Florence Restaurants

This is one of the famous and well loved restaurants in florence.
Only open for lunch from 1200-1530. After visiting here and waiting for nearly 30 minutes...i can understand why it's so popular.
Food is great and the prices are incredibly reasonable. But the best thing is...its ambiance. It just feels so lively and authentic. I think i will eat here everyday if i stayed here longer.
I can also understand why they are only opened at lunch.I dont think they are able to open at night...just looking at how hard the personal is working and how hectic it is....opening in the evening could kill them all.

I dont think there are any reservations...you come in and leave your name. And the boss will tell you how long is the wait. With me was about 30 minutes. most people were waiting outside...but others wandered off to the great market and the many stalls just a few meters from the restaurant.
when there is room he will call out ypur name. You will be seated at a table...with other people! This is part of the charm and we were extremely lucky to be seated with a couple. She was entertaining a friend from bolgna and bought him to their favourite restaurant.
She gave us so much help with ordering and such.

Ordering: This is special too. A very small menu that is written on the wall. They dont have a lot of dishes but what they have is incredible. Coming in late...could mean that certain dishes are finished.

The ambiance was great...it was so busy and hectic.I guess the attitude of the florentines makes everything perfect.people were so relaxed,laidback and friendly. To me this was one of my best foody experiences ever.

A must try for any visitors to florence.

Favorite Dish: Well the signature dish is the Bistecca Fiorentine. The locals and the restaurant are rightly proud of the steak. Its one of the best and certainly the cheapest in florence.(35€a kg) Cooked only one way.
When ordering steak here...you can eat alone or share it...but with bistecca you MUST eat it thick. And with think i dont mean 5cm. But more like 7/8 cm. (As i measured it....3/4 of length of my thumb)
This is essential for the perfect steak.
The steaks would be SO huge.About 1,5kg at this thickness. That i got advised to just order the steak and some sidedishes. Nothing else.

But there are so many other dishes. The great thing about sitting with locals...we got to see what they ordered. The rabbit looked real good. And the lady ordered a local stew(peposo di manzo) that looked and smelled so good. According to the guy...even better than the rabbit. But he said he preferred the bistecca still.

From the lady we learned about the Rappe, spinachlike greens. Cooked and a heavenly complement to the steak. It seems to soak up all the juices from the steak and gave a taste explosion of beefy tenderness thats just perfect.(i guess this is where cream spinach sidedishes comes from, close but not as good as the real thing)

As started...we shared a ribolita. Beans and bread soup/stew. Itw as real tasty. But I was eyeing what the man ordered. think vergetable soup. With black cabbage/greens in it. Special only in florence. i guess its could be the minestrone.(Doesnt look like the minestrone i know.)

Anyway other dishes thats good and I would like to try:
Pasta with rabbit sauce
Pasta with meat sauce
Roast pork
Roast chicken
Fagioli
Patates frites(So good when we ordered, it was already finished)

On tuesday and thursday they have tripe. Offal seems like a regular speciality here. I had it in rome...in florence should be even better.
Friday they have all kinds of fish. Good idea to give it a go if u want some non meat dishes.

If you want to taste the famous "fiorentina" (local T-bone steak), this is the place!
The meat is of high quality and is perfectly cooked for a great experience!
They also serve traditional local recipes, and all of them are well prepared and served.

Closed on Sunday.

Favorite Dish: Fiorentina (T-Bone Steak)

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This bar was near to my hotel, I was passing by and heard a Bruce Springsteen track was playing, so I stopped and listened, it ended and I was planning to move on, when another Springsteen track came on....Hmmmmm-maybe I should pop in for a drink! Well I'm so pleased that I did.

At the bar was an English man asking about the Springsteen track (in Italian) well my Italian is limited, but I understood he was asking if Springsteen wrote the song-I was able to reassure him that he did. (I later found out that he'd come into this bar for the same reason that I had- for the Bruce tracks!)
I ordered a small beer and was asked if I needed the password for the free WIFI for my i-phone- Blimey, even stone cold sober, it was a confusing password-the manager-who I've since learned was Vilma, entered the password for me. I also found out that she was a Springsteen fan!

Well my small draught Heinneken slipped down very easily, so I ordered another beer, this time a large (5 Euros) This was accompanied with complimentary small rolls of ham. (pic 2) I was Quite full still from my lunch, bit managed to eat most of the rolls.

I felt very relaxed here, and returned again next morning for a coffee and pastry and a chat with Vilma

To be continued....

