Ristorante StraVento (Trapani) — Restaurant in Trapani

Overcooked and largely tasteless food ruined our last night.

Don’t be deceived by the nice garden setting and the location right across from the town’s main fish market. What the staff make up in being realtively friendly, they lack in training and attention.

We were brought the drinks to start but no bread was offered. So we sat at an empty table sipping our increasingly warm, filled to the top, glass of white wine for 20min until the starters arrived.

The primi of ‘busiate’ we both had were fine, albeit lacked flavour and seasoning. The secondi were a disaster. My partner’s grilled shrimps were ok but plain; however my tuna and swordfish skewer was so tough and brown from overcooking (isn’t the tuna meant to be ‘red’?) I struggled to cut it with a knife. The staff offered swordfish a la Siciliana instead, which was better in that it was edible, but still dry thanks to a thick layer of breadcrumbs and nuts - not like it was described (‘citrusy’) nor with anything which would give it some moisture like tomatoes, olive oil, citrus etc. The fish arrived after my partner finished her meal. The empty table was not a clue enough for the staff to bring me cutlery, which I had to request once I’d managed to get their attention (the waitress came to ask how the replacement swordfish was despite not having been able to start it). All three dishes - the shrimps, the skewer and the swordfish - all arrived with nothing else but a side of shredded lettuce and pickled onions.

I was told we won’t be charged for the skewer, but we were. Nothing else was offered to us but the bill. We left the restaurant promptly feeling extremely...

My partner and I were staying in the local area for a week in Trapani, and had found ourselves intrigued by the presentation of the restaurant, the gates, the outdoor eating area and the menu itself.

We booked our table for two with ease, specifically for the outside area on a Saturday evening and were facilitated with a lovely table near the plants, busy enough for an atmosphere but intimate enough to enjoy each other's company.

The meal starting from the bread, oil and starters were great. The only letdown was the polpette which was five small meatballs for the cost of over 20 euros served with zero sides or accompaniments. Thus I felt as if it was not fully worth the cost due to the lack of elements to the dish itself. During our time at the restaurant I used the toilet facilities as any patron would and saw a member of staff cornering and stomping on a large cockroach close to both the kitchen and the inside eating area. I had just had my starters at this point and was looking forward to my main course (polpette) but already felt rather nauseas from the overall cockroach situation. I understand that the cockroach situation could not have been avoided, but it was simply not great to see the staff eliminating the cockroach in front of the customers/patrons.

My partner's dish (mixed tempura seafood) was fantastic and good value for money, which I would definitely recommend for all the seafood fans out there and overall is a fantastic taste of Trapani.

The wine selection was great overall but the service itself was a bit slow. This, given the polpette letdown, led to an overall disappointment...

Very avarage, even disapointing. We chose this place because of reviews and it seemed nice. In reality it was as follows.

About food: 1) apetizer was brought to us and in front of our eyes waiter clumsily droped it knocking over the dish and after that tried to scoop back up, atter several tries he went back to kitchen. After a while he brought back the same dish but stacked back together. Of course it was not hot anymore. Also shrimps were not cleaned of intestants and it’s contents. Overall taste was not bad but was completly ruined by before mentioned things. The dish is not worth its price.

2. main dishes were fish with chickpeas and fried asorti of seafood. Fish with chickpeas was dry, lacked seasoning and was not enjoyable. I think changing the topping would help. Deep fried seafood asorti was completely lacking any taste - just fish dumped in flour and deep fried - thats it. French fries were bad also.

About seating: When we arrived waiter asked if we wanted to sit inside or out in garden - we chose garden, only later we discovered that there are also tables by beach, which were not...