Catania Ristorante Italiano

Catania Ristorante Bishop St. Is not as good as the Fort St. Server was not very friendly. When asked about «al dente» he said it was all pre cooked and there was no choice. Would not recommend or return.

04÷08÷16
ugh. when a co-​worker said, «hey, let’s get some pasta for lunch» I didn’t realize she meant Catania’s.
food: I ordered the mini chicken marsala [$ 7+] .
the okay: portion was decent for a mini. a nicely breaded chicken breast atop of a bed of spaghetti noodles with loads of mushrooms on top.
the bad: there wasn’t any flavor to it. all I could taste was butter. I had my friend try it and she thought it was terrible and apologized for even suggesting this place.
I still stand by my earlier verdict below. thank goodness I didn’t have to pay otherwise I would be really disappointed.
verdict: sad, disappointed and hungry. I won’t be going back which is sad because I’ve been going there for years. even the girls at the office agree that the quality and quantity has changed for the worse. oh well.

Everything I ve tried here has always been good. Pasta, salad, dessert… All good and usually served quickly. For the price, this is unbeatable. There are dishes here that remind me of dishes I ve had at assaggio…
I think Catania is a good place for lunch if you’re craving Italian.

If you’re in the downtown area, you should check this place out! My office is near here so sometimes we cater our department lunch, and its always been great! Lasagna is a favorite of ours. When I’ve gone on my own I’ve ordered the chicken Caesar salad and the vegetable linguine. The regular sized salad was HUGE, I could only eat about half of the chicken and I was stuffed. Portions here are pretty big if you’re looking for a great deal on delicious food.

They need to update their hours… Came in around 430pm because Unilocal and their sign said they closed at 730pm but instead I find a closed door with chairs put up and workers cleaning up… what?!

100 Unilocal Review Challenge 2015: ⁹⁸⁄₁₀₀
I followed my nose to my coworkers desk. There I saw a large takeout box containing a bed of spaghetti noodles topped with two huge pieces of chicken drenched in sauce and mushrooms. But where was it from?
Catania, that’s where!
So I scheduled in «a trip to Catania» into my calendar and this past Thursday, I made my way down to Remington College food court. I was kindly greeted when I entered Catania, with just a handful of people in front of me waiting to order. At first I knew for sure I would oder what my coworker had but as I studied the menu my mind flopped back and forth between all the delicious menu items. It was now my turn to order and I decided, in a panic, to order what I came here for, the Chicken Sorrentino ($ 10.75). After a few minutes, my order was called and I picked up my heavy, large, hot takeout container and happily headed back to the office. I joined my fellow coworkers in the lunch room and even before I opened the container my coworkers asked «What is that? Smells amazing!», indeed it did. I was not disappointed at the contents of my takeout container. It was fully loaded with two large pieces of chicken with eggplant & cheese melted on top, sitting on a generous amount of pasta soaked with dark sauce and mushrooms. Unfortunately, the sauce lingered at the bottom of the Syro foam container but it was so packed with food I had to eat some to allow space for me to mix around my noodles for even distribution of sauce! The chicken went so well with the eggplant and melted (mozzarella?) cheese but without the topping, the chicken itself is definitely dry. The noodles were al dente and were complimented by the sauce-​soaked mushrooms.
I only devoured ²⁄₃ of the Chicken Sorrentino, saved the rest for dinner and had a serious knack-​attack post lunch. If you’re hungry, and I mean STARVING you should head to Catania Ristorante Italiano because you will definitely get your monies worth in portion size!

Cheap, quick and delicious! The chicken Marsala mini portion is SO good, and extremely filling. Only about $ 7!

I got the chicken vegetable linguini with garlic sauce. It had barely any garlic and was wayyyy too bland. I had to sprinkle a lott of oregano and red pepper so it had some spice and flavor. Not worth $ 12, although the portions are huge. With a tiny appetite like mine, I could easily make three portions out of this.

Pasta is soo delicious! Their daily specials always flavorful and hearty. The staff is also very friendly. This is also a BYOB restaurant. Wish I knew this before coming, I would have brought a bottle of wine :)
I will definitely visit here again!

The quantity of food makes up for it being mostly «meh» as far as flavors good. I like their chicken parm and sausage sandwiches. The small combos are plenty of food, the flavors are ok, nothing great, service is quick, and prices are fairly cheap.

An awesome place to get your pasta on for lunch. They also have salads (bean salad, pea n bacon salad, chicken curry, etc). My usuals are the salad/​sandwhich combo, which is the chicken parm with white bean salad. Or the chicken picatta… sooo goood. If you want a tasty carb load, get it here.

I’ve been wanting to try this place for a few months now. My mother looooves pasta, so I thought I’d treat her to some delicious-​looking pasta, where the portions are generous and the prices seemed decent.
I had business in downtown and parked in the Ali’i Place. Since that was close to Catania, it was the perfect opportunity to check out the place.
I ordered the Lasagna and the Shrimp Anchovy Olio (I had them substitute shrimp for the chicken — extra charge). I also ordered two garlic breads at $ 1.25 each. They said it would take a lil while to make my order so I paid for everything and waited.
There seemed to be a steady stream of customers so I assumed the food must be good. Half an hr later my order was finally done… it took that much longer because they had to make more garlic bread.
The lasagna had a pretty good taste to it but the noodles were a bit overcooked in my opinion. The garlic bread was ok. The Anchovy Olio, was the worst I have ever had! The whole plate just reeked of fishy smell and the entire thing was way too salty. I was truly disappointed! I had to doctor it up to make it palatable.
Maybe they had an off day. I’ve only tried two of their plates, but sadly, I feel I can only give them three stars for now. I don’t foresee myself rushing back anytime soon.

