Unfortunately our experience at Syrah was memorable for all the wrong reasons. The food was good (however, expensive for what they offered) but the service was something that the staff failed at at every opportunity.

Food: I had the caponata and clam pasta. Whilst these dishes were overall tasty, the caponata was a bit too acidic and the pasta sauce had too much sand from the clams.

Service: The service experience starts with our 10pm booking. The table is not ready and we are waiting outside for a total of 30 minutes. We got menus and were ready to order, but amongst the 5 wait staff in the garden section of the restaurant, only one could take orders. When we asked another waiter that we had been waiting for 15 minutes, she threw her hands up and didn't have any words for us. The one capable of taking orders was busy with another table next to us for about 15 minutes with information about daily dishes and special orders. There was clearly a huge and unfair importance put on those guests, which made our experience bad throughout the night.

When we finally ordered and alerted the waiter taking the orders that we had waited 30 minutes outside and 15 minutes inside, she had no apology or words to respond to us with. Even a light "please excuse us" would have been enough, but she was too preoccupied with returning to the table next to us.

The preoccupation with these supposed VIPs was actually quite embarrassing for the restaurant because they invited the chef and cashier to greet them, but not other guests, including us. Every waiter was waiting on them and in the end we were not being taken care of.

We had very high expectations since this was recommended by friends and family but unfortunately we will not be back. There are many other excellent but less pretentious places in San Vito for a lower price point.