Ristorante Al Giardino — Restaurant in Taormina

Far from the madding crowd

I'd have given 4.5 if it was an option.

Friday night in Taormina. Bedlam. After a hard day sunbathing, I told my little darlin' I wanted a draught beer (not bottle.) After paying through the nose for a couple of scoops and prosecco, we headed for food. Out of tune musicians, off key singers and queues for restaurants! And I thought it was busy earlier on in the week!

'Let's go and find a bar off the beaten track for half an hour' and so we went. A few turns on the side streets and ended up at Villa Comunale Di Taormina, the communal park. A quick walk around and back out the way we came. There are 2 restaurants and for no good reason, we chose the one on the left, Restaurante al Giardino. Another good choice.

My sweetness had the Seafood & bean soup then chicken in masala. I had beef carpaccio then fish of the day. Now, we do have some very light criticism; the masala sauce was a tad sweet and the alcohol hadn't been fully cooked out. Standard lettuce has no place with beef carpaccio, it should have been rocket or some other flavoursome leaf. Criticism over, the soup had kidney beans, was a provencale with a touch of chilli heat. A similar sauce without the heat accompanied my fish. We both dunked the sauces with the ciabatta. Finished with coffee. Would we return? Absolutely. The staff were great and we...

Overall, the google reviews DO NOT match with our experience.

There is miscommunication: the host said he will offer us a tasting of wine Castelluccimiano but it turns out the host directly ordered a bottle of wine for us. Without pre knowledge, the wine is only offer by bottle not by glass.

The food is average… to be honest. We ordered a octopus salad (not tender at all), okish pasta with shrimp, grill squid rings (burn taste), a steak (somehow a bit sour taste…), cold sword fish. The taste is very average.

Why offering us salsa in the middle of the meal? Because we are group of asian? I don’t get it….

There are 2.5 euro per person table fee they didn’t mention at all… we went to several nice restaurants here but there were no such a thing.

Personally i love Italian food, sorry to say but have to be honest, this is the worst Italian food i ever had. Just don’t fully trust the google review and look at the lowest review if there are multiple similar ones. There are there...

The food was delicious. Everything was packed with flavour and cooked perfectly. The mixed sharing starter gave you a taste of everything allowing you to sample a range of appetizers. The owner was very attentive, polite and very welcoming. The food arrived hot and at the same time. I would have rated a 5 overall however one of the guests has a severe gluten allergy and unfortunately one of the waiters confused the desserts and my gluten free guest ended up consuming some of a non gluten free cake. This resulted in my guest being severely unwell for the rest of the evening. The owner did rush over to inform us of the error and try to rectify it as well as apologize. We know that the waiter was repremanded so the owner did deal with the issue. Other than this unfortunate incident I would recommend this restaurant but if you have an allergy please...