Gran Caffe del Duomo — Restaurant in Syracuse

Don't waste your time or money with this restaurant. As per usual staff were friendly when you stand and read their menu. Myself and my wife took the chance to eat their. What a mistake. Our drinks and food order were promptly taken. I order prawn/shrimp cocktail to start. It was little more than a bowl of lettuce and sauce, with very few prawns to be seen and priced at €15. Definitely not worth it. For mains i had fried fish with French fries and my wife had seafood risotto with a salad. When the food arrived, I requested some salt for the fries. Even though the waiter acknowledged this, it obviously fell on deaf ears as I had to request a second time from a different waiter. If these were the only faults, it probably wouldn't be so bad. But they weren't. My fried fish was tasteless and probably would have benefited with some dipping sauces. My wife's risotto dish was too watery and did not taste like the rice was cooked properly. But worse was still to come. As the table was being cleared, I asked for the food bill. Myself and my wife were just in the process of finishing our last glass of wine each when one of the front of house staff approached us and suggested we hurry up and leave. To which my wife responded by showing him, a nearly full glass of wine. He then turned on his heals and walked off without apologising. We had noticed two elderly females and a young couple also receiving a 'hurry up' and finish up from staff. This is obviously down to the fact that the staff were afraid of losing other potential customers that were waiting on tables. At this stage we had only been on the premises about one hour. Hardly over stretching our welcome. Needless to say, this was the worst behaviour I have ever seen from staff (mainly the front of house) and would strongly advise anyone against wasting their time and money on eating at this restaurant. Very...

I had my first granita in Ortigia at this Bar in the town’s Duomo Square. Under recommendation of my friend I tried the Gelsi granita. I even asked the waiter how was it and he said “You can’t go wrong with it.” So I tried it and it was the worst thing ever. I was super excited to try the famous Sicilian Granita, it was hot and I was thirsty. This just left me with no comments. Very bad taste and texture... didn’t even feel natural. I tried my friends’ pistacchio and coffee. They were better but still... that’s not what you expect from Sicily.

Good thing is that this granita just set the benchmark for the rest of my vacation here. The rest of all the granitas were just on another level compared with this place’s. Sorry to say it but I would recommend it only if you want to set your own expectations too. Otherwise just avoid it.

Only good things are: the waiter was nice to us and the location in right in the Central Square... so you’ll have...

This place suffers from the we-are-located-by-a-famous-site syndrome. That is, all views and facade, but substance is kinda lacking. The pizza, for example, was way below average. Spaghetti was ok though kind of heavy, ..the worse thing in a place like this is, however, the feeling you get that they wish you would eat quickly and go away, so that others may take your table. It's this constant pressure that makes waiters to ask multiple times if you've finished your food, ..even if it's clear, your plates are not empty or when your cutlery is out of the "finished" position. One more spicy story...we ordered a wine carafe, which was brought in relatively quickly but..without wine glasses, which is when one ends up staring at something that is just beyond reach. So..sorry, this isn't the place to really enjoy food and drink. Just to pass...