Ristorante La Darsena — Restaurant in Syracuse

Terrible service!! AVOID! It is a scam! In the menu they say in small print that a change of 2.5 euros will be changed for “bread and cover” (in Italian pan y coperto). Which means bread and cutlery! Which is incorrectly translated!!

He was extremely annoying, rude even when I tried to explain that “bread and cover” means nothing related to cutlery. He added that no one has ever mentioned this!

I never got the bread though and still had to pay for it! He said he would give me a discount of 1.5 euros! This was the minimum as I DID NOT GET BREAD! The owner tried to threat me to charge the whole 2.5 euros if I kept saying how I didn’t agree with it (was it because I am a foreign woman? Would he have done the same to an Italian men?)!

I ordered pasta al mare (pasta with seafood) which took half an hour and I wasn’t going to complain, but I did after I learned about the 2.5 euros fee. The owner told me that half an hour for my food was an “express service”!!!! Outrageous! I only ordered one main dish! Pasta with seafood in it!!!! The restaurant was empty!!!! Inside + outside there were only 6 tables occupied!

The food was below average. Nothing special at ALL!!

DO NOT GO! There are loads of better places in Siracusa

UPDATE AFTER THE RESTAURANT REPLY: they were rude when I was trying to explain the issue. They were not understanding nor nice.. they are just trying to make it less bad and replied my comment but they don’t care. The owner was rude and...

I had lunch three times at this fish / seafood restaurant. It was excellent all three times. For the first lunch, I ordered a seafood “salad” and about 400 grams of red shrimp, half eaten raw, half grilled. The shrimp were picked at the display and weighed. The seafood “salad” was good, but the shrimp were exceptional. Raw and grilled differed in taste, so interesting. The second time, the waiter, who remembered me, suggested “Cigala” lobster simply served with pasta. Cigala lobster looks kind of ugly (see photo) but is exceptionally delicious. Especially as it was still alive when we sent it to the kitchen. For dessert, I simply had a lemon sherbet. This was definitely my best meal in Siracusa. The third time I had three raw oysters and fish soup. All three lunches ranged from very good to excellent. The service was exemplary. The second and third time I was given special treatment as I was a returning guest, but even the first time, the service was already top notch. It looks like this place is mostly patronized by local people, there were a few foreign visitors but...

Very bad attitude towards the guests. They have no respect and they don’t have a clue about how to treat people. We spent about 20 minutes there. Already 1 minute after our arrival, the waiter aggressively attacked us for pulling an extra chair to our table and for not having ordered the food yet. Due to the bad mood, we only asked for one drink and wanted to leave as soon as possible. I asked for the bill, but she refused to bring it out. When I mentioned that in that case we would be forced to leave without paying, she said she would hit me then. I challenged the restaurant manager, he doesn't speak English. Instead of apologizing, he tried to explain his associate's behavior. I do not recommend this place to anyone! It says a lot that at 8 o'clock in the evening there was no one but us in...