Facebook. Le Cappelle Medicee

To save a few bucks during our week in Florence, we were hoping we could get by eating one big meal a day. Breakfast was included at our hotel so that wasn't an issue, and we were hoping to find some cafes or snack bars where we could score a cheap but delicious lunch the way we'd done in Paris by eating amazing baguettes, cheese, cold cuts or crepes for less than 5 Euros. Finding a cafe wasn't really a problem; there were several all over the city. The main problem was that they were still fairly expensive, and the food wasn't all that good. We tried several different ones located in different areas of the city, hoping we'd finally be able to find something like a good sandwich shop, but to no avail - practically everything we tried was dry and not particularly fresh. In the end, I must confess, we gave up and had lunch at McDonald's!!

Favorite Dish: Well, after eating bad sandwiches for a week, that cheeseburger felt pretty darn good, and the fact that it only cost 1 Euro was the icing on the cake!

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The restaurant serves traditional Italian cuisine, including the bistecca fiorentina (steak cooked in Florentine style). It was tucked away in a little side street so it's a bit hard to find. We were lucky and managed to get a table immediately even though the restaurant is packed. I have a sneaking suspicion that it is recommended by many guidebooks, judging by the sheer number of tourists at the restaurant.

Since there is a 1 kg minimum on an order of bistecca fiorentina (45 euros per kg, I think), we basically just ordered that and a salad to share between the 3 of us. The 1kg actually include the bone, so it's not as big as you'd expect but you might want to play it safe and see if you can finish the food before ordering more food. The steak was pretty good, some parts more rare than others, so luckily we all have different preferences.

We had some room for dessert and ordered a panna cotta to share. The dessert was pretty good too, not too sweet. Included in the meal is a small glass of vino santo and a plate of cantucci, which are like biscotti. The wine is more for dipping than drinking. It is a bit sweet but works really well with the cantucci. Oh, the table wine is sold "by sight". Basically, the whole 2L bottle is 10 euros (I think) and you pay for what you drank. A guy will come at the end and eyeball the amount you consumed and charge you accordingly. We drank about 4 euros worth that night.

It is a nice restaurant with a homey feel. We hadn't tried other restaurants, so we don't know how well the food stack up against other traditional restaurants though.

Favorite Dish: Bistecca fiorentina.

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L'Antico Trippaio is actually a food cart that sells different types of sandwiches, including some Florence specialties like lampredotto (cow stomach), trippa alla fiorentina (tripe), and bollito (boiled beef or beef briskets). Each panino is 3.50 euros (when we went in May 2010) and each type of sandwich is served with its own special sauce, available in mild or spicy. You can also buy wine to go with your panino.

We visited the cart located at Piazza Dei Cimatori, 9, tucked away in a quiet corner a couple of minutes from the Palazzo Vecchio. For those who don't mind eating ... um... different parts of the cow, these panini are must-tries. The meat and sauce are so tasty that we actually went back for more the next day. As we are eating our panini at the side of the cart, we noticed that many of his customers are locals. One thing though - bring lots of napkins - eating a panino with sauce while standing could get quite messy.

If you don't want to try the specialties, there are lots of other, more traditional, choices of panini. I wished I had a chance to try the pork sandwich because that sounds yummy.

Favorite Dish: Bollito - the sauce is very good, the meat is juicy and well marinated. Also, this is just beef briskets, so for those who don't eat innards, this is a good choice.

We also liked the trippa and lampredotto, but I guess the trippa beat out the lampredotto slightly because we like the texture more. Even though we sometimes use tripe in Chinese and Vietnamese noodles, the Florentine version is a bit different. It seemed to be less chewy. The sauce is also different, a bit more creamy.

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One evening, Sylvain and I decided to find a restaurant that looked a bit more "off the beaten path", just to see if the food would be different from what you find in the more touristic areas. When we walked into Trattoria Antichi Cancelli and saw we were the only non-Italian customers, we thought we might have hit a good spot. The small place was fairly busy, maybe that explains why the service was kind of slow and impersonal. We thought it didn't really matter as long as the food was good and I was really happy when I spotted an asparagus risotto on the menu because risotto is my favourite Italian dish and I had yet to try one in Italy. I was a bit disappointed when the risotto turned out to be kind of bland - not bad, but nothing special. We were still happy with our meal but with so many good restaurants in Florence, I wouldn't necessarily recommend that one.

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Between the church of San Lorenzo and the Duomo, there's a little street called Borgo San Lorenzo that's full of restaurants. After taking a quick look at the different menus we decided to have dinner at Giannino, and I think we really lucked out because it was once again delicious! What we especially enjoyed about this place was that the menu included a lot of Tuscan and Florentine specialties. Sylvain finally had his first taste of ribollita, a vegetable soup that is typical of Tuscany, and I went for the pappardelle alla Chiantigiana, a dish of pasta served with a tomato, beef and red wine sauce. It was all very, very good, especially with a nice glass of Chianti Classico!

Favorite Dish: On top of the many regional specialties, they have an amazing list of Tuscan wines.