Acqua al 2

Wonderful wine list, absolutely fantastic atmosphere, food is really great as well. Not terribly touristy either

I shared the pasta sampler and steak sampler with a friend which ended up costing about 38 euros altogether. I loved tasting the different pastas and steaks — the blueberry steak is especially good! The interior was also really cozy and festive.

Delicious! But a bit pricey and touristy… I recommend getting the daily special, just like in any other place, the pasta and sauce taste very home made and the portions are big but don’t make you feel like you are about to pass out from eating too much, they are incredibly light. I’m glad they restored my mom’s faith in Italian food in Italy, before this she has been to Italy without me and only ate at horrible tourist traps, again this place is touristy but the food is REAL! Service is pretty good too (for Italian standards lol!)

I am giving this restaurant five stars, because for the 8 days we were in Tuscany, this was the best meal we ate! My friend studied in Firenze and interned here and said I must try it… she was SO right! Don’t follow GPS, it had us walking in circles… try to get a local to tell you, because it is on a small side street. Our waitress was great, she spoke English and had a great knowledge about the menu. We ordered the mozzarella caprese (MAGNIFICENT!) and I had the pici (Which was AMAZING) and my husband had a special, it was a ravioli with avocado and pomegranate seeds and it was one of the most interesting and delicious meals I have ever eaten. The ambiance is cool, they have plates signed by famous people all over. The bread — the wine– and the price-​was all perfect. I am so happy we ate here, this is a quality place! I also loved that there was a video of the kitchen that we could see, so we saw the chef preparing our meal, how cool! I CAN’T BELIEVE there are locations in Washington DC & San Diego… I will 100% go to BOTH in 2016!

I have been to Florence 4Xs and always go to Acqua al Due for their delicious blueberry steak! I also recommend the pasta sampler and Tiramisu! Don’t miss it! Use the bread to enjoy the blueberry sauce when you’re done with the steak; this is called «scarpetta.»

Comfortable place, good food just prepared differently. Staff was helpful but not overly friendly like most of my favorite places to eat. I love the food, but it’s not for everyone. The blueberry steak is phenomenal

Probably 3.5 stars based on high expectations. We went on a friends recommendation who raved about the blueberry steak. We had a smoked swordfish app with green peppercorn that was incredible. The steak was perfectly cooked and the blueberry sauce was great but honestly it was too much. Maybe I’m just a purist but I prefer a great cut of meat with just salt and pepper. House wine was excellent.

Well we had heard so many complimentary things about this restaurant but were very disappointed with food and service. We ordered the pasta sampler and a 2 out of 5 were worth the money. Compared to our other meals in Florence this was over priced and the food just wasn’t anything special. Also, for the money the waiters should at least not act like jerks.

This is a must eat restaurant when in Florence. I was introduced to acqua al 2
18 years ago and it is every bit as delicious today. They offer «tasting plates» for each course and they are delicious as is the house chianti. The homemade pasta cannot be beaten.

Lovely casual comfortable friendly atmosphere
Great service delicious food
Excellent wine
worth the visit

All three of those stars are for the atmosphere and service. The food was only okay we thought, although a tiramisu for dessert was very good! We were a fairly raucous group of twelve and our server, Francesca, was simply wonderful; friendly, helpful and efficient. We had a very fun night with lots of good chianti in a pleasant location! Wasn’t too expensive either considering how much wine we put away!

