Well, I always live by that saying: it depends on what you like. We all have different tastes and individual likes and dislikes. So, for the three days and nights I had in Florence, I spread the feasting around as follows:

Sunday lunch: Tosca at Mercanto Centrale- grilled swordfish with veges and a salad. Was great;
Sunday dinner: Paoli- pasta with meat sauce, minestrone with rice, salad and bomba. Always a solid choice;
Monday lunch: Rotisserie at Mercanto Centrale- half a roast chicken with potatoes and side salads. Don't tell my chicken lady in Bangkok that a whole chicken sells for 20 euro. Good stuff though;
Monday Dinner: Casalinga-roast pork, grilled turkey, mixed veges, fig and walnut tort. Four others, on separate check, had the mozzarella with tomato, steak, ravioli, spaghetti with meat sauce and salad. Won't return, sorry not as good as promoted here;
Tuesday lunch: Trattoria Sostanza- Tortellini soup, tortellini with meat sauce, artichoke pie/tart. The best meal overall; and
Tuesday dinner: Paoli: grilled cod with spinach, pasta with meat sauce, minestrone, salad and bomba.

The best was Trattoria Sostanza as the artichokes were great. Next, Tosca as the swordfish was flavorful and very fresh. Their steaks were good looking, very thick, and the people sitting next to us raved about it. The steak seemed reasonably priced though I forget what price it was. Paoli has always been one of my favorites, and it didn’t disappoint me, though the meat sauce was slightly better at Sostanza. The most disappointing was Casalinga as the dishes lacked flavor and the meats, other than the steaks which were both very thin, were too dry. The meat sauce on the pasta looked weak and lacked meat, and the ravioli was just ehh. Each of the meals cost about the same, between 20 euro on the low end, to 46 (Sostanza) on the high end.

I walked by Buca dell Orafo, as the location was familiar when I looked for it on Google Maps. I had stayed at a little pensione above it, and had eaten there maybe 30 years ago. Unless they’ve gotten better with age, I remember the food being quite forgettable and never returned. Plus, their prices were quite a bit higher than the other places I ate-13 euro pasta dishes vs 10 euros elsewhere and 71 euro for the steak (1.2kg minimum.) Passed.

Of course, I had two separate “snacks” at Vesuvio. No trip would be complete without it. As an aside, a good pizza place in Rome we found was Pizza Re near Augustus’ Masolium, though it’s not better than Vesuvio’s.