Ristorante Arà: è Sud‎

Sicilian restaurant Ara e Sud is a good alternative if you tire of Tuscan fare. As other reviewers have noted, a vegetarian can dine here, but understand that the focus is on seafood. To that end, I ordered the tasting menu. It consists of 6 courses from the menu, but smaller in size so you don't explode at the end. Well worth it. The courses were: raw fish, anchovy crostini (super yum), grilled octopus and onions, a fried risotto ball thingy (yum), catch of the day, and dessert. The ambience is pleasant, the table setting elegant, and the waitress was quite friendly.

Lovely place and friendly staff but the food was a miss for us. The Azzurro in Beccafico (grilled bluefish with breadcrumbs) lacked flavor and the Il Risotto Vestito (baked risotto ball w/ the fish of the day) was overpowered by a the lemon/citrus flavor.

Fantastic Sicilian restaurant with great service. Loved the food and the wine. The dishes are predominantly seafood.

Amazing street food options and full menu as well. Friendly staff, nice ambiance and fabulous vino bianco! Molto bene!

Nice service and great seafood! Elegant ambiance as well.

We had the most fantastic meal here. Every aspect of the restaurant was great. A refreshing light space, friendly, knowledgeable staff all support the unusual menu. Such a light touch of amazing flavours, the best meal we had in Florence. Unfamiliar with Sicilian wine we were recommended successful wine pairings. 10/10. Thank you.

Sicilian food & Wine restaurant in the center of Florence. Large selection of wines from Sicily as well as some authentic food. (but a little too high class to be proper Sicilian expirience) Friendly staff, and good atmosphere. Recommended if you are a bit tired of Tuscany. :)

The house wine was delicious, dry white, with subtle notes of biscuit and lemon. The sardine theme from Sicily felt genuine and the food preparation (which is visible through glass from the front) was excellent. I recommend the dishes with sardines and the caponata.

We had a fantastic experience, and it was very much an experience, not a meal. When we sat down they provided two glasses of white wine. The waitress responded that it came with the meal which on the one hand I didn't want to pay for these as I didn't order them, but on the other hand it was part of the experience and it was good. We started with the octopus which had fantastic flavour but having had octopus two of the preceding four days, it wasn't as good a texture. It was a bit chewy but I kept going back for more given the simple but tasty lemon and olive oil flavour. I then got the risotto which came with "seafood." I didn't know exactly what to expect (and I had the waitress confirm there would be no shellfish). Turns out it's a fried risotto ball stuffed with bits of salmon, octopus, and cod. There was a surprisingly good portion of seafood as well, very much worth whatever the price was. Despite being fried and coming in a sauce, I was amazed at how light it was. This was a superb entree

We came here for a fancy dinner on one of our last nights in town. There was no reservation necessary as we were there right when they opened. Our party was seated at a large table in the middle of the restaurant. Our server was with us quickly and we just got still water to drink, although they had a large wine selection. We started with the arichini balls and they were excellent. Not too oily and the breading was on point. The bread and oil was great as well, not too dry like some other restaurants in the area. My entree was the pasta with ragu sauce. There was a decent amount of meat and the pasta was so good! Fresh and perfectly al dente, this was one of the best meals and best ambiances at a fair price.

No American menu, so you know they're legit. This is a Sicilian (southern Italian) which translates to lots of fishes, pastas and cannolis. We got the arancini, a sicilian pasta and the mixed fishes sampler entree. The arancini were great, unlike american arancini, they put different stuffings in each fried rice ball. One was filled with beef/cheese, one filled with ham salad, one was straight cheese filling. Wasn't crazy about the ham filled one but the other 2 were great. Next we got sicilian pasta dish (forgetting name here) it was fusilli with an almond/oil/cheese sauce. Good but not special. The mixed fish dish was fun, it included breaded fresh sardines, shrimp, tuna tartar, fried sardines mash, and a salty white fish. I was really impressed with the tuna tartar and breaded sardine. Salty fish and fried fish were ok. The breaded sardines were nothing like the salty small fishes that come in a can, they were closer to a fluffy white fish. Service was excellent, as the waiter had to guide 2 american tourists through an Italian menu.

