The Sicilian Butcher — Restaurant in Fort Worth

This place is really beautiful! I definitely want to see what it looks like at Christmas time. I don't know why, but the vibe just felt like old school family Christmas time to me. We just happened to stop by on our way home from a doctor's appointment, and I am very glad we did. It turned into a wonderful date with my husband. The place was pretty empty at 4pm on a Monday. So, we were able to also have some nice banter with our waitress. She was very nice and knowledgeable. I have no clue how authentic this place is since I have never even been to Italy, but I can say it is the best Italian I have had this far in a restaurant. The breads were perfect. We had the Nona bread which was tender and airy on the inside with a thin beautiful crust on the outside. We really enjoyed it with a side of garlic butter. We had the meat and cheese platter. It was beautiful and so good. The fig jam was on the sweet side for me, but that might just be me since I am more of a savory person. My husband loved it. The bread that comes with was the perfect amount of crusty. No accidental croutons here. We also had the Caprese bruschetta. Please forgive anything I may misspell. Anyway... it was amazing. It is one of my favorite things to eat. I even make them at home, I love them so much! I am also very sad right now because as I am writing this, I remembered I wanted to try the polenta. I have never had it before, nor have I tried my hand at making it yet. I was really looking forward to trying it, but I completely forgot to order a side of it. Hopefully I remember next time. My husband had the shrimp ala vodka. While I can't eat shrimp, I tried his pasta. I love a good vodka sauce, and this was it. It had a good spicy heat to it without being over powering. The pasta was perfectly al dente. He loved his dish. I had gnocchi with steak meatballs and the sauce that starts with a P, lol. I couldn't even attempt to pronounce it in the restaurant. Our waitress did a fantastic job pronouncing it for me. I jokingly asked her to try saying that 5 times fast, and she did. That girl needs a raise already, lol. The sauce was good. I think I would go for a white cream sauce next time. The gnocchi was a little overcooked, but not my a lot. They were a little toothsome instead of soft pillows. Again, I'm not an expert on Italian food, so I could be wrong in what the texture should be. Either way, I still very much enjoyed them. I thought it was super fun that they ended up with holes in them. I took a picture of that. Let's talk about the meatballs. They were so good! They were perfectly cooked, sitting on just the edge of possibly being slightly under, so they were very tender and juicy. The inside of the meatballs were 100% soft and pillowy. So good! I was very excited to see they have an eggplant one, so I can bring my vegetarian friend with me for a girls night. So many options for her. To end our meal, my husband had the cutest little cup of espresso. I ate the rest of the green grapes. We did not have any dessert. If you read through that whole review, you already know why. Maybe next time, lol. Our boys were very excited when we can home with all of the leftovers. They enjoyed all of the food as well, even leftover. 😉 I can not wait to go back. My husband said he thinks that is where he wants to go on our date for his birthday. Maybe I can remember to order the polenta...

This restaurant reminded me of my time in Italy, but unfortunately, it fell short in two major areas: service and flavor. Our experience with the waiter was one of the worst we’ve ever had. In fact, calling him our waiter feels misleading because he barely did anything beyond bringing water.

The manager took our drink orders, the bartender delivered them, the manager took our food order, and the chef personally brought out the dishes. Meanwhile, our assigned waiter was nowhere to be found. About 10 minutes after dropping off the water, we were ready to order, but he never returned—so the manager stepped in. Throughout the night, he passed by our table multiple times without acknowledging us. He came back to the table to bring the bill. Probably the most disappointing moment was after our food arrived, we still hadn't received our salad. I stopped him as he went to pass us by again and mentioned the missing salad and his response was "did you order that with me?" My response to him was "we literally haven't ordered anything with you tonight because you haven't been here". He came back and said, "the manager forgot to put it in that was on her". I reminded him "no, you are our waiter it's on you". And he walked away.

I’d rather use this as a teachable moment than just criticize, but honestly, he didn’t give me much to work with. First, playing with your hair while handling food is unsanitary. Second, a good server should always keep an eye on their tables—you should never walk past without at least glancing to see if your guests need anything. Lastly, mistakes happen, but when you realize you’ve been slacking, you should at least try to finish strong. That moment of self-awareness never seemed to kick in. We weren’t asking others to step in—everyone else was taking care of our table because he wasn’t. Even the chef came by more times than he did. I don’t know what we did to offend him, but his attitude was dismissive from start to finish. He earned every bit of the $0 tip, which I absolutely hate doing. I want to say your name but guess what he never gave it to us. Short flamboyantly gay Hispanic male with earrings in both ears I'm talking about you.

Now, onto the food. If there were a restaurant dedicated to bland cuisine, this would be it. Their meatballs seem to be a signature item, so we tried a few different kinds, but none had any real flavor. It felt like they were relying on the sauce to carry them, which didn’t do them any favors. If the meat itself is tasteless, why offer six different types?

I ordered the fazzoletti, which was recommended as their best-selling dish, but it had a fundamental issue. Since fazzoletti is a very thin pasta, shaping it into a pouch means that after a few bites, you’re basically just eating sauce with no real base. Serving it with bread would have helped balance it out.

One thing I couldn’t help but notice was the number of plates going back to the kitchen still full. That’s never a good sign. The presentation was great, and the restaurant itself is beautiful, but if guests aren’t eating their food, that usually speaks for itself.

The one standout? The pull-apart garlic bread. I could have easily overdose on that alone.

Overall, this place has potential, but between the poor service and lackluster flavors, I...

Let me take you on a journey, a journey so chaotic, so baffling, so absolutely deliciously disastrous that I’m convinced it was either a hidden camera show or the restaurant is secretly training the next generation of improv comedians. It all started when we walked in hungry and hopeful. But the universe had other plans. First, the appetizer and drinks we wanted? Out of stock. No big deal, we’re adaptable, flexible, even adventurous. Then my daughter’s meal got completely botched. I'm talking "this-was-not-even-close" kind of botched. Meanwhile, I ordered pasta with eggplant meatballs, only to receive a plate lovingly crowned with… chicken. Not once. Not twice. But THRICE. I began to wonder if eggplant was just a mythical vegetable made up by vegetarians to feel superior. Attempting to make things right, they brought out an entirely new meal…nope I just need 1 meatball…Then came a manager... then another... then possibly a third in disguise. Each one was so sincerely committed to fixing things that the sheer effort somehow caused more errors. It was like watching an episode of "Kitchen Calamity.” And then, this is real!!! They brought us three meatballs but they were all the wrong ones…again. They figured it out and then the right ones just started showing up… meatballs everywhere! No explanation. Just a "here, we heard you like meatballs, so here’s some bonus meatballs." I half expected the chef to pop out and challenge me to a duel. But let me tell you something. Our waitress, Kate, was the real MVP. She owned every misstep like a culinary warrior-poet. She was funny, polite, and radiated “I got you” energy while the kitchen behind her descended into gentle anarchy. She didn’t blame, she didn’t deflect, she just kept serving charm and chaos management with a side of grace. The managers tried their absolute best, bless their hearts (I learned to say that in TEXAS), and they even gave us desserts and a gift card, perhaps as compensation, or perhaps as a peace offering to ensure we didn’t build a Yelp shrine in their dishonor. And you know what? Despite the errors, no, because of the errors, I would 100% go back. Why? Because I haven’t laughed that hard at a restaurant in my life. Because the people cared. And because somewhere in the carnage of pasta and poultry, there was heart. Also, I now own more meatballs than any human reasonably should. Give Kate a raise. Seriously. She earned it. We’ll be back. Maybe next time we’ll order a grilled cheese and see what the...