I’ve been here before, but I didn’t remember it. The best part about this place is the amount of food that you get for the price. You get enough food for two meals. I ordered the Putanesca without protein (which is chicken on the menu). In the pound of pasta and sauce was probably a whole onion. First of all, putanesca doesn’t traditionally have onions in it. No prob for an onion lover — WRONG. It was so excessive, I had to start picking them out.
Don’t get me wrong, the flavor is decent — it just was a bit much. Go here if you crave italian, are nearby and want leftovers.

I am docking a star due to my experience today. The employees are friendly and the place is always clean but for some reason today the cook was slightly off on the pasta noodles. I ordered my usual of spaghetti with meat sauce and this is the first time in history where my pasta noodles was not al dente. It was mushy to the point that I couldn’t finish my dish. Those that know me know that I hate to waste food but had no choice and after about 10 bites I gave up and threw it out.
I’ll give them a few more tries but I hope this was just an isolated incident.

When I crave pasta, i want A LOT of pasta… and now i finally realize why i was always told my eyes are always bigger than my stomach because i think i’m the hulk and put away food like i was starving for days. In actuality i’ll eat maybe half of what I thought I was going to eat… with that being said, Catania definitely is up there when it comes to quantity for food. The portions for pasta is huge, but unfortunately that’s the only upside to this place.
I ordered the special with shrimp & chicken with a garlic alfredo sauce. I spent about 11 dollars for a huge portion of pasta so you can already imagine how excited I was… It smelled amazing and I couldn’t wait to dig in when I got back to my office. As soon as i tried the pasta, i cried on the inside because there was absolutely no flavor, besides the garlic. The sauce to the pasta tasted just like watery sauce, minus the sauce. Maybe it was an off day? Maybe I ordered the wrong entrée? for the price you pay, you definitely get overloaded on the portion, but lacks in the flavor big time! Quality over quantity any day!

IF YOU CAN GET PAST THE BLANKET OF CHEESE
I wanted a slice of pizza and salad from Harpos, but I didn’t have any cash. So I went here, looking to satisfy my Italian food craving. They have a little salad bar, where you can choose different pasta salads for their sandwich combos. Also out is the lasagna and marinara sauces. Because those things looked decent, I opted for Pasta Anna, which is marinara pasta with breaded chicken breast and eggplant. This plate is huge– a mound of spaghetti with another mound of mozzarella cheese. The first couple bites were fine, but the cheese was too heavy and ruined it. I barely dented the plate but after I was done the heaviness of the dish gave way to a wave of guilt for eating all that cheese! I hate when that happens.

Not an italian place like I am used to. I got the shrimp/​chicken/​asparagus garlic pasta and although the portion was huge (two lunches at least) it just left me wondering «what the hell am I eating.»
It was like someone took leftover Chinese food and repurposed it to try and make it something else… I really don’t know what else to say about it. Friendly service but I don’t think I will be back.

My sister has been craving Italian food, so I bought her pasta for her birthday dinner. She order the mushroom pasta with Alfredo and I ordered the meatball and sausage pasta. Both with linguine noodles. It came to $ 16 total.
One big box of pasta… omg! It was filling. One bite of that meatball… it was amazing! I love it so much. It was so good. I didn’t like the sausage. I never did fancy sausages. The marinara sauce was gooooood. I wanna order that again if I ever do go there next time. Oh yea, we also got 1 slice of bread for each order. The bread was soft and good.
It’s a small place right by Remington College.

Had the anchovy olio, and was OK. The anchovies are ground and way over salted like it was a preservative. It’s cooked with a heaping of garlic and not over coated with olive oil. It’s tossed in the sauce right before it’s served, but I have to echo Kyle H.‘s sentiment that it’s a bit overwhelming and you’ll taste your lunch for hours…
The portions are good and price is fair. Not gourmet by any means, nor do they seem to claim to be so… If you’re going back to work, skip the anchovies.

This restaurant is my friend’s favorite place, so because I’m a fellow foodie of hers, she brought me here to try this restaurant out. If you’re really hungry, this is the place to go because they give you a heaping serving that can be shared by two for a very reasonable price:
Eggplant Parmasiana — 3.5 stars — for $ 9.25 they gave a heapful of spaghetti with 3 large fried eggplant with tomato sauce. The eggplants were very thick. Although they were a little undercooked, I can’t complain having so much of it that I felt like a blowfish ready to burst after eating the entire plate. Plus, it’s not a simple dish to make, so it’s very reasonable to order from here.
Lasagne — 4 stars — I tried my friend’s dish and I think it was a tastier dish. It also came with roasted vegetables. I think I’m going to order this dish next time since it’s more time consuming to make as well.
Service — 5 stars — the lady at the counter was very friendly and personable.
They also had an array of vegetables to order, but I wanted to try the eggplant dish instead. The dish comes with a piece of bread that I took home to eat for breakfast the next day since there was already so much to eat They have a few tables to eat in the restaurant, and also tables outside for some fresh air.