PESCOMARE TRATTORIA PIZZERIA FORNO A LEGNA — Restaurant in Syracuse

The good:

Food is just OK at the price advertised on the menu (this becomes relevant later)

Beautiful courtyard location

Only a short wait for a table at 9pm

Good mix of clientele

Accommodating for little ones: high-chair etc

The bad:

Service is abysmal. Slow, impolite and will basically ignore you unless you gesture like a mad person. Perhaps try a novely hat to get a waiter's attention

The wait all-round is extraordinary. We had one course each (pasta, calamari, veal steak, all nice quick dishes) and end-to-end we were there for an hour and a half

Despite us ordering only one course (we were a table of four), each plate was brought out at completely different times. Between the first plate and the last was about a twenty-five minute wait. With that in mind, don't expect to actually eat together like you would in... any other restaurant in the world. Instead three of you watch the fourth person eat while one of you persistently reminds the waiting staff of the remainder of your table's food, with absolutely no apology offered.

The ugly:

We asked for the bill at the table three times, twice in Italian. The first two staff acknowledged then simply ignored. The last person we asked told us to go to the till.

At the till is your bill, in barely legible pencil and with no prices on it. The waiter then adds each item's value (from "memory") into the till under nondescript categories such as "first course", "second course", etc.

I asked him why he rang two portions of fries up at 2 Euros more than stated on the menu. He acquiesced and reduced it to the actual value. I then asked for a menu and we went through each line item individually.

Would you believe it, the price was several Euros more than stated on the menu for three of the five dishes we ordered. What a surprise. It turns out the process of having no individual line items on your till and keeping barely legible paper bills with no prices on is open to charging the customer more than stated, who knew!? Note that none of the incorrect items were rung up for LESS than stated on the menu. You be the judge.

By the way, as you ask for your bill to have the correct prices on it, you will be berated by the matriarch of the restaurant, who will bizarelly demand (in Italian) in the middle of the dispute that you pay in cash only and who clearly can't comprehend that some foreigners understand a lot more Italian than she thinks.

This is a really bizarre way to do business and clearly opens the management up to accusations that at best they need to learn to count and at worst that their method of "calculating" your bill: on paper, from memory, at the desk rather than at your table, with an ancient till that has badly programmed line items on it and an older lady shouting at you in Italian, is actually DESIGNED to lure unsuspecting foreign customers into paying more than advertised.

To top it off, there was an undeserved 2 Euro cover charge that didn’t get waived despite the complete mess we ended up in.

It's a shame, because in the right hands that restaurant could be one of the best on Via Cavour based on location alone. And all this for a few Euros extra. I'm sure it...

UPDATE - on top of it all, they gave me FOOD POISONING. Been up all night from it. I will be reporting them to Food safety Authority.

PLEASE AVOID THIS PLACE.

They are thieves, unprofessional and the food WILL make you sick.

I have never written a bad food review as we have restaurants in the family and I can understand people having a bad day. This place is VILE. Falsely lured in by the beautiful courtyard setting, I asked the waiters at the door if they had fresh pasta and they said yes. I reconfirmed this and we sat down. Rude wait staff: If you asked them anything (like a tissue or cutlery for example), they would shout at another colleague in front of you but not bother to respond nor bring what you’d asked for. Ethnic discrimination: There were Asian waitstaff who the Italian waitstaff spoke to like servants and were verbally demeaning to in front of customers. It was really uncomfortable to witness. 3: We waited for 1hr15 for one of the starters (which was cold and soggy) to be served at the same time as one of the mains. After 25 minutes the other main was still not served and upon enquiring still we were ignored. Finally I spoke to the manager who not only didn’t apologise or acknowledge it, she shouted at colleagues in front of us and then started goading me for having the audacity to question why the dishes were late?! Honestly, the sheer lack of professionalism let alone hospitality was APPALLING. When I explained that my partners main was freezing and my main at this point had not been served for 35 minutes she told me “I don’t care how the rest of the world serve it, this is how we do it in my place”. 😂🙈 4: Food: Fried starter was soggy and cold. Wrong salad was brought later. Both main dishes were undercooked (see pictures). The pizza was wet and the toppings slid off. The pasta was shop bought, hard (not ‘Al denté’, we’re talking barely made it into the pan undercooked). And to make it worse, frozen and undercooked fish and clams. I had 2 bites and had to leave the rest of the pasta when I realised the seafood was undercooked. Oh and to add, two small stale hard bread rolls were added 😂

5: The bill: They overcharged the bill at the end. The manager added a few extras in. Absolute crooks. We didn’t have the energy to argue so just paid and left.

Moral of the story, TRUST THE REVIEWS. Don’t be fooled by the ambience of the courtyard. From the rude and discriminatory waitstaff, to the incredibly unprofessional and incompetent thief manager, to Gordon Ramsay’s worst nightmare chefs, please do not waste a night of your holiday on this place. Worst restaurant experience I have had in my life (makes McDonalds seem Michelin star). 🤮🤢 And to top it off, my holiday is ruined now with food poisoning. Lost money not just on last nights thievery but also today on excursions because I’ve spent all night lying on the bathroom floor and am in no fit...

Antosphere -the place and surroundings - were the ones that invited us in this place. Very inviting waiter showed. us way to our table.

Full of hopes to continue our beautiful evening we have enjoyed our wine and were waiting for a food to come. Caponata.- which we are quite fond of - arrived totally immersed in oil. Questionnable taste ... questionable consistency, definitely not the quality we were used to or expected. Not here, in Sicilia, not here, in the center of Ortigia, where people certainly should now how to prepare such a fundamental dish. We asked for a spoon and a glass to extract the excess of the oil, in hope to continue the good evening.

When the waiter asked if all is "tutto bene" ... we have informed about our discomfort related to this food. Waiter walked away in silence.

Then, second dish arrived ... on octopus, that is really hard to miss in this part of the world. Proud Sicilians should definitely know how to do that. Surprise, surprise ... some pieces were chewy, some OK, definitely not a plate one could expect from "PESCOMARE" - specialised in seafood - restaurant.

As soon as we were putting our forks away, the waiter appeared form nowhere. His initial inviteness dissapeared, and he begun taking the dishware away from us...

Italy - as we know it living here for quite some time - is a place, where food consumption is an experience, a way of enjoy life, not just consume whatever is on your plate. If someone wish tu be hurried up .... could pick a trip to McDonalds.

After that "experience" we just wanted to flee the place so we quickly wanted to pay and move to another place. After some "magic" with calculation we were informed about generous "discount". We just paid, but asked for a receipt, to just see if we were ripped of (just for our knowledge). The items on the receipt totally did not match what we were having. OK we thought, we just leave and forget the place.

We moved to another place we know from good and constent quality, but ... damn ... we could not enjoy nothing of that. A dreaded food poisoning gave in. We spent an evening sweating, vomiting and feeling really ill.

A TOTAL DISGRACE TO PROUD SICILIANS. Sicility is famous for delicius vegetables and fruit, incredible olive oil and intense flavor. Also warm and generous people, full of pride honour.

This place was a total opposite of the values Siciliy should represent. We will never return there. What a shame...