Vibes - Ristorante Trattoria — Restaurant in Syracuse

This is a curious place to review, because were such inconsistencies between the food and the service. It's one of the more expensive, swank tourist restaurants which have popped up on the island. The food is great (the zuchinni flowers stuffed with cheese and deep fried are terrific). The prices are steep, however, and the service was laughably bad, and in a way I've never seen before. It was as if they had all watched a movie on service at a higher end restaurant and then tried to copy the movements without really understanding the purpose.

We waited for maybe 30-40 minutes at lunch, on a very hot day, between our first and second courses. There were entire periods of 15-20 minutes were no staff were visible anywhere. The table next to us went to check on what was going on (I think perhaps the cook had gone for a smoke?).

All the staff wear nice uniforms and bluetooth headsets from the 90's (I'm not quite sure of the purpose of these). However, they haven't grasped basic concepts of restaurant service (such as checking your tables, etc.) The lady next to us asked for olive oil and salt with her bread - she was told there was no salt. When I asked for it (twice) I got some.

This isn't the kind of small, dusty road trattoria where you expect these oddities in return for a brilliant pasta alla norma for 10 euros. To succeed at this kind of restaurant, the staff have a...

Had high hopes but this was a major let down… we came for a late dinner, ordered the steak tartare and carpaccio for starter and had to wait over an hour for our dishes!!! (Please note there were around 4 tables left having dinner at that time so not busy..) after asking the staff if they could check the kitchen how long it was still going to be, they came back telling us it was going to be another 5 minutes. So after over an hour wait (in this time the table behind us had already had their entree and mains, including the carpaccio dish..). When the food finally came they told is it took so long because ‘everything was made fresh’… sorry but then you’re just taking a piss with us. Just be honest and tell us that the kitchen lost our order. The table behind us also had the carpaccio and got their food superfast. Really don’t appreciate being treated like that. To be fair the entrees did taste very nice. The risotto and pasta after that however were mediocre. So unfortunately not more then 2 stars. Service bad, arrogant attitude and disappointing mains, prices also crazy high. €100 for 2 starters, 2 mains and 2 glasses...

Incredible place! One of my best dining experiences in two months of travelling around Italy!

Honestly, I rarely come back to the same place while I’m travelling, but Vibes was definitely worth it. The food is just spectacular - classical Italian/Sicilian cuisine with a slight contemporary twist from the head chef Sebastian (very friendly, super experiences chap with a background in some the top restaurants in London l). I had the raw platter on my first visit (24€, all excellent and fresh) and the tuna tartar (16€, wow! Best tartar I’ve had in Italy, the fish was extra tasty and the guacamole base made it that little bit more special) together with the grilled octopus (18€) on my second visit. The octopus is triple cooked - braised, grilled and then finished in an oven. Served with a side of potato mash, a sprinkle of nuts and crunchy deep fried salad leaves 😍🥰 the hospitality was absolutely outstanding too, really pleasant service and bar. Cannot...