A Mastra - NOTO

We found this restaurant in Noto while walking up and down that baroque style little street and we sat at 9 pm. Straight away the professional waiter brought us some water follow by bread and the best local extra virgin Olive oil I've never tried in my life even being Sicilian! As starter my girlfriend ordered the trio of raw fish with tuna, swordfish and salmon tartare and I ordered the lovely tuna salad with tomato from pachino AND capers both excellent! Our main course was a mix of grilled fish and dentice with Mediterranean sauce. 10 up to 10 for the freshness of the fish! Our wine was a blend of 4 autoctone sicilian grapes wich the waiter recommended us and it matched perfect with the meal we had! I felt in love with this town and surely will back in September for my second holiday! See soon Noto!

Dropped in tonight to what looks from the outside to be a really promising restaurant. Ordered bottle of red wine frappatto. Or another I suggested as waiter said mightn't have that one. Waiter comes back with another frappatto from different producer which he says is €7 more expensive. I asked for the alternative I had requested earlier. Ordered 6 x oysters which were delightful. Fresh from the sea. I had a linguinine in clams and mussel cream. This was disappointing. Pasta was spot on but the clams and mussel sauce was poor. My wife had the Sicilian platter of cheese and meats. Again only ok. Not a thing of interest on the plate. €64 with our €20 wine. Very expensive we thought. Loo was spotless but was let down by no paper to dry hands. The music was too loud and the couple at the table beside us were annoyed by it also. Barry white cd playing on repeat for at least four times before change to Eric Clapton guitar solos on jumpy CD player that sparked intermittently into live and stopped just as randomly. All in all our experience was a place to walk past. Avoid is our recommendation.

For a high end restaurant, this had faults. We arrived about 10 minutes before the restaurant opened and they were happy for us to sit at the table until the kitchen opened. The waitress gave us a menu a 3 paged document which was largely fish with 2 meat dishes. I got a fourth 3 course menu page which we were later told was not being served. The manager took our order. I asked what the kids could have and he gave the option of pasta with ragu or pesto. He offered spaghetti or penne and when they wanted one of each, he asked if both kids could have the same, as it would be easier for the chef! The kids agreed to have penne. The squid risotto with black ink was recommended for me and my husband had the tuna confusing menu as they had tuna, swordfish, octopus in four different ways, in different parts of the menu . We were given some antipasti bread with tomato and olive oil and pesto, and olives which was very nice. Our food came our reasonably quickly and my risotto was delicious. The others liked their food too. I had asked for a green salad and got some shredded lettuce for €5!! In the mean time the table behind us were listening to jazz very loudly on their phone for about 10 minutes which put off a couple who had just sat down who left promptly. One of the table also decided to smoke whilst we are. We tolerated this as we were sitting outside. The three waiting staff said nothing and one even decided to have a chat for 15 minutes with the jazz table. This meant that even though we finished our meal by 8.45pm, we had to ask someone to clear our plates and despite the three staff someone only came about 9.20pm. We then had to ask if they did pudding they gave us the choice of two I was thinking of the wonderful pudding I had had at L 'Assasin in Siracusa the day before and wondered why weren 't there instead! . They described one pudding as a 'wobble ' and the other was a chocolate connolo. This arrived 10 minutes later and was the connolo was think and the chocolate a bit gelatinous. Shouldn 't have bothered! We had to chase down the staff to ask for the bill the one who chatted to the jazz table said she was cleaning a table so she would have to do that first. Another member was busy greeting the table behind us for a long while so couldn 't deal with us.We asked someone else for the bill. We eventually got it at 950. The waiting staff are clearly not coordinated. There were three staff for 5 tables outside and they could have done much better considering how much we paid for the meal! All in all a disappointing way to end our trip to Noto. Eat somewhere else!

We had planned to eat at Manna, but they were fully booked, but a patron there suggested that we walk up the street to A Mastra, and we were so happy we did!! This was one of the better dinners in my life and maybe the best on my trip to Sicily! Each dish was simply prepared with the freshest ingredients, and the flavors just shined! We started with a mixed raw seafood plate with oysters, red shrimp, and langoustine that melted on the tongue! Then Tataki di Tonno that was the best cooked tuna I 've ever had. How they managed to get such an even sire of 1mm and keep the inside completely raw is a mystery! It was just beautiful! Then Carpaccio of Octopus, thin slices of soft and sweet octopus lightly seasoned and on a soft bun of fresh baked bread... Mmmm! Finally I tucked into a Primi of fresh Paccheri and Swordfish with cherry tomatoes and mint! An amazing combination!! They made a good wine recommendation for our meal, and we 're friendly and attentive. A live jazz band set up in the street just as we were finishing up to cap off this beautiful warm evening in Noto!

Good place to eat specific sicilian food and drinks. The atmosphere was very nice and cozy, with candles and nice furniture. The staff was very kind and helpful