Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Feeling the need to rant

Usually I like to keep a positive tone on my blog, but today I feel the need to warn my friends and everyone who reads this blog about a restaurant to avoid.  I'm a foodie, a food snob, and I don't like to eat mediocre food.

This past weekend we were invited to a friend's birthday party.  Now I will say that I think the birthday girl had a very good time, and that is what counts, but I seriously doubt we will ever set foot into this restaurant again. I will also mention that I was really looking forward to a good dinner and was quite hungry.  I didn't enter this place with a negative attitude of any kind.

The culpit: Paradise Restaurant in Motta S. Anastasia.
Strike one: the name of the restaurant.  We are in Italy, shouldn't it be Paradiso?  This was a big red flag for me that they cater to Americans, not to locals.
Strike two: the menu was exclusively in English.  Seriously? See strike one.
Strike three: the food, the service, the cleanliness (or lack thereof).

At first glance Paradise seems like a decent restaurant, but on closer inspection I noted that the paper napkins were wrinkled (not so nice on a set table) and the white tablecloths were a bit dingy and stained.

I ordered Penne with Crab in a creamy tomato sauce.  It sounded good!  The price was a bit low for seafood so I just expected there to be a very meager amount of crab in the dish, which would have been fine.  What I got was VERY different. My pasta had a massive pile of FAKE crab on top of it! YUCK YUCK YUCK! We are on an island with fantastic seafood, how dare they use fake crab?  And even worse advertise the dish as crab?  I was horrified.  I ate some of the pasta, the sauce was okay, but I was pretty much disgusted by the fake crab.

In addition to the horrible food the service was abysmal.  My pasta took forever and I sent back my second dish because they brought it out after everyone else was already finished.  We were about to cut the birthday cake!

In over three years I had NEVER had a bad meal on this island.  My favorite thing about Sicily is the food.  Even the low-end eateries have always served decent, even if not memorable dishes.  Paradise restaurant is the worst in Sicilian cuisine that I have experienced.  Please, please, please avoid this place. It is a total waste of money!

There, I think I have the rant out of my system now.  Please go and enjoy the food of Sicily, just not at Paradise!

3 comments:

Trav'ler Jenn said...

Sounds awful! Glad I have missed it. And you know I would have had words with the manager:)
And I think this is a positive blog. You have spared many from the agony of bad food and poor service.
Two forks up for you and your bad food warning!

Catherine "Cat" Evans said...

say it like it is...
way too much good food over there to waste even an hour with .... whatever you would call it....
I agree with Jenn

J&J said...

I agree. We ate there a couple of times and I was not impressed.