sportsguymichael

I've been lurking in this thread before my trip to Florence and here are my thoughts:
First night was dinner at Il Profeta which is around the corner from the Westin and St. Regis. Claudio was our waiter (and I think a co-owner of the restaurant). He took a huge amount of time to explain all the menu items that I felt guilty monopolizing his time. We had a salad and a pasta with prawns. My wife had a pasta with some sort of lemon sauce. For dessert we had a great tiramisu with zabilgione cream on top. Bottle of wine came to a total 142 Euros. Second night we went to Osteria dell Enoteca. The meal was sensational. I had the penne with a rabbit ragout. My wife had the "cubed pork" entree. There is no wine list. The waiter took us to the wine fridge and asked what we were loking for. We said something like a Chianti and he picked out a bottle for 22 Euros which was excellent. Total bill was 71 Euros. Our last night we went to Da Fagioli. We had bruschetta, a panzerella salad and penne with a beef ragout for me and my wife had a spaghetti with pesto sauce. We ordered the house wine where they give you a bottle and just charge you for how much you drink. Menu is all in Italian as someone said upthread but the waiter spoke enough English to get us through it. The bill was 56 Euros not including tip. This restaurant is cash only. This seemed to be the most authentic dinner of the three nights but my wife really liked the nouvelle cuisine at the Osteria dell Enotecca. For dessert we went to La Gelateria across the Arno on night 2 and it was good but last night we went to Gelateria la Carraia which I will now vote as the best gelato in Florence. It was amazing. Please forgive the spelling errors and typos. It is late in Florence!!!!

PWMTrav

Great to hear!

Del Fagioli gets a mention in the 2017 Michelin Guide (not starred, but getting a mention is indicative of quality). It's getting lots of attention in American and Italian blogs across the board. On one hand I'm really happy for them, and on the other, now I need to give them more than an hour's notice that we're coming They do serve a lot of authentic, old school Tuscan classics, and it's a pretty casual place. I will only point out that pesto is not a local tradition even if they do serve it, but it's summer and basil's in every market, so I'm not surprised - odds are they still made it from scratch.

Osteria del Enoteca is, as you point out, a more modern Florentine kitchen. The thing here is, they know their market is primarily tourists because of their locations. Rather than try to be old school, traditional, and appeal to the local crowd, they know who's paying the bills. They don't cut corners - it's super high quality, food and service - but they don't feel as bound to tradition, in a good way. I like that they often have a choice of beef - not just of cut, but origin/breed of cattle.

There IS real food in Florence, as you found. Lots of tourist traps, too, but it's very possible to never set foot in one.

If you are still in Florence, one more for you to try before you go: La Casalinga, Via Michelozzi 9R. This is my personal favorite place to eat in the city. It's very traditional, and very casual. House wine is serviceable. Order things in CAPS on the menu.

Perche

There is no tipping in Italy. Only Americans do it. At most, if a dish cost 50.5 euros, you give 60 and let them keep the change. for something extraordinary one might leave 2-3 euros. That's it. Locals don't like it when they see Americans leaving tips because it's not a tipping culture, and they want to keep it that way. If the salad comes before the main course, that is bowing to American tastes. Salad comes at the end of the meal after you've eaten your main course in an Italian restaurant, unless it is catering to American tastes.

PWMTrav

The funny thing is that at this place, if you did any more than round up, they might come find you outside because you forgot your change. But yeah for anyone following this thread, tipping at restaurants in Florence is not expected. Rounding up for a waiter that helped with language barrier and such is fine, just don't overdo it.

Panzanella toscana is usually served as primo (or sometimes antipasto). The biggest problem is when they use Florentine bread, which is traditionally unsalted and objectively terrible

sportsguymichael

That is what I did regarding the tip. I just rounded up from 56 to 60 or 71 to 75.

jb12

Will restaurants be open in mid-August. I know lots of local go on vacation the month

PWMTrav

You will need to research those places individually. In the center of Florence, many restaurants do stay open through August, but many also close for a period of time. Similar things happen in late January.

jb12

I hope there are some nice places that open in mid-August at Piazzale Michelangelo

PWMTrav

Piazzale Michelangelo doesn't have a lot in the immediate vicinity (you'll see why when you get there, don't spoil the view with a google search first). Anything up there I'd consider to be fairly touristy - that means likely open all of August, but also not particularly great.

The closest place I have pinned is La Leggenda dei Frati: http://www.laleggendadeifrati.it/

It's nice (and expensive). I can't tell you whether they'll be open in August, but give them a call or email them. The place itself is in Villa Bardini, pretty cool setting for a restaurant.

