T B.
Yelp
I need one hundred stars to rate this restaurant. BEST meals of our lives.
We spend 4 days in Florence and the concierge at our hotel recommended this restaurant since day one. I wish I would have listened since day one because I would have eaten here every day although that would have beaten the purpose of trying different places in Florence.
So, we showed up our second night, without reservations, and when we walked in the owner greeted us and gladly sat us down in one of the available tables. Now, the tables here are family style, meaning it is a long table that sits 8-10 people but you don't feel crowded at all.
The menus are hand written with the current date so I imagine it changes quite frequently but they keep the popular items like the bistecca florentina among others. We could not understand the handwriting very well so we ask our server, which BTW was the owner of the restaurant and spoke a little bit on english, what he would recommend. He obviously recommended the florentine steak (bistecca), along with a smaller version of the florentine steak, and some kind of pork tenderloin. We decided on the mini florentine steak and the pork tenderloin. More on that later. BTW, because we wanted to try everything, we would always order two different things and share it among the two of us.
So, we decide to start with the bruschetta. WOW. Ok, so 4 small pieces of toasted bread, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and a little basil. Super simple and I know it's just bruschetta but it was sooooo freaking good. I don't think it lasted more than 1 minute. We knew this was going to be the start of an amazing meal.
For our entree along with the meat, the owner recommended the florentine potatoes (I have no idea what they have on it) and marinated artichokes in (some) sauce. Ok the potatoes and the artichokes were to die for. Very creamy and delicious and the perfect compliment to the meat.
Ok, so when you order your meat in Florence, don't you dare tell them the cooking term you want. You are going to get rare/med rare (for steaks) and that is it. And believe me, it's going to be the best thing that has ever happened to you. Personally, I had never eaten something less than a medium. But WOW, WOW, WOW. I have never in my life had a meat with so much flavor as these. The florentine steak was rare, maybe medium rare but what amazed me is that 1) it was HOT all the way through and 2) not a single drop of blood came out of that steak. It was out of this world. The pork is cooked medium well and was equally flavorful, delicious and amazing. I don't know many good adjectives but I would use them all for this meal.
We paired this wonderful meal with the house red wine. It is actually brought out in a really neat bottle and it was the best wine we had from our whole trip.
My BF made an attempt to speak italian to the owner and asked him for his recommendation for dessert. I think he appreciated that. He smiled and said, in italian, "don't worry". He went ahead and prepared a plate with a small piece of all the desserts he had in the display. How awesome is that!!! I'm beating myself because I don't remember what the desserts were and I forgot to take a picture but I can assure you that they were amazing. I do remember, thanks to Coy W. review, that one of them was some type of cheesecake with pears on top.
Guess where we had dinner on our third and final night? Yes! Start reading at the beginning again because it went exactly the same.
A group of 8 people (some italian, some from switzerland) sat next to us this second time. I know maybe 5 words in italian. My BF knows maybe 20 words in italian. Somehow we were able to hold a conversation with an italian guy from this group about our trip, where we have been, where we were going next and how much we loved Italy and his love for Italy too. That is why I loved the family style table concept in this restaurant. You can strike a conversation with somebody that speaks a completely different language than yours and somehow it works out.
Reservations are highly recommended. For our second meal there we asked the hotel concierge to make a reservation for us. Prices are ridiculously low. I think we paid 50 euros for the whole meal. Recap: bruschetta, steak, pork, potato side, artichoke side, sample of 3 desserts, and one bottle of wine. 50 euros!! Can you believe that? Also, they only open Monday through Fridays. Not open on weekends. To quote from the lonely planet website: "You have to respect a restaurant with the courage to close all weekend long".