Il Guscio

"You could throw a rock in any direction and hit a good restaurant in Florence, but it’s a little harder to hit a place with remarkable wine offerings too. Il Guscio has been around since 1986 and has a menu that takes homestyle Tuscan and Italian classics to gourmet status: gnudi dumplings made with scamorza and spinach pesto, Maldon-salted sliced sirloin with julienned vegetables, paccheri pasta with spicy Calabrian ’nduja and burrata, beet risotto. The wine list is rife with boutique, biodynamic, and terroir-centered producers, heavy on Tuscan wines balanced with an ample selection of crucial bottles from around the country, selections from France, and plenty of sparkling. Portions are hearty, so make sure you order to share, and save room for dessert, which is very much on point." - Coral Sisk

"Set on a residential street in the southern reaches of the Oltrarno, Il Guscio is a new-generation trattoria where the kids have inherited and updated their parents’ traditional restaurant. At the front, you’ll find a small bar area with a hissing coffee machine and shelves stacked with wines; in the back are two cozy rooms with stone-topped tables. It’s a real neighborhood hangout that’s always buzzy and always packed. Menus are based on the tried-and-tested local cuisine (both meat and fish) with the odd variation. Depending on the season, the menu might include tuna tartare with avocado and ponzu; grilled eggplant with mint, confit tomatoes, and soft goat cheese; risotto with vin santo pears, gorgonzola and chives; or house-special spaghetti alla trabaccolara (a mixed seafood sauce). Mains could be ossobuco or grilled octopus with grilled seasonal vegetables; carnivores have options like the super-rich house special filet of beef cooked in vin santo wine and topped with liver pâté." - Nicky Swallow