Biscari - Catania

Each time I gotta catch a late flight I like to offer a dinner to the friend who accompanies me to the. Airport and get a bit buzz : Lovely atmosphere, fine food and good tapas for even just a reinforced aperitif that 's how they call it in Sicily! See you before my next flight :

Despite the location in a quite dark alley just behind the duomo, a friendly place with nice staff filled with Italians. Great mussels (delicious broth) and large portions of pasta. Very nice pasta a la catania with intense fennichel taste. Portions so large you can 't eat a secondi, we tried anyway.... the grilled sword fish was a little dry, the steak with radicchio and barolo was let 's call it a little bizarre. The meat was covered in a purple sauce of radicchio and barolo covering the not so good quality of the meat. Wine by the glas was good and generous and staff was friendly helping to get a taxi after dinner.

We nearly walked by this unassuming restaurant, which is located in the former stables of the Biscari Palace. The entrance on a dark street southeast of the Duomo has no sign, and is marked by two wine barrels, a dim light bulb, and very little else. After our wonderful meal, we realized why they don't need to have an appealing entranceway. The restaurant interior is very characterful with several small rooms and arched ceilings. The cold antipasto plate, at 10 euros, turned out to be six separate bowls of wonderful antipasto, including roasted artichokes, olives, eggplant with bread crumbs, caponata, eggplant with tomatoes, and spinach arancine. The tagliatelle pasta with swordfish, tomatoes and eggplant, for 12 euros, was one of the best pasta dishes I have ever had. The pasta was perfectly cooked and the sauce was complex. Steak filets, at 21 euros, one with a mushroom sauce and the other with an herbed pistacchio topping, were tender cuts of aged beef cooked perfectly as requested. The service in the restaurant is disarmingly casual. When the waitress handed us the menus she turned page by page, pointing out half a dozen dishes that were unavailable that evening. Most of the wines on the dog-eared wine list, adorned with hand-written marginalia, were unavailable, and when the waitress ushered me to the red wine storage area to make a slection, many of the wines they did have were not listed. But excellent wines they have if the patron exhibits patience and persistence. A 2008 Cottanera Barbazzale nerello mascalese for 16 euros was excellent value. Overall, this was an off-beat but memorable and superb dining experience, and we will eagerly anticipate returning on our next trip to Catania.

Found the place when planning to visit Biscari palace. great wines, very nice people, great food, and all thi in the former stables of the ¨Palazzo. Special experience, fond memories.

Atmospheric informal restuarant in wall of Biscari Palace. Food excellently chosen and brilliantly served. Staff engaged to explain wine and food and to offer extras that one might appreciate. Two visits during short stay, and I was the only tourist in sight bliss!