Austin G.
Yelp
Service 8 out of 10, food 6 out of 10, alcohol 7 out of 10, ambiance 6 out of 10.
The whole place is decorated and themed like some kind of cheesy Italian restaurant. And not cheesy in the good tasty kind of way, cheesy and the cliche cultural appropriation kind of way. They had black and white tiny tiles on the floor and all the waiters wore classic red blazers. A real attraction for elderly folks who think Italian food is a novelty.
They started us off with fresh bread covered in an olive oil, spice, and hard cheese mix. It was grossly over salted for my taste. The bread, if it had not been fresh, I would not have eaten it. It felt like it was cheap and more air than bread. Very little substance to it.
My wife and I ordered drinks. The manager seemed to have a good bit of knowledge about wines. He recommended a wine for my wife and she enjoyed it. I had a mixed drink called Sicilian Breeze. It supposedly had basil in it but it did not come through and was disappointing, especially for a self proclaimed Italian restaurant.
They had a lot of classic Italian restaurant dishes, but I was starting to feel like it was a superficial emulation.
We came for the tiramisu, but I saw they had a caprese and I love caprese salad. My favorite feature of a caprese is the basil, but the cohesiveness between all the components make it truly wonderful. The caprese here is mediocre in my opinion for several reasons. First, the portion was offensive for $15. It was also made with cherry/grape tomatoes. Those two aspects bothered me since it was plated as a salad vs appetizer. I am open to my expectations being challenged, but this to me felt more like pushing profit margins. The basil was weak. Maybe it was old and used in an inadequate proportion. Either way it was underwhelming.
The balsamic reduction was tasty and I ordered the salad without red onions because I wanted a caprese and wanted to avoid digestive issues.
The mozzarella was in balls with the theme of small bites. It felt like the salad was assembled from a bunch of boxes. Like they bought mozzarella and grape tomatoes at Costco, used month old basil and simply assembled it. I can understand this from a logistics perspective, but at the price point of $15 for a side salad sized portion I felt shorted. This is an expensive restaurant with entrees generally between $25-$40. They aren't expensive because the food is good, they are expensive because they are next to bocage and they want to exclude people.
We ordered a margarita pizza on the rice crust and tiramisu next. I didn't expect the crust to be great even though I've personally made many gluten free crusts that were indistinguishable from wheat. That just what you expect with restaurants since they don't have to care. I was impressed that they were making an effort and I won't review the crust. I will review the pizza, however. Calling the margarita pizza is being generous. Once again, grape tomatoes. The pizza was underwhelming. This was, however, the first time during the meal I tasted basil. So that was nice. It tasted old. The cheese was probably the same as the caprese.
The tiramisu was flavorful and the lady fingers were not soggy. They were light and fluffy. The cream was nice and there was a strawberry on top that actually was quite sweet, which is important for a dessert. Otherwise, it's garnish and wasted. The major drawback of the tiramisu was the chunks of partially ground coffee. This was an unrefined part of the dish and took away from the experience. The texture was not appealing.
Also, noticing that we were the youngest patrons in the restaurant by decades it seems like this restaurant is appealing to its base not because it serves good food, but because it has sentimental value. And likely also because it excludes poor people in a superficially posh part of town.
Our server from Chalmette was fantastic.
I have eaten in Italian restaurants, cafes, and trattorias in Italy and in other countries and I have eaten with Italian Americans at family dinners. I have also sought out recipes and tried cooking myself. I will not be returning to this restaurant to eat, unless maybe a good friend wants to have a birthday there or something.
To conclude in a few short statements, Palermo had good, but not amazing service, cheesy ambiance like a second rate Epcot display, lazy, overpriced food, and uninspired.
