L'unico mio consiglio è quello di digiunare almeno una paio di giorni prima di venire a mangiare qua, anche perché le pietanze sono veramente gustosissime ed è un vero peccato lasciarle sul tavolo....

Outstanding food. The house Caponata with Parmagiano Fonduta was one of the best dishes we’ve had on Sicily. The spaghetti carbonara was so vibrant yellow and rich with egg, best I’ve ever had. Service from Mark was professional and extremely friendly and warm. The house/local vino rosso was so delicious. Thank you for an...