Florence Restaurants?
 

Does anyone have any restaurant recommendations for Florence for a family of 5?

Mario Bucco - great food, fun time. In Florence get ribolitta (reboiled soup). Can get bisticeca (hugh steak) that is a Florentine specialty but too big for me. Ribolitta is terrific.

I'm not an expert in Florentine restaurants, but it might be easier to help if there were more specifics. Including what time of the year. For example, ristorante Bucco Mario seems like a great place, but they are going to be closed quite a bit in December. Is your family composed of two adults and three children including babies? What are you looking for, high end Michelin star type of place, or just a good place.

I'd especially want to know the age of the kids and the budget. I have had two good meals at Ristorante Riflessi, http://www.ristoranteriflessi.com/, but it's somewhat expensive and probably too sedate for a family with very small children. I also enjoyed Ristorante Accademia, http://www.ristoranteaccademia.it/, and plan to return there later this month. Might handle a family better than Riflessi, but still relatively expensive.

On the other hand, for a family on a budget with several small children, I'd consider some of the small trattorias along the Piazza dell'Independenza--I wish I could remember the name of the place I went, but I basically just stepped in to several places for a moment and stayed where I found the most folks, including wait staff, speaking Italian. I made my very broken Italian work. The food may not have been amazing, but it was very good, and it was very reasonably priced.

Perche hasn't mentioned it in this thread but has in others that there are many reasons to take restaurant reviews in Italy with much more of a grain of salt than in other places. I think that's valuable advice to consider.

The original question is from a number of months ago. Is this still information that folks need? I can recommend a few places, but I'll be updating my own data after my trip to Florence in early December.

You're correct that the OP was months ago; however, I think anyone looking for Florence restaurant recommendations might find this thread useful (FT differs from TripAdvisor forums in this regard--here threads can remain open forever; at TA, threads can be permanently closed after a certain period of inactivity). So, although the thread might not be of use to the OP anymore, it may be of use to others eventually. Your upcoming experience, as well as mine in a couple of weeks, probably will be useful data points.

Agreed, but what I'm asking is whether this information is needed now, or can wait for me to update with additional experience. I can certainly recommend a handful of places that will very likely be good at the moment, but if folks are planning for after December, I can be a little bit more current in my opinions.

One thing I noticed that's curious on Tripadvisor recently - I get the same restaurant rankings when using the English (US) and Italian versions of the site, despite showing me a different set of reviews based on language. I thought it used to be that TA weighed local/local language ratings and gave a different list depending on location.

- Il Santo Bevitore, traditional with a modern twist
- All'antico ristoro di Cambi, for a great steak "Fiorentina"
- Coquinarius, run by two young brothers, a delicious place to get a rest from the crowd around piazza del Duomo, a lot of options from small plates to full meal
- Ristorante Buca Lapi, historical classic restaurant

Yes, please post updated information after your trips.

I just booked a trip to Firenze in March and I am very interested in food.
I am particular interested in lunch deals in fancy/expensive restaurants (if such thing exist - deals that is...) and not fancy/ reasonably priced restaurants with very good quality food.

I have a trip to Florence and the surrounding area in late April/early May and have been told that the second floor of the Mercato Centrale is loaded with fabulous food stalls where the focus is on quality rather than environment. That probably doesn't match your requirements. I plan on checking this out because it sounds like Mercato Centrale is on par with the great food halls in Paris, Barcelona, and elsewhere.

Yes, it does match my requirements, thank you very much for the tip.
I'll report back.
I don't much care about the environment or ambience - I care about the food.

My interest in high end restaurants is that it is a nice allround experience - once in a while it is fun to eat food that's arranged very artfully.
But generally I only care about the quality of the food so food stalls are fine by me if it's good food.

On my last visit to Italy, I happily ate food from plastic plates and with plastic cutlery (had a very nice salmon tatar and beef burger in a food market in Milano and a brilliant lobster roll at the EXPO).

The first floor at the central market is an excellent place to eat. First floor meaning 2nd in US terms. Go upstairs. I don't have my blog link in my signature anymore, but I wrote about it a bit here -

https://saverocity.com/arewethereyet...d-in-florence/

Mods, nuke the link if that's against the rules.

