Trapani is one of Sicily's temples for good food and wine. Due to the proximity to North Africa the…read morecuisine in the area is very influenced by Arab tradition. For example Couscous is a typical dish here, but differently from North Africa, it's prepared with a fish sauce. Just great.
I was in Trapani for a few hours today and decided to spend them enjoying local food.
I came across this restaurant by accident. I must say I'm very suspicious of restaurants here nowadays, the quality has dropped incredibly as the area has become more and more touristy. Since the traditional couscous takes 6 hours to make, almost all restaurants catering to tourists serve horrible pre-cooked stuff and pass it for authentic, or they get it delivered ready-made, which upsets me very much.
The first thing I asked here was whether the couscous was home made, fresh and prepared according to tradition. They said yes. It wasn't. I was pretty disappointed, also because they charged 13 euros for a portion. The antipasti were ok-ish but nothing special and expensive. The pasta with fish was not bad but the noodles were basically raw.
I was also upset me by the owner's attitude, advertising everything as great, home made and traditional when in fact it wasn't. I'm not only referring to the couscous. At the end of the meal they offered us a shot of a "fantastic herb liquor made with their own hands". Too bad I saw it being poured from a bottle of a known liquor brand....
We ended up paying 107 euros for 4 pasta dishes and one antipasti platter to share, plus 1 litre of local house wine from a jug.
If you guys want to eat traditional Trapani food, look elsewhere, you may get a much better fare for much less money.