Spaghetti with sardines, fennel, pine nuts and raisins brought the house down. An amazing dish I will remember for quite some time. A second course of octopus with pickled red onions was also spectacular. The service was a bit bumpy with just two waitresses (one handling cannoli duty) leaving the place a bit understaffed. But your patience is rewarded with terrific, terrific food. Carponata was a nice antipasti, with great flavor and textures, but back to the spaghetti con le sarde: so much flavor that only intensified as you made your way into the well of the bowl where all the spices and rich olive oil came to concentrate.

Hands down, one of the best restaurants in Florence. Fresh, flavorful, importance on ingredient quality and seasonality. The only place to taste a gourmet yet traditional side of Sicily. A must eat for any food lover who wants a nicer experience apart from the "trattoria"

This was a lovely dining experience. We had a reservation for two outside and we had a lovely table surrounded by fresh herbs and flowers. The menu is concise and extremely well thought out with a variety of vegetarian and fish options. Master chef Carmelo prepares artful dishes without butter or garlic and one would be none the wiser. We started with an eggplant caponata and a breaded sardine tartare. Just lovely. A delicious pasta al mare followed and mains were seared tuna. We finished with a Sicilian cannoli but the highlight was the housemade pistachio and hazelnut gelato served in a cold cup. I highly recommend for an unforgettable dining experience in florence.

What an awesome experience. The waiter was so patient with us as we figured out the menu. Food was fantastic - filled with locals, so you know it is good!

Delicious! Friendly service, excellent wine, and solid food. The dessert was unexpectedly amazing. Would definitely return next time in florence

Authentic Sicilian food prepared by a Sicilian chef. Great service reasonable prices. Authentic cannoli. If you like pasta with sardes theirs is excellent.

There are Sicilians everywhere, I stayed one of famous Sicilian restaurant in he heart of Milan, in NY, Paris too... but these sicilians are my favorite. Let me talk about the place first; Kind e very familiar Sicilian chefs, young,energetic and beautiful Sicilian ladies to serve the table, the mood is Excellent. For the second, let's talk about culinary; I swear the combination of Sicilian Onion, fish, citrons(oranges and lemons) are in perfect harmony. Arancini( deep fried rice ball with anchovy) is the Best as ever. And I cannot forget the excellent taste of spaghetti alla cipolla- sardine ,lemon , onion sauce is the Best plates as I ever eaten. Very highly recommend

Unfortunately not a good experience. Went here (a Sicilian restaurant in the middle of Florence) for dinner on our last night in this historic city. My wife had found this restaurant on an Eater best list and had seen the owner/chef on tv preparing cannolis with Giada. We are foodies from Denver but I was born and raised in Italy. We arrived ahead of our reservation and were given the choice of selecting between two very bad tables. The place was busy so no real options. Waited 10 minutes to get a menu. The waitress was helpful and knowledgeable. We selected a nice Sicilian white wine with her recommendation. All wines are from Sicily, nice list, excellent prices. The appetizer was Sarde beccafico, a mixture of fried sardines with bread crumbs and herbs. Not very tasty and just average at best. The rigatoni Norma was excellent, a nice pasta with eggplant, pomodori and ricotta salata. The risotto vestito was a very large ball of rice (supersized arancino) with cheese, saffron and fish of the day. The rice was well cooked but it just lacked something, mostly not enough cheese, salt and pepper. The last dish we shared was the fish of the night, a tuna cooked 4 ways, crudo, steamed, grilled and fried. The steamed and grilled versions were excellent, the other two just average. The bizarre thing was that this dish was served to the table next to us without them saying it wasn't what they had ordered (it was octopus - nothing like it), yet they started eating it before alerting the waitress. The wait staff and chef then started arguing with each other over this snafu but never apologized to us for having to wait for our food to arrive. They then completely forgot about us, never offering us a dessert menu (really wanted those cannolis, they looked great) or asking us if we wanted an amaro, coffee, etc. We had to get up to go pay the bill (which may be the norm here) and only then did the waitress ask me (I'm fluent in Italian so language barrier was not the issue) if everything was fine. Had a nice chat with her and she agreed they had failed to provide us with the best attention. Too little, too late. Food was just average but everything else brings the star number down - in fact I may have given it one star if it wasn't for the fact that my wife forgot her purse and the restaurant kindly and promptly called our hotel, allowing us to retrieve it even though they had closed. Maybe it was just an off night for them but this experience pales in comparison to the meal we had at Locale the previous night - excellent food and service, treated like royalty.