La Fornace — Restaurant in Syracuse

This restaurant came recommended to us, so we went there with high hopes. Supposedly the best pizza in town, with a beautiful view. For me, it turned out to be a big disappointment — but let me start with the good news.

The staff were very kind and courteous. They really tried to help the customers, and I have no complaints about that. It was also packed — clearly a lot of people like the place, or at least enjoy the food. So maybe it’s just me getting old. I was simply looking forward to a really good pizza. But I was disappointed, especially considering I’m in Sicily. I expected a pizza that’s at least better than the one I can get in my small hometown — but that wasn’t the case. In fact, I get better pizza at home. And I’m from Hungary — not exactly a country known for outstanding pizza.

One thing I do have to mention: the prices are very low. For example, a Margherita only costs €6 — which is of course very cheap, especially in a touristy location like this. Maybe that’s part of why my expectations were too high, but still… I didn’t enjoy it. For me, it was below average.

That said, I can only judge the pizza — we didn’t try anything else from the menu.

Now, the location: yes, the view of the castle across the water in Syracuse is quite nice. But the restaurant is located right next to the beach… and honestly, that beach was probably the dirtiest one I’ve seen in Sicily. Lots of trash, very small, not inviting at all. So it’s not really worth it for the setting either.

In short, I wouldn’t recommend this place. But I’ll still give it three stars, because the staff were very friendly — and that counts...

I ate here (22/08/19) after a recommendation and was some fantastic Pizza. I opted for a Pizza with Sausage, sliced potato and onion and was beautifully cooked along with the Pizzas my family had. We also had a selection of chips, croquettes and onion rings for starters. I'd recommend getting there for 19:30 when the restaurant opens to get a good table and order quickly as the restaurant fills incredibly quickly and I noticed some people waiting a while for their food later on due to the place being packed. We didn't wait long luckily and the price for the food and drinks came to €45 which I thought was a bargain considering how good the Pizzas were. I'm planning to eat there again now before heading back to sub standard and expensive Pizza back in...

I don’t care how good the meal was — waiting two and a half hours to get a pizza is completely outrageous. This isn’t fine dining, it’s pizza. No one bothered to apologize, explain, or even acknowledge how ridiculous the wait was. The staff acted like this was normal. It’s not. I’ve never experienced such poor service and utter disregard for customers. Save yourself the frustration — no meal is worth wasting your entire evening. I will never be coming back. On the other side, watching the staff to run around confused like headless chickens was...