Eat Pizzeria Catania – An Eating Let Down

I like to keep it pretty positive on Sicily Ciao here, but at the same time I think its important to point out disapointments as well.   We had a group of about 8 of us that were starving after a night at Teatro Massimo Bellini.  Luckily we were still early in “Italian time” for dinner and were able to sit down right away as we basically opened the place.  Eat Pizzeria is a place that I have been wanting to try because it is ranked as one of the top 3 restaurants in Catania on TripAdvisor.  I use TripAdvisor a lot and especially when we are traveling in different areas of Europe.  Its reviews have resulted in a lot of great meals and experiences.  Unfortunately this wasn’t the case for us at Eat Pizzeria.  The service and everything related to that was great, but the pizza was just disapointing. 

Pizza is such touchy subject for people.  Its almost as if you are insulting someone’s baby when you explain your disapointment in their favorite pizza place.  Usually I get out of the confrontation by saying “Oh they must of had a bad night”, but in reality Im probably not going back to find out.  The pizza at Eat Pizzeria was just not anything special, but maybe its because we have turned into local pizza snobs after being here for 2 years.  It was still edible, but I guess I just was expecting more with all the rave reviews on TripAdvisor.  We are talking about people saying “Best pizza they have ever had”  “Best pizza in Italy”… and that is just ridiculous. 

One thing that I have noticed by using TripAdvisor a lot is that you need to beware of fake reviews.  There are websites out there now that will provide a restaurant with a large number of positive reviews for a price.  TripAdvisor reviews can make or break a restaurant these days, so its very important to have a positive profile for your restaurant.  A restaurant can buy 20 reviews for around $100.  Im not completely sure that this is the case with Eat Pizzeria, but it does seem a little fishy that most of the reviews are in English (by people with less than 5 reviews) and if you look at the negative reviews they are by local Italians… and most of them are disappointed with the pizza too. 

So overall we might give this place another shot if the opportunity comes up, but with all the restaurants to try in Catania its unlikely.  Please tell me if Im dead wrong on this place! 🙂