Oz Ortigia — Restaurant in Syracuse

The food was average at best, but the service left a deeply unpleasant impression.

We waited a long time to be seated, while two other groups who arrived after us were shown to their tables right away. When we asked about it, the English-speaking staff member told us bluntly, three times, that we either wait or leave, in a very cold and dismissive tone. We were a group of three simply asking for a slightly larger table, and if it had been reserved, a small sign could have communicated that clearly. The lack of basic courtesy made the experience uncomfortable from the very beginning.

What was even more off-putting was the way the staff responded when we ordered four dishes to share among the three of us. One server directly asked the other two people at the table if they were not going to order anything else. That is not just rude, it shows a complete lack of understanding or respect for cultural dining habits like sharing plates.

To make things worse, we noticed other tables received candies after paying, but ours did not. It might seem minor, but the accumulation of these details left us feeling unwelcome and singled out.

Lastly, the coperto (cover charge) was applied without any prior notice. Transparency should be a basic standard in hospitality.

All in all, the food did not make up for the service, and I...

As a Sicilian I want to say the food was great but the service went a disaster, I should say the weiter was responsible but: if you owner employee a delicate model boy instead of professional staff, you can't aspect a lot, if the boy is more focused in how to appear beauty, always like a cat walker instead to focus on the table orders, obviously everything goes in disaster, no coordination at all between starters and main course, two plates of pasta with sarde instead than with bottarga, he complitily understimate the allergy to a chilli and the bottarga pasta can be done without chilli, this about the service, about the atmosphere : well I believe, as a Sicilian chef de rang and professional weiter that, no rings, no hirst ring, no many visible tattoos, no trash trousers, perhaps a black belt and a neprew would straight the boy till giving him a proper focus and anyway, you boss or manager have to take orders, leave the stuff to run under coordination. This is Sicilian catering, here we show why our food is great and for as much ivin the wrong plates was tasty amazing, " nothing to say about it" the trattoria or restaurant service has to be show hight...

Unfortunately, it was a disappointment. We went there with high expectations. The waitres was nice, but managed to forget about us for about half an hour after bringing water and bread. When she finally came to take our order, we had to skip the starter and go straight to the mains as we had limited time(we were taking a train back to Catania). She apologised and assured us that the mains will only take 13 minutes(we order pasta dishes). They came after around 25. We had time to scoff the food, pay the bill, and run for the train. We spent around 1,5h there and only got one course and one drink each. There was no attempt to rectify the situation from anyone. We were there fairly early, and only 3 tables were occupied, so it wasn't too busy for the place to handle. Overall feeling was that no one cared about the poor service other than offering a token apology. Food was nice, not exceptional,...