Marlò - Pizza Beef Bar — Restaurant in Raffadali

Travelling tourists from the UK, this restaurant was recommended to us by our Raffadalese friend. Sadly, we were extremely disappointed with our meal. We can totally appreciate that when we don’t speak Italian, it causes a barrier but we tried really hard to ensure we were polite and we used google translate to ensure we understood the menu and to make specific requests with our order. Staff were not rude but inattentive throughout our visit. First surprise was that there was no wine menu - just 1 choice of red wine which we weren’t able to see first - I note from a review criticising the same 10 months ago that the owners responded with the excuse ‘the wine list is being updated’…. This seems to be taking some time! Our drinks, on the whole were well presented and came to us promptly. We ordered appetisers and mains. The appetisers were brought out separately - we had a long wait for one of them, but generally, these were really tasty and we enjoyed them. We ordered 3 crispy pork main course which all came out together, one of which looked very different to the others and was most definitely NOT crispy. Using google translate, we called the waiter back to complain at which point 3 staff arrived at our table causing a bit of a scene in their haste to understand our concern. But all we were met with was excuses from a female member of staff (seemingly more senior to the others) who tried to excuse the soft presentation of the pork because it had been slow cooked for 9 hours… so why advertise it as crispy pork and how come the other 2 portions are perfectly crispy? She argued and argued and so we decided to say ‘ok! Leave it, we will accept it’ at this point I think she realised how very unreasonable she was being and agreed to change the portion. There was a considerable wait, but when it came it was as it should have been. We ordered side dishes with our steaks which never arrived. We had to ask again for our side salads and by the time they came, one of our party had finished their steak and one had half completed theirs. The fillet steak was excellent and the flavour of the tagliata was really good - the only criticism is that one third of the steak was pure fat and gristle which the chef would have known whilst preparing it - we simply couldn’t be bothered to raise this as an issue after the trouble we experienced regarding the pork dish. So, all in all, the food was just acceptable, once the team got it right, but the service and the general approach to customer satisfaction was lacking. There was a large party celebrating a christening and I feel our bad experience was directly linked to this, but the restaurant should be able to manage a large booking by having extra staff allocated to them alone - but there was disorganisation amongst the waiting staff moving between the big party and the general floor. This simply doesn’t work! It was a disappointing experience. Our bill came to €230 between 6 of us with 1 round of drinks, 1 bottle of wine, table water and no desserts. The cost did not reflect good value for money; we didn’t leave a tip. We did thank the 2 African waiters who went above and beyond their colleagues and tried really hard to make our experience better. We won’t ever return despite coming to this region regularly and we won’t recommend to others. Try harder Marlo - you have the potential...

What a refreshing change from some of our restaurants in the agrigento region. The setting was beautiful and would of thought this restaurant was in Raffadali. Great service and all of them attempted some English. We even managed to have a have a little laugh with one of your team( our sicilian is terrible). Food was fantastic, especially the pulled pork!!! We were very full after. Great job and see you...

Molta confusione, non di persone ma di idee. Personale numeroso ma servizio lento e poco accurato. Forse gestire contemporaneamente la zona esterna con bar e l'interno con la ristorazione non è una scelta saggia. la continua spola del personale tra l'esterno e l'interno crea caos e disagio, anche a causa del freddo che entra nel locale ad ogni apertura della porta. La pasta era indietro con la cottura forse perché dopo l'eccessiva attesa hanno forzato i tempi (comunque gusto e presentazione lasciano delusi). La carne era buona e consiglierei di concentrarsi solo su questa, vera vocazione primigenia del locale. Non abbiamo provato i dolci perché dopo 3 ore solo per antipasto e primo abbiamo pensato che non era il caso sfidare la sorte e rischiare di finire per fare merenda. Prezzi non eccessivi, unica nota che stempera l'umore del cliente. Sull'onda dell'emozione eviterei il bis, ma con qualche aggiustamento e idee più semplici e chiare...