Originally Posted by
bhrubin
Hey all, of the 6 1* restaurants in Florence, which are your favorites and why? We will have 5 nights in Florence and want to sample some but not all of the Michelin restaurants here. We definitely plan to try 3* Enoteca Pinchiorri, as well. Thanks! (We will be staying at the St Regis, so we obviously will try 1* Winter Garden by Caino in the hotel.)
Pinchiorri is very good, although for a 3-star restaurant, I didn't find it to be as sublime an experience as I have had at other 3 stars. If you love wine, though, you will definitely enjoy their selection, which is by far the largest wine menu anywhere I have ever ran into
As for my recent Michelin-starred travails:
-Barrafina (1 star, London): good food, and I like the casual atmosphere. That said, I have had better tapas elsewhere. I don't think I would wait an hour in line again just for the experience.
-Pollen Street Social (1 star, London): surprisingly the least favorite of the Jason Atherton restaurants I have been to so far. I didn't get a strong sense of which direction the cuisine wanted to go. Nice ambiance and the food was fine, but I didn't love it.
-Dinner by Heston Blumenthal (2 stars, London): as others said, definitely a bit overrated. The food is pretty good, but 2-star good? Nope...
-Adrian Quetglas (1 star, Palma de Mallorca): my favorite of the Michelin-starred restaurants that I visited. It's a Spanish restaurant that leans on Russian influences given the chef's background. There's a bit of molecular gastronomy involved as well. Nice, modern homey atmosphere. At 50 euros for the tasting menu, it's a great value as well.
Next Michelin-starred experience will be Coi (3 stars) in SF next weekend!