Antica Trattoria da Pino in Marsala has been serving authentic traditional Sicilian food, focused on seafood since 1968. It’s a great option for a good meal when visiting Marsala. We found it our selves in the Slow Food Osterie d’ Italia Food Guide.
When we visited on a midweek November evening, we were greeted by very welcoming staff (not always the case in Italy). Many of the guests that arrived through the evening seemed to be regulars and they were greeted warmly, with hugs and kisses.
Our waiter explained the menu and gave his recommendations. Da Pino is specialized in seafood and they put out the catch of the day for display. You can pick your choice and decide how you want it cooked. A guest, that seemed to be a regular, was seated and then showed the biggest lobster I have Ever seen, at his table. At the display, they also had standard size lobsters and many other good things.
For antipasti, they have an amazing buffet of delicious Sicilian specialties: caponata, octopus salad, different dishes with melanzana, sea snails and much more. Seemed like every local guest started the meal with that option – and that was a good choice (and only 8 euros).
We opted for seafood pasta instead of a choice of fish. The special of the day was busciate with red prawns and pistachio – so damn tasty! We also had spaghetti al scoglio. It came with an abundance of vongole and prawns. But it was served with the head start of the red prawns in the other dish, which they’d use to make the “stock” for the scoglio, very nice. The scoglio was great though not as good as the one we had at Scala in Portopalo. It had more pepperoncino so had more of a kick to it but was a bit too salty and we missed a bit more acidity, from tomato or wine.
The wine list included many local wines. We were recommended the house white Grillo, which was a great choice for the meal.
We ended the meal with an espresso, and Marsala wine that came with delicious Cantuccini.
Antica Trattoria da Pino, Via S. Lorenzo, 27, 91025 Marsala TP.