Palermo Ristorante Italiano

Not good! We went to this restaurant for our Christmas Eve celebration. The owner kisses the hand of all the female patrons upon entering this dining establishment, ooh...how...how...tacky. Then it's off to the table to wait, and wait, and wait for someone to greet you. "Sorry we are out of clams, we are out of sausage, we are"...on Christmas Eve? At 6:00pm? Hello! The food was Bland, and my sister-in-laws dinner came 20 minutes after everyone else was served. Her dinner was supposed to be removed from the check,but it wasn't. I would never reccommend this restaurant to anyone, nor will I ever go back. The service was bad and the food was worse. We will continue to our tradition of dining at Outback Steakhouse on Christmas Eve.

Great food compromised by horrible service. Although the restaurant was less than a third full, my party had to wait 15 minutes for bread, 20 for water, and 30 to order everything at once (apparently our server was too busy chumming it up with the table to the right and the dudes at the bar to take an order for an initial round of drinks). When I was finally able to order a beer, it never showed up. In fact, only after I went up and sat at the bar and stared a hole through the beer taps did an owner realize she was dropping the ball. And drop the ball she did. Our meal came out before our drinks arrived, no one refilled our water, bread was scarce, the coffee pot was MIA. Meanwhile, the table to the right got another round (perhaps two), the dudes at the bar were handled twice over, and ownership hung out with their family (?) just a few tables away.

Since I have worked in the restaurant business for more than ten years, I tried politely to intimate to our server and the owner that our table felt overlooked, but neither seemed terribly interested in constructive criticism or the simple fact that a successful restaurant ought to bring in extra staff during a busy week like Christmas. They did throw some dessert at us - a standard ploy to make a disgruntled guest feel better on his way out the door- but I left feeling a bit pissed off at the c-note I had just blown on good food dealt by crap service. My advice to Palermo: don't overlook the table in the corner inasmuch as someone sitting there may work in the business. Instead of telling 10 people about my experience, I get to tell a thousand or more. Merry Christmas...

What Palermo lacks in atmosphere (which I'd give 3.5 stars for), it more than makes for in charm and the best Sicilian/Italian food you will ever eat. The small staff is warm and personal.
The family owned and operated restaurant is about as authentic as it comes, the recipes for the dishes coming straight from "dishes my mother would cook me as a child" (said owner, Giovanni).
Giovanni (also the greeter) was very charming, lightly kissing my wife's hand and later checking with me to ask if everything was to my satisfaction, is the crown jewel of this establishment. But what you should really visit this restaurant for is the food. My first visit, I tried the Chicken Pansotti (housemade chicken and spinach filled pasta with sweet tomato butter cheese sauce) and if I could award more than 5 stars to this restaurant, based on the food alone, I would.
This is the kind of restaurant you could take your family to or celebrate a wedding anniversary at. It is worth the drive to seek out this small, wonderful Sicilian restaurant for a real dining experience in what will be the most delicious, authentic Sicilian food you will find in Northern California.