Giuseppe Costa — Restaurant in Terrasini

Summary: Amazing restaurant with great traditional and creative food, delicious wine and excellent service. For a Michelin star it is affordable. I highly recommend and it was one of my highlight of Palermo :)

Food: Truffle pasta was amazing. Risotto was delicious. Even the focaccia that was pretty simple was so tasty and original.

Experience:

My disappointment from the view and terrasse soonly vanished when we started getting our orders. The waiters were so kind. We wanted to share plate "tapas" style to try most of everything and they didn't understand as it was a weird request for a Michelin star. Still they agreed - suggested amazing plates, made us feel at home, recommended delicious wine. They were kind and they cared and enjoyed the fact that we loved our food. We were coming from the beach so not dressed formerly and still they never looked down at us like they sometimes do in up scale restaurant. Every time we had a request that we could not get through with my broken Italian or English, they would bring more staff to make sure they will figure it out. They really made our experience super pleasurable.

The place and view: I booked this restaurant for my friend birthday and asked for a table with a view. When we arrived an saw the terrace

1)the view is not great as you are not right in front of the sea - you mainly see a terrasse, building and then behind some sea (it's not like those sea-side restaurant where you are eating in front of the sea)

2. They didn't have any fan or water cooler which means for lunch it was NOT possible to eat outside. We asked if they had anything for the heat and when they said no we were thinking "so how do they expect us eating outside if it's 40 degrees". It's definitely not possible in summer...

This restaurant defrauded me out of €200. Not only that, but they refuse to respond to my inquiries on the topic. I am FLOORED at this behaviour from a Michelin star restaurant. I booked a table. I then got a cancellation that reads, “We are sorry to inform you that due to unforeseen circumstances, Il Bavaglino restaurant will be unable to honour your booking on Monday, 24 october 2022 20:15.” So naturally, I made other arrangements. Imagine my surprise to receive a “no show” fee of €200. I assumed this was an honest mistake and contacted the restaurant and shared a copy of the cancelation email. They informed that the cancellation email was an error on the part of their third party booking company…. But refused to refund the fee saying it was not their fault…!!! I have since followed up 3 times and they refuse to acknowledge my attempts. I am now going through the dispute process with my credit card company. I could not possibly recommend that anyone book a table here. It’s a shame because I was so excited to try their food but this has been utterly...

Never have I experienced such terrible service in a restaurant. Even though the views were stunning and the wine and food were good, it could not make up for the total lack of service we experienced. When our food arrived, they forgot to bring us plates and cutlery, so after ten minutes we had to ask several waiters for it. They also did not present the food (a tasting menu!) but just placed it on our table and left. When the weather changed and we asked to be moved inside, they said yes and asked us to wait a few minutes. After 20 minutes in freezing wind and cold, new guests who arrived (and were obviously friends of the staff), were moved inside instead of us. Even when we asked to pay, so we could leave, they made us wait for 15 minutes, ignoring us as is we were less important guests than their friends. They did not even apologise or try to make up for us sitting in the freezing cold, being ignored by them. I really hope their service level improves significantly, because this was not worth the price and certainly not any Michelin...