Vinandro Vineria

Local Italian cooking at its best, this tiny restaurant in the centre of Fielsole is where you should go if you want simple Italian food expertly prepared. And some of it isn’t that simple either, let’s call it traditional.
From the tripe to the pasta with red sauce, the meatballs and the bruschetta, everything was divine. The waitress spoke excellent English and did not seem bothered at all with how many questions we asked, answering each one to the best of her ability and getting answers for the ones she didn’t know.
Book a table in advance as this place only has a couple but be prepared for a nice cozy evening with whoever you share your meal with.
If you’re in Florence, there’s a bus that will take you all the way up the hill that runs into the evening, buy your tickets to come back before you leave Florence though, there isn’t a machine in Fiesole!

This is the place to come if you’re looking for the sort of food you’d imagine your Italian grandmother cooking (I have to do a lot of imagining, since I don’t have an Italian grandmother).
It’s a little ways out of Florence, but it’s worth the trip, and you’ll get to see some lovely views on your way up and down the hill. Everything we ate there was absolutely delicious, from the fried mozzarella – that’s what every mozzarella stick aspires to be, to the fresh burrata, roasted tomato and eggplant stack, fried squash blossoms over a savory pesto custard, duck ragu, pesto pasta topped with fresh mozzarella, fried potatoes, steak with pesto and parmesan… it was all absolutely delicious. Flavorful, hearty – we were all eating long after we were full.
It’s small and cozy, and a really enjoyable place to spend an evening.
After you eat, take a walk in the square and check out a preserved section of the Basolato Romano (road from 1 BC).

This is a very nice and cosy little restaurant, in the heart of Fiesole, which also happens to be serving authentic Italian food. I do not have an Italian grand mother, but I guess she would cook like that. As appetizers, we had the plate of crostini which were all very good: the liver paté, the sausage, and even the tomatoes which looked a bit sad but was in the end delicious (thank you Italian Olive Oil!!). Then we had the gnocchi of the day and some pastas with pecorino, panchetta and something else I already forgot.
The only disappointment was the dessert, a cake with chestnuts (castagna), and was really not very good, sticky and not sweet at all (why?). But apart from that, rest assured: here you will find some authentic and good food, for a reasonable price and right on the central place of Fiesole.
The atmosphere is very welcoming and people here are smiling, I liked very much my Sunday lunch there!

Here’s the place that everyone comes back from vacation telling you the food
tastes like an Italian grandmother cooked it. You know the image of Nonna in a
hot kitchen, with a shapeless brown dress on, her hair in a simple plait, down
her back, she speaks no English, but her love comes out in the food.
We came here with friends who are regulars and based on the reviews of others,
it seems the service is the same if they know you or if you came of the street.
That’s…good service.
Let’s get to the food. They have their regular menu and then they have a
extensive specials of day menu. Have them explain the menu in English, if need
be, cause you might miss out on something good. And who comes this far to miss
out on something so close.
We started with small plates of pasta– ravioli stuffed with potato in a rabbit
ragu; house made tagliatelle with fresh tomato and ricotta salate; tagliatelle
with bolognese.
Second course– large chunky beef cheeks in a thick brown gravy served with a
creamy potato gallette and toasted bread to soak up all that tender bovine
goodness; beef carrappacio on bed of arugula. Side orders of simple oven roasted
potato and spinach (for some reason we felt like we needed a vegetable but,
needless to say, it was left untouched. Why waste space on a veggie?)
Dessert– an assortment of the homemade desserts. Cheesecake, chocolate cake,
flan, and chocolate cake scented with fennel. All washed down with glasses of
moscato and chianti vin santo.
We were rolled out at the end of the evening

We came to this place with some locals. This place was phenomenal! Its right outside Florence and the food was so delicious. The food was super fresh. I had egg pasta with ricotta cheese and dried tomato sauce. It was the perfect portion and tasted devine.
The second dish was a beef carpaccio. I expected thinly cut beef, but to my surprise it was very thickly cut beef. The thick cut beef was just rare enough on top of fresh arugala. That was followed by dessert.
The chocolates had interesting combinations. My favorite was the one with funnel in it. There was another with spice and another with orange. They also had surprsingly tasty flan.
Lastly, the selection was wine was wonderful. From the red to the dessert wines, it was a great selection
All in all, lovely restaurant!

The best food I’ve had during my two weeks in Firenze