After a long day being a tourist, Acqua al 2 was a great restaurant to stop at. We read all the Unilocal reviews, and it is so hard to distinguish between the great reviews and the terrible reviews, since I’m unsure of how authentic the Italian cuisine is here. So my review is not taking into account how «authentic» the food is here.
In our indecision and inability to choose the amount of food to order, we ended up getting the salad sampler, the pasta sampler, and the meat sampler. We also ordered a 12 € bottle of their red wine, which was quite tasty. Before we got our orders, the server brought out a complimentary hummus/​bruschetta bread platter for us. The hummus was ok, but the balsamic tomatoes were tasty. We asked for a bread refill, which our server readily provided. However, that bread came out of a bag and wasn’t as fresh as the originally provided bread.
The salad sampler consisted of three small salad offerings:
Fennel salad
Corn salad
Greek salad
Each was tasty, although I preferred the Greek salad and corn salad over the fennel. I believe my table had similar sentiments.
The pasta sampler consisted of 5 separate pasta offerings. We ordered two pasta samplings, so each pasta sample was doubled:
Fusilli with pine nuts and spinach
Farfalle with pumpkin — BEST
Maccheroni with Gorgonzola — not a fan. She did ask if we preferred no Gorgonzola in our dishes, but I didn’t realize they would use the cheese in this way.
Conchiglioni with vegetable ragu sauce
Rigatoni with mozzarella and eggplant
All were cooked al dente and deliciously, some more so than others for sure. The favorites by far were the conchiglioni and the farfalle. We were stuffed at this point because of
The meat sampler consisted of three meats on a single platter:
Blueberry steak (filet)
Balsamic steak (filet)
Sliced filet mignon over focaccia with ponzu cheese over arugula
This was my first experience with blueberry steak. Interesting? Yes. Tasty? Maybe. Getting it again? Probably not. The filets were oversauced, but the meat quality was still apparent.
My sister had a 4% student discount card, which docked off a couple euros off the overall check. Yay students!
Our server seemed to be standing by us at all times, seeing as we were the first people inside the restaurant once the clock struck 7 and they opened for dinner service. It is hard to get a seat without a reservation, so be sure to make one if you can. We were seated in the back at one of the only unreserved tables. If you have a reservation, you will most likely be seated in the main room to get the full rustic experience. Most of the dinner patrons were tourists, but we didn’t mind. You do need your authentic Italian meals and I’m guessing this probably wasn’t one. However, we would still have never found a meal like this in America, so I can’t complain.

Great recommendation for a Wednesday night. Acqua is situated on a corner and is quite large. The four of us were situated at a very cozy table in the back room.
Each ordered delicious pasta dishes. I had the gnocchi with red radish. We had the house chianti for 12 euros a bottle, which was a great price for a great wine.
We ended with the dessert sampler which was amazing. Chocolate cake, tiramisu, and cheesecake.
The server spoke English and was very helpful and patient. Great service.
I would say aqua caters a little more to Americans than most others but so what.

The service at Acqua al 2 was outstanding. I’ve never been treated so well in an Italian restaurant! The food was delicious, get the picci pasta with pomodoro!!! The steak was unreal, although I think having blueberry steak once is enough for me, the meat itself was cooked to perfection. I will definitely be returning! Fun ambiance and great prices!

We went here for my last night studying abroad. It was so much fun. There were so many of us we were put in the cellar and had no idea what was coming for us.
The food was absolutely incredible. We did a pasta course that was to die for

The most memorable meal I ever had in Florence
They have a dish that is a pasta sampler where if you order it you get five small different pasta dishes brought out to you. Every few. Insures after you finish the first freshly made pasta, they bring you another one
I ordered four of these so I tried 20 different pasta dishes with the table. Each one was fresh and delicious
The rest of the food was good but this pasta sampler was incredible

Oh how I wish I had known before making reservations that this was a «chain» and had locations in America. Why would I want to go all the way to Italy and eat at a place I could find in Washington, DC? #lessonslearned because this was my least favorite meal in Florence.
So, here’s the rub:
1. The prices were expensive compared to just about anywhere else we ate in Florence,
2. The food was mediocre at best,
3. Don’t believe people when they rave about the «blueberry» steak; it’s too sweet, and the sauce overpowers the meat,
4. Stay away from all of the samplers – these are super small, expensive, and will leave you still hungry.
…in other words, just don’t do it! You’ve traveled to Florence to experience Florence. There are plenty of better places.

Getting a meal in Florence is the same as ordering a Guinness in Dublin… even on the worst day you will get a quality that supersedes anything else you have ever had or will have again.
That being said, Acqua al 2 was one of the top three meals I ate while in Italy. I ordered the the Blueberry Filet Mignon and house wine and both were incredible… the filet was an outstanding cut of meat and the blueberry sauce it was smothered in made the taste unique and delicious. I had this dish on the recommendation of a close friend and wasn’t sorry that I did.
If you are in the area stop in to this spot! The décor is funky (plates hung all around signed by celebrities and debutantes) and the atmosphere is warm and inviting.

