Palermo Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in San Jose

Great food. Lovely atmosphere. Attentive staff. Pricing is good for what you get. The patio dining was great pre-COVID; it is even more appreciated now (and they do a wonderful job of following protocols).

So why the missing star? Well, I hesitated to write this review. I have been going here for several years now. Always enjoy the experience (see above). But my most recent visit (March 23) with my friend, his wife, and his mother was troubling.

Why? As we ended the meal, our server (who I recall having waited on us on several previous occasions) came over and said, after dessert, "before you go, would you like some limoncello?" We nodded and I immediately smiled. First, I didn't recall this happening here before. Second, this is a long-standing tradition in lots of Italian/Mediterranean restaurants. As close by as another favorite Italian place in North Beach, and as far away as Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and even Barcelona, this is a nice gesture: you finish a meal and the server brings you a little shot of something-or-other as a thank you. Never expected; not consistently done; always appreciated. So we received our three shots (one abstained), paid the bill, and left.

It was only later that my friend, somewhat hesitantly, mentioned to me that they charged us for those three shots (about $13 a piece, I think, as I didn't pay this time). I was dumbstruck.

Did we ask if they were going to charge? No. Do our expectations drive what businesses do? No (well, somewhat . . . hence reviews like this). But this strikes me as a troubling, hopefully one-off, version of surreptitious up-selling. Thing is, the waiter (who is a nice person and delivers great service) was playing off a tradition that, as I mentioned, is long-standing for places such as this. And I have to think that he wasn't going rogue in doing this, given that this has never happened before, But I don't know.

My advice? Keep the tradition and offer guests a nice free drink at the end of the meal. Or, perhaps, change the tactic and say: "Would you like to purchase a digestif to end your meal?" It is really that simple.

All I ask is that businesses be transparent. I know they need our money now more than ever. Will I return to Palermo? Of course. But a short refresher course for the staff might be in order. You don't want to turn away long-standing customers who love what you do by doing something that...

I really hate writing bad reviews. I just don't understand how Palermo has so many positive reviews. I'm not sure if they just changed ownership or got a new chef or what, but literally everything we ordered was awful. Half our party showed up early and started with a round of drinks. They were terrible. The Bloody Mary is CARBONATED and was rimmed with SUGAR, salt, and spice. My gf ordered the sex on the beach and couldn't stomach more than a sip. It was weirdly bitter. Honestly we should have left after this, but I was fooled by all of the positive reviews.

The garlic bread was 3 pieces of Texas toast cut in half, which is absurd for $12. It was the best tasting thing we had all night. The aranchine was fine, but very bland. There is oil and vinegar on every table, but honestly I don't think the oil is actually olive oil. It had zero flavor and was extremely pale in color. I love dipping my bread in oil and vinegar and I ate my bread with butter and vinegar because the oil had zero flavor. I felt like a weirdo doing it, but the oil on the table was gross.

I ordered the crab ravioli because I read reviews saying it was fresh house made ravioli and they best thing on the menu. It was neither fresh nor homemade. It was gross, unseasoned, and DROWNED in sauce. The crab filling was GREY and FISHY. The pasta had the consistency of canned chef boyardi, but even more mushy. Honestly it was one of the worst things I can recall eating. My partner had the chicken piccata. Nothing was seasoned and the sauce was gummy. The chicken was tough and had zero color. The potatoes and veggies on the plate had literally zero seasoning. She could only manage to eat 2 bites.

To top it all off, our server was tending to a party of 20, so it took 30 minutes after being seated before he came to take our order. He was nice and apologetic, so I don't blame him, but it added to the terribleness of the night. We didn't bother trying to complain while we were there because there really wasn't anyone to complain to. It was also my friends 40th birthday and I didn't want to ruin the night.

My friends son ordered a pepperoni pizza, which was the best looking thing at the table... I wish we had just eaten that. I can't honestly remember a worse meal and it cost us almost $400 for 5 adults and 2 toddlers. I am floored at all of the reviews calling this authentic...

This was one of the most disappointing dinners I’ve had in a while. We were so excited to try it out as it is a popular local spot. The space itself is cute and has a LOT of tables and staff. We were seated quickly on a Friday night at 6 and hosts were great. Got waters and drinks ordered quickly. Our server, David, stopped by 10 minutes after water and drinks came to help us order food. He was nice, we also told him we were celebrating a birthday. Food came quickly and was quite good! However things quickly soured. David did not check on us once the rest of the night. Our plates were cleared by another staff member and we ended up sitting at our table for 18 minutes (yes we checked and have time stamps) without anyone checking on us. Eventually we had to get out of our seats to run someone down to get a dessert menu. We waited ten minutes with the menus closed until we had to flag another waiter down to order dessert. Dessert arrived and was great! Once dessert was cleared we waited 10 minutes, and had to get up to get David to ask for the check. We immediately had our card ready and sat around, making eye contact with David multiple times over the next 10 minutes and he did not check on us once. We had to wave to flag him down and he laughed and said oh I didn’t know you guys were still here! Which is crazy because he walked by us many times!

Total time there was 2 hours, unfortunately out of that time period almost half of it was waiting for help and a staff member. He spilled ice onto the birthday persons pasta bowl when sloppily pouring iced tea and almost knocked over the lamp on the table onto that same person. We saw other people getting sparklers for the birthday dessert and got nothing too. We sat with empty drinks almost the whole time.

Ultimately it was very disappointing, since food was good. But at this price I’d expect to be able to get service without having to get up after waiting 15 minutes each time!!

Looked around the room and every other table David had seemed to be in a similar situation, looked annoyed sitting at an empty table. Unsure if this is a singular one off or an issue of an understaffed day but this was very disappointing.

Would not recommend, I’m shocked the manager and owner would let this service...