Antica Locanda — Restaurant in Syracuse

Closed Mondays.

Lunch on Thursday 11 May 2023 We sat outside on one of the tables under large umbrellas. They no longer serve litres of house wine so we bought an excellent bottle of Sicilian dry white wine at €18. They almost forgot the wine (horror!) but did serve up a lovely free plate of appetisers almost straight away. We both had Pesce Spada alla Palermitana (swordfish cooked in bread crumbs) at €15, shared an Insalata Mista at €4 and had a bottle of water and two coffees. The total bill was €61.50.

Lunch on Thursday 1 October 2020 We were greeted warmly by our new best friends, including il nipote della nonna Lucia (who has/had a grandmother called Lucia). Not very busy at lunchtime but this gave us the opportunity to have a long and involved discussion (with photos) of the various fish around the island of Ortigia and the varying methods of catching them! One bottle of water, one good litre of house white wine at €8 00, two mains of Pesce Spada Locale alla Siciliana (a lovely swordfish steak in the shape of the island of Sicily with cherry tomatoes, two of which I made into Siracusa and Agrigento for geographical accuracy, and capers, one of which I made into Palermo and several of which I made into Etna for geographical accuracy, at €14.00) and Paccheri Pesto Pistacchio Spada e Ciliegino (a pasta dish with pistacchio paste, swordfish and cherry tomatoes at €14.00) and two coffees cost €45.00.

Dinner on Wednesday 30 September 2020 Previously this restaurant has not been too busy. Tonight (please note it is a Wednesday on the very last day of September amidst a global pandemic) the restaurant had up to ten of twelve tables occupied! And I'm not counting the outside tables, some of which were occupied. The location is not on a main street but we were the only non Italians there. (That is a sure sign of quality and value.) One bottle of water, one good litre of house red wine at €8.00, one starter of Fritturina di Paranza (various small fried fishes at €12.00), two mains of Pesce Spada Locale alla Siciliana (three swordfish steaks with cherry tomatoes and capers at €14.00) and Pesce Fresco del Giorno alla Siciliano (today it was Lampuga at €16.00) and two coffees cost €59.00. (Lampuga, or "dolphinfish", is like a slightly fishier and meatier version of swordfish but it doesn't really have a direct or accurate translation into English.) Tomorrow is our last day so we have booked for lunch!

Dinner on Saturday 11 May 2019 Not really busy considering it was a Saturday night but, all the same, we were greeted warmly by each and every member of staff Once again, we were served with free bruschettas almost as soon as we were seated One bottle of water, one litre of good house red wine (€8.00), one starter of Insalata di Ciliegino e Cipoletto Fresco (cherry tomatoes and raw spring onions), one starter of Burata con Ciliegino e Olio al Basilico (mozzarella filled with cream and cherry tomatoes), one main of Pesce Spada alla Siracusana (grilled swordfish), one main of Paccheri con Spada (pasta with swordfish) and one coffee cost €50.00.

Lunch on Wednesday 8 May 2019 We were here several years ago but at the time I was obsessed with big salads and pasta dishes even though my wife loved what she ordered. Since then I have been eating swordfish like a man possessed. This is quite a large restaurant with two inside dining rooms. Not very busy today but it is only Wednesday lunch in early May. We were served with free bruschettas almost as soon as we were seated One bottle of water, one litre of good house red wine (€8.00), one starter of Insalata di Ciliegino e Cipoletto Fresco (cherry tomatoes and raw spring onions), one starter of Burata con Ciliegino e Olio al Basilico (mozzarella filled with cream and cherry tomatoes - not the diet option, obviously), one main of Pesce Spada alla Siracusana (grilled swordfish), one main of Trancio di Baccala Croccante con Broccoletti e Olive Nere (salt cod) and two coffees...

We ordered the mixed starter for 30€ per person, recommended by the waiter, which would encompass about 70% of the available antipasti. The mussel sauce was beautiful, but the mussels themselves rather tasteless. The caponata was good. The rest were ok, but not great.

For primi/secondi (which we ordered together), we had the two daily specials: fresh, local swordfish, and sea urchin spaghetti.

The former was very dry and tasteless. We did not really touch this, and then, when the waiter asked what was up, we said as much, to which he said that it was meant to be so; this we did not buy one bit, but we said nothing. He also became rather sharp and rude, whereas before he was quite sweet. Later on, someone else, who seemed mainly to be concerned with the general organisation of the restaurant, came over and explained that with this being so local and the fact that the fat content was unknown, it was difficult to get correct - this explanation we had much more sympathy for, even though we asked for no explanation and did not make a fuss. Nevertheless, one would quite reasonably expect that they would firstly - if there is indeed so much uncertainty - test a couple from a given batch to ascertain what the optimal cooking duration is, or, at the very least, prepare another. The best we got was half price on something that we didn’t eat.

The latter was fine - certainly not the best pasta - but the sea urchin taste did not stand out much at all. It was just put on the top of the pasta at the end, and it looked like (at most) half of a sea urchin, which hardly warranted the 24€ price.

We interacted with three people: the waiter who showed us to our table, the waiter who spun us a wholly incorrect story and became rather angry, and the general organisational person who somewhat clarified the matter. The first and last were extremely pleasant, so we cannot complain here.

Overall, I would say it is fine, but it certainly leaves one...

10/10 would come again. The food was amazing and the seafood was very fresh. We got a ricotta bruschetta on the house, which was a pleasant surprise! A creamy delight. We started with the mussels as the appetizer - super fresh, sauce was superb. For our first main we got the clams spaghetti and the pesto pistachio pasta with swordfish. My first time trying pesto pistachio, but it was definitely worth trying! It blended harmoniously well with the swordfish. This was by far the best thing we had tonight and during our 2.5 day trip in Siracuse.

We ended with the grilled prawns secondi, thought we might as well try it out. I think it's the same kind of prawns which you could buy from the mercato market (which is very close to where this restaurant is located), which was also decent.

Also, bonus points for the attentive service we got at this restaurant. We suck at eating mussels and prawns with forks/ spoons/ knives, so we had to use our hands. On both occasions, the server came with fancy scented wet wipes after so we could clean our hands for the next...