Definitely a huge tourist spot, but it’s worth checking out if you want to be in a restaurant that speaks good English with exceptional service and quality food while avoiding all the other traditional trattorias and osterias in Florence.
I came here with one of my friends today around 7:30pm and got seated immediately; the average dinner time for Florentines is around 8−9pm, so expect a crowd around that time frame. They waitress greeted us with a complimentary appetizer of bread with a potato-​like spread and tomato with oil spread as their «welcome» gift from the restaurant. We already knew we wanted the blueberry steak (fillet al mirtillo; 19.50 euro) medium-​rare with a small bottle of their house red wine split between the both of us (6 euro). The blueberry steak came with bread for our dishes for the excess blueberry sauce; so yummy! The portion of the steak is small BUT it is thick, so it may be a little more filling than it looks. There was little fruit on the side of the dish as decoration. Overall our bill came out to be 51.70; cover charge is 1 euro a person and service charge is 10% of the bill. Overall I was pretty satisfied with everything here. I wouldn’t pick this as a must-​try in Florence since there are much cheaper restaurants that serve more authentic Tuscan food and there are branches in the USA (Washington DC and San Diego), but if you aren’t from America then it’s worth checking out.
At the end of your meal they give small pieces of blueberry candy. Yum!

3.5 stars
I was reluctant to eat here because they have a branch in DC, but it was late at night and we didn’t know where else to go.
Food was cheap and decent. For the value, you should definitely try the pasta tasting, which consists of tastes of 5 different pastas. I had pastas with broccoli sauce, pesto, eggplant, and gorgonzola + a risotto. About 12 euros for the sampler. None of the pastas had meat.
Tons of tourists here, but the food is good value for the money.

Un bien bel endroit. Malheureusement le service est plus que médiocre! Nous nous attendions à mieux vu les commentaires, mais il parait clair que cet établissement se repose sur une gloire passée. De plus on sentait bien que le restaurant cherchait plus à faire du chiffre en faisant rouler ses tables plutôt que de faire un bon service et mettre les clients à l’aise. Préférer le quantitatif au qualitatif est leur problème majeur.
Nous avons été installés à la pire table près de la reception (et de ce qui semblait être la propriétaire). Les serveurs se donnaient les commandes à travers la salle en criant!
Pour 20 € je m’attend à un accompagnement avec un filet mignon (très bon par ailleurs), le risotto était bien trop juteux, pour un restaurant italien ça fait désordre.
Enfin, je né suis pas radin sur le pourboire mais je n’aime pas qu’on me force à mettre 10%!
Bref, un ²⁄₅ en étant généreux !

Entramos aquí por casualidad, ya que era sábado y estaba todo lleno. Me sonaba d haberlo visto en mi guía, y teníamos hambre. Tres razones más q suficientes para probarlo. Es bastante oscuro, pero muy pintoresco. Pedimos dos platos principales, ensalada y dos copas de vino. Pues bien, el plato de mi novio salió a los 10min, el mío a 45min largos porque se equivocaron. A los de al lado les pasó exactamente lo mismo así que no fue el único error de la noche. El vino d la casa lo sacaron entre medias y lo cobraron doble en la cuenta, era un blanco que no se pasaba mucho…
La ensalada también la pedimos de la casa. La trajeron después de mi tardío plato. Muy muy mala. Trozos de lechuga con UNA oliva y UN tomate cherry aliñados con una salsa de origen desconocido. Al pedir la cuenta nos trajeron unos pedacitos de bruschetta… Perdona? Después de cenar suelo tomar dulce y tal, no pan con ajo y tomate! Me parece que no tenían mucho sentido del orden…
Al final pedimos unas copitas de limoncello para endulzar la velada y eso no lo cobraron. Lo más normal después de este servicio desastroso, pues no hay bastante con hacer muy bien la pasta. Los demás «antidetalles» contaron más que esto. Aún no he hecho mención a la camarera. Bien podría haber sido una sargento de Mussolini. Qué carácter tenía… En la mesa de al lado reclamaron las bruschettas que nos habían prometido gratis a ambas mesas y empezó a gritarle diciendo si es que no veía lo lleno que estaba. Yo le pedí la ensalada con la boca pequeña… miedito! Aquí no vuelvo ni lo recomiendo…