As far as the best stalls, I think I can say I've eaten at all or at least most of them. My favorite was the fish stall, had a great fritto misto. Actually, I had two because my wife didn't want to eat the things with heads and legs left on them. Her loss! Second place was the hamburger stall. No kidding. Best burger I've had in my life. My 3 year old would recommend the gnocchi at the pasta stall. Also a good lampredotto sandwich on one of the interior corner stands, not as good as Da Nerbone downstairs, but better hours upstairs.

Happy to help with any Florence dining questions, high or low end :D

Your blog post is great! How busy does this place get in the evenings--i.e. is it a battle to find a place to sit and enjoy? And when purchasing food to eat, is it entirely on a cash basis or can one use credit/debit cards?

I appreciate that, and your questions really help me improve my writing - I should have included that info!

Crowds: Yes! I was there over what you'd consider a low period for tourists, as well as a high one for Italian tourists visiting from other cities. In both cases from 1-3pm and 6-9pm, you kind of need to hover for a table. Don't be afraid to ask if you can take empty seats at a larger table, it's normal and common to share the long 6+ tops. If one person can sit and the other can go get food, that's helpful, but then the person sitting doesn't get to browse the stalls. Additionally, during high traffic periods, I've also seen some crowd control limiting people getting on the escalators up so that the escalator isn't pushing people into a crowd backed up from the entry way.

Credit: I think all stalls take credit. I didn't try everywhere, because when I was buying a coffee for a euro, I was using change.

Remember that your drinks come from stalls too. If you sit on the side with the (beer) bar, same side as the butcher, the hamburgers, fish, etc, you'll see servers going around. You can order water and beer from them, and you pay them directly. If you want wine, there's a wine stall. Pick a bottle (or ask for help), they'll cork it and give you glasses. Or you can buy by the glass.

I love the market. I have a 3 year old and she doesn't always want to wait until 7 for dinner. This is one place to get some real food, not tourist crap, in the restaurant off-hours.

Thanks! Sounds like tremendous fun, especially if one doesn't have a schedule or a particular agenda!

PWMTrav
Thank you very much for the link.
I appreciate eating places that are open all through the day as I prefer to eat when I'm hungry; I tend to eat early lunch, so I am hungry again early in the evening.

I understand this bit of whimsy is a highlight at Mercato Centrale!

Going to most places in Italy with a schedule or agenda is an exercise in futility! It's one of the best places in the world to reduce the pace, wander around and just be curious.

If you haven't heard of this already, make sure you take the time to notice the door knockers while wandering the streets of Florence.

Il Vegetariano is an amazing place. Rustic Cafeteria-Osteria with vegetarian and vegan food, many organic ingredients. Incredible atmosphere, no reservations - be there at least half an hour before it opens or try your luck rather late.

This is how it works: the first person in should immediately get in line at the cashier at the back to order food and drinks. The second person in takes care of getting a nice table. Next, take a look at the hand-written menu on the wall and tell the person in line what to order. After placing your orders and paying (cash only!), take the receipt to the food counter and get your food and drinks. Enjoy!

http://www.il-vegetariano.it/

I really liked La Bussola, http://www.labussolafirenze.it/, ended up going there a couple times on my last trip for lunch.

Good to know. I can't tell you how many times I've walked right by that place. I like to walk Florence when the streets empty out at night, and one of my favorite paths is to walk south on via Tornabuoni and turn left onto via Porta Rossa right at Santa Trinita. There's a lot of history on those roads.

Reporting back on the food court in Mercato Centrale : Went there for a burger for lunch - very good.
Went back later in the afternoon for snacking and drinking - very enjoyable.
I think I'm going to forget about concepts such as lunch, aperitiv , and dinner and just swing by the Mercato when I feel peckish.
In short - the food court is fantastic, something for everyone.

What stalls have you tried besides the burgers? One thing to do is to swing by before 2pm on the ground floor and try a lampredotto sandwich from Da Nerbone. Then, if you like it, try one from the stall upstairs later on in the evening. They're both very good, but Da Nerbone is the classic.