If you're looking for something a little more casual for dinner, I'd make the walk back across the river to Del Fagioli (about 20 minutes walking) - these guys probably will close for a week in August, so call or email to find out which week. Or for something lighter (or heavier on wine), over to Enoteca Pitti Gola e Cantina. To my knowledge, Pitti Gola is open all of August this year. They've gone full tourist (everything is in English), but the quality hasn't dropped off.

rbAA

OK, so it has been about 10 years since I last ate my way across Firenzi, but figured my Thai GF needed to try some other types of noodles (plus the Italian food in Bangkok is just ehhh,) so, we're heading off on Thursday for 2 weeks in Italy. With 3 nts in Florence, I found this thread helpful, mainly to remind me of the places to go, stop or consider.

One of my favorites in the past was Paoli, one alley/street north of O'Vesuvio. Actually, probably ate there more than any other Italian restaurant anywhere. I know, I found it in Fodors on my first trip in 1985, and they occasionally push all the tables in the middle of the main room together for the hoards of tour groups, but Geno can cook (hope he's still there.) Their salad cart and dessert cart are essential, and, being a chocoholic, the bomba was devine. Never had a bad meal there, and I've tried just about everything on the menu. Plus their house wines are reasonable and drinkable.

Hoping that it's not one of those experiences where the memories are better than the reality.

Anyone try them lately?

Perche

Ten years of work in the same place is forever in Italy, unless you work for the government, so I doubt you'll find Geno. If they were pushing tables to the center to accomodate "hoards of tour groups," in 1985, you can do better than that.

I'm sure you have great memories, as almost everyone does who has visited Italy, but Paoli is part of a restaurant chain called the Casa Trattoria Group. They have 9 branches in Florence alone, and are even in Milan. They have basmati rice and mango chutney on the menu to cater to the hoards of tourists from India.

This is not a place to take your girlfriend from Bangkok to impress her with Italian food because the noodles might actually be better in Bangkok. All 9 branches of the Casa Trattoria chain are in front of museums, shopping malls, or monuments so that they can cater to tourist groups.

There is nothing wrong with revisiting old memories. There are many places in Italy where I do that, but I'm usually there for weeks to months, and I can waste time on bad meals to indulge in warm memories. Whomever has replaced chef Geno knows that the people eating there today will be in another part of Italy, another country, or in another continent tomorrow, so they have no incentive to offer anything other than the cheapest food they can get away with.

I'm trying to not come off as unkind, but if you want to impress your girlfriend from Thailand, you can do better than taking her to a chain restaurant that caters to tourists.

On this thread PWMTrav and others have posted the names of many places where you can eat authentic, high quality Florentine food. I'd save Paoli for the warm memory bank. Make some new and even better memories.

rbAA

Thanks for the insight, though I don't have to worry about impressing the GF. She already has sampled my Italian cooking (and Mexican as well.) Not to brag, but my Italian and Mexican dishes are the best in Thailand and China. If I wasn't already retired, I'd open a food truck like Daniel Thiger's, who makes the best burgers in Bangkok.

It can't hurt to stop in and check. Plus, he worked there for at least 20 years, as I had been going there from 1985 thru 2006.

And, they only had an occasional group, as they are usually full of locals.

Perche

Leaving Thailand out, 20% of the world's population lives in China. If you make the best Italian and Mexican food in China, the math indicates that you claim to make better Mexican and Italian food than 99.9999999% of the people in China.

Taking it global, you believe that only one out of every 1.6 billion people make better pasta or tacos than you on the planet earth, which means you make food better than 89 times the entire populations of Italy and Mexico combined. This is TripAdvisor type of hyperbole about the "best gelato in all of Rome. It's a bit of a stretch, or hyperbole. If you were in the top one billionth italian or Mexican chefs in the world, they would beat a door to your house and paid you millions to start a restaurant. When you get to Florence try some of the restaurants recommended on this thread, instead of the chain restaurant you have memories of, and your perspective may change.

PWMTrav

I've been to Paoli recently. Here's my take:

It is part of a small restaurant group, but the group itself is Tuscan in origin. They do the classics pretty well. Service is professional. They handle lots of tourists because of the location. One thing I haven't looked at is if their menus differ - we were handed English menus, but before I could even read it, the maitre d' told our waiter we are Italian and switched our menus out. I had a pretty "safe" meal - ribollita and then an ossobuco - and enjoyed it. However (for me), even factoring in the location I think the place is expensive. You can do just as well in that area at a lower price point.

I'd probably suggest walking a few blocks south to Buca dell'Orafo, but if you have memories of the place and want to revisit, you could certainly do a lot worse than Paoli in that area. They're not embarrassing themselves at all, it's just a little expensive for the area. I would not categorize it as a tourist trap based on the food itself.

Perche

In other words, cross it off the list. If you walk into a place in Italy and they hand you a menu in english, my "tourist trap" alarm would go off, and I would leave before what happened to you happens to me, getting ripped off for an overpriced meal. I can't imagine traveling all the way to Italy to a restaurant where they hand me a menu in english, and have multiple menus to dish out to tourists, including basmati rice with mango chutney if you ask for the Indian menu.