La cisterna del moro — Restaurant in Taormina

Bland food and awful service.

First of all we walked in and the waiter came to sit us at another table that another waiter was clearing, the two waiters had an argument (presumably about the fact that he wasn't done yet) and then one waiter proceeded to put a tablecloth over the still dirty table.

I ordered a small (0.25L beer), I received a beer in a smaller glass that was now even filled up to the 0.2L line. The tables were quite close together and the couple next to us insisted on watching several noisy videos on their phones. The view was beautiful.

Next the waiter took our order (he was very friendly and patient). However my starter arrived within about a minute of us ordering, although fast service is good, having it come that quickly tells me it wasn't prepared fresh. I waited for the other starters to come, but they did not so I started. A while later they brought the starters for the other guests. We continued eating, and before any of us had finished the starters, they brought two of the 4 mains. There wasn't space in the table with all the plates at this point so the waiter had to juggle some bread to another table to try to make some semblance of space. We finished the starters and again waited for the rest of the mains to arrive but again they did not. We started eating and when we had almost finished the other 2 mains arrived.

The food itself was bland, it didn't taste bad but it just didn't taste of much. I tried two of the other mains, they looked and tasted like they had been frozen and warmed up again, especially the 'breaded fish' which looked like a ready meal.

Nothing was particularly terrible, but the combination of all these things and the general lack of professional standard tells me this is a place I...

Allright, where to start… I promised them not to write a review because it would be so terrible after I tried to show them my total dissatisfaction with the diner. But, because there was no actual compensation (beside the limoncello that was as well, not, even tasteful) I decided to still write a review. This in order to help anyone planning to go here understand what they sign up for.

So, let’s start. We ordered a sword fish. This has been one of our favourite new dishes we have discovered in Sicily. Well, this restaurant managed to ruin this dish. Dry, no taste, over cooked. I’ve told my girlfriend, well this is tasty, if it was canned and served to cats.

Next to that, we had risotto with seafood… I’m sure any beginner in cooking can make it better at home, taste of rice was mediocre, but the clams were absolutely not okay, 0 taste, no sign of freshness and very sandy. After each clamshell I ate I was chewing on sand.

This was the food. We obviously can’t tell about any other dish because we weren’t offered to try something else either. We might be unlucky with these two dishes but, I hardly doubt that…

So service… yes, the waiters are nice, but I’m not okay with owners who don’t care about customers opinion and still allow their dissatisfied customers to pay 75!!!! Euros for 2 complete disastrous dishes…

We’ve been travelling for the last few days in Sicily and we can say, for good food, don’t try this restaurant . We ate right after we left the restaurant somewhere else and again it was not amazing. Maybe Taormina is not the place for the gastronomical experiences.

For good food I would recommend Syracuse! Best place of the...

Our first evening in Taormina and we’d wandered round taking in the beauty of the town but were also on the look out for some tasty food. We just happened to come across the little alley leading to this lovely restaurant with a sea view. The restaurant was very busy but the waiter found us a table at the edge of the balcony. Perfect for drinking our lovely aperol spritz looking at the moon shining across the sea and little bats flying round the trees beyond the terrace! Magical!

We had a pizza and the cannelloni which tasted wonderful. The pizza was the best I’ve ever had and it wasn’t mine! 🤣. I just had to keep pinching bits. I saw a review saying that the food was salty - it really wasn’t and I don’t like salt. My opinion of course.

The staff were very friendly but not in your face, and they worked very hard on this busy evening. The menus were very reasonably priced. I’m not sure what I expected but had heard that Taormina was very expensive. I suppose it’s subjective but the meal was definitely less than I would need to pay in the UK for the same meal. My only slight disappointment was the 12.5% service charge added to the bill. I always pay for good service but would prefer to add at my discretion, and it would usually be 10%.

I would definitely go back if we visit Taormina again and thoroughly recommend this...