Florence isn't known for its seafood (heh), but Livorno is, and it's well represented at the seafood stall. Great fritto misto, or baccalà if you go on a Friday.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, or pasted my blog link, but another place to get a snack and a drink any time of the day before 9pm is Fiaschetteria Nuvoli. It's located a block off of tourist central, but manages to be very good. Upstairs has some counter seating, but they have tables downstairs.

I had a nice mix of snacks :some small sandwiches with anchoves and truffel, icecream, slices of roastbeef, open sandwich with mozarella and tomatoes and a few glasses of prosecco.
I don't like the look of the lampredotti so I am not sure that I'll try it.
The Fiaschetteria Nuvoli is on my list so you must have mentioned it.

Lampredotto tastes a lot better than it looks, honestly. It's a classic Florentine dish, hold your nose and go!

I can now also recommend Trattoria Rocco in the Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio.
Primi 4.5 €, Secondi 5.5 €, Contorni 3,5 €. Dessert 3 €,
Wine 2 €.
Open Monday-Saturday until 14.30.
It seems that they are open very early for lunch as they are also selling their food as take away.
Add : Better to eat early than late. Saw lots of people waiting in line at about 13.30 today.

There are students that live off of that place. I had entirely forgotten about it, but it's also a solid place to try lampredotto if you're on that side of town.

Their Bresaola is very good quality. So is their roastbeef.
The wine (white) is, in my opinion, perfectly decent.

If you like quick stuff like that, check out Passaguai. It's on the other side of the river on Borgo San Frediano. Cool neighborhood, a little slower, and comparatively fewer tourists, than the other side of the river closer to the Duomo. Also nearby is Il Santo Bevitore. If you're on that side of town and want to walk a little more Enoteca Le Barrique is close. La Casalinga is a little further (but east, so a good detour before you turn north to cross the river again) - that is one of my favorite restaurants in Florence (but order things written in CAPS on the menu, those are specials).

Here's a map link:

https://goo.gl/maps/hLf3S9T1Rs92

Thank you for your further suggestions.
I'll note them down for my (hopefully) next visit to Firenze.
This is my last evening here and the weather is not nice at all so not in the mood for too much walking.
I'll probably just go to the Mercato Centrale (I have more or less lived there these last few days - nice place to shelter from the rain).
About the drinks in the Mercato Centrale: in addition to ordering water, soft drinks, and beer at the table, you can also order wine, prosecco, and champagne. The wine would be the 'house wine' I expect - anything else, you'll have to pick up yourself.

Out of curiosity, where were you sitting that you could order wine, prosecco or champagne at the table? As in, what stall were you near/across? Just wondering if the wine is coming from the center (beer) bar, or one of the other stalls. If you sit closer to the corner with the seafood stall, the restaurant stall next to it will run wine to you if you ask - presumably if you're dining with them, but if it's slower, even if you're not. Didn't know about the other options.

You're already well into your day there, but I'm kind of hoping you order a Fiorentina from the butcher stall and tell us how it is :D I really wanted to, but ran out of time.

I was sitting 2 places - across from the burger place (on high chairs) and at a normal table across from the meat place to the immediate left of the burger place (la carne e i salumi).
The drinks menu has water/soft drinks on one side and beer/wine/prosecco on the other.
It was the usual drinks-people taking my order.
I have decided not to have the Fiorantine steak - looks like there is too much bone and irregular meat on it for me.
But I have had the Tagliata di Bovine from the meat place next to the burger place and that was a surprisingly big steak.
Their roasted potatoes are very good too.

Going in there now and have to decide what'll be my last meal there.......

Florence Restaurants?
 

I ate at Osteria dei Pazzi in Florence on the recommendation of an Instagram comment. They were reserved but when I mentioned the name of my Instagram friend (I've never met) the owner smiled and found me a table (apparently they grew up together in Italy) the food was really good and there were many families and groups. It's a funny story of how Instagram got me a table that I wrote about http://philatravelgirl.com/florence_solo_dining_osteria_dei_pazzi/
Social media and FT are great for highlighting hidden gems IMO