Berberè

If you’re looking for the most classic Italian pizza in Florence, this is not the place for you. However, if you’re tired of all the typical Italian food and looking for a change, this is a great option. The pizza was delicious with some unique flavors. We spent 46 euros for a salad, 2 beers, and 2 pizzas, which made this one of our cheaper meals in the city. Definitely worth the trip!

BEST PIZZA IN FIRENZE! you will not be disappointed. Artisan dough, made beautifully. Definitely make a reservation for a Friday or Saturday night. It’s very popular among locals.

The pizza was really great. You can definitely taste that the tomato sauce is fresh! The dough is tremendous too! They have a good selection of beer that is good, especially here in italy. So yeah, the food was delicious, just a bit too bad that, for me, the service was just ok. Still worth going there and have a great pizza !

We dropped in on a Friday night without a reservation and we were fortunate to get a seat at the bar and we were able to watch the cook make the pizza. The wait staff were excellent. The wine went well with the pizza. The pizza was perfectly cooked and delicious. Only issue was with English. It was a little tough to understand the waiter but he worked hard. I’d recommend them for any meal.

Italians have an obsession with digestion, and pizza is known (by many) as not being super digestible. So they went and developed more-​digestible pizza, and that’s where Berberè comes in. Well, as someone who likes to digest her food, although I can’t say I usually talk about this on social networks, I can say that I digested Berberè’s pizza in a manner that was, uh, A-​OK. So, their yeast-​free, whole wheat floured pizza (that cost 11 euros for what was not really more than a margherita) was digestible.
But that is the biggest compliment I can give the place. Let’s take a step back. I skipped the grand opening because I wanted to taste the food, not fight people to get a slice. Soon after, a certain Unilocal Elite who is also a fantastic food blogger posted on her blog about an unacceptably long wait for said pizza, so I decided not to come to this restaurant. Apparently their oven could only do 4 pizzas at a time (I’m not sure if this is still true or if they have managed to build a bigger oven in the meantime), explaining the slow service. Then, a few weeks ago I was at Expo in Milan and ate at the Alce Nero Berberè there and it was SO GOOD, seriously one of the best pizza’s I’ve had in ages. Oozy cheese, delicious crust, amazing flavour combo, for 10 euros. So I thought it was time to try the Florence venue.
We went on a saturday night, booked a table outside for 4 people. We ordered and I had the good sense to ask the waitress to make sure the grilled zucchini on my pizza wasn’t pre-​made with garlic, to which I am allergic. To her credit, she came back to say yes, it was made that way. I asked for fresh zucchini to be sliced on top instead of the pre-​grilled one, which she said was not possible, despite acknowledging that they did actually have the fresh ingredient in-​house. According to the writing on the menu, no substitutions can be made. Not for allergies, either, it appears. So I chose a pizza that was basically a margherita with capers, but it took 3 lines to explain the provenance of every ingredient from the tomatoes to the cheese, oregano and capers, so that drew me in (everything sounds nicer with storytelling). I opted for one of the special doughs of the day, a yeast-​free number due to the aforementioned digestion.
Our drinks arrived, and my artisan cedrata had been put in the freezer and was a lump of ice, so that got sent back. Half an hour later the 4 pizzas came (reasonable wait time). Mine (pictured in the photo) had the mozzarella on the bottom, then the super special tomato sauce carefully dollopped (cold?) with an icing bag into nice circles (with a measured circumference of 4.5cm) on each slice, precisely decorated with four super special capers. A rather heavy-​handed sprinkling of oregano was applied.
How was my pizza, you ask? Extremely underwhelming. Heavy, thick dough (though digestible — wonder how it rises so much though without yeast?) that tastes like sawdust (hey, everything whole wheat kinda does, right?). Cheese had solidified. Sauce cold. Capers good enough. I think they had let it sit out before serving us because it was lukewarm, which meant after the first slice it was just cold. Could the same thing have been made better? Probably had they put the whole thing in the oven, and served it right away, yes. And maybe with a good dose of high quality olive oil over the whole crust, and some salt both on top and inside the dough.
Why did they get 2 stars?
–minus one for the frozen drink
–minus one for my bum falling asleep on the uncomfortable metal folding chairs that are more a nod to fashionable furniture than to ergonomics
–plus one for the waiter who was able to correctly answer the question «what does the word Berberè mean?» (or maybe he was sh*tting us, we didn’t really know the answer, but he said it with conviction)
–neutral for the service, neither horrid nor notably wonderful
–minus one for not accommodating food allergies in a place that is so hipster-​friendly you have to assume that in any group of 5 people there’s going to be 8 different allergies
–minus one for the cold, not really good pizza
–plus one for the fact that I digested my pizza
Can you do math? I can’t.

Awesome food/​pizza, but dont let them seat you on the front room by the bar. It is extremely hot. If there is no room outside, sit in the back room, not by the bar

Well, I definitely need to try this place a second time.
The time we went we booked a table for 14 people and when we got there, Florentine summer, hot night, we were put inside, in the most static spot of the place and the AC was broken.
They didn’t even bought a fan?!
Since we were 14, we couldn’t choose from the menu what we wanted but we had to take the tasting menu, so yes we got to try almost every pizza, but each one (they were smaller than usual standards) were divided in 8 slices that we had to split again in two so everyone could taste it.
Well, that went well…
Anyway, the idea is pretty awesome, since everyone knows the partnership between pizza and craft beer is the best one ever existed.
They use light flours like kamut and starter so the bread is soft, tall and light.
Pizzas are very very tasty and beer too is excellent.
But, I know as a fact we all felt quite swollen after eating there.
So I’ll go back again, maybe with just one person, and give it a second try.
It doesn’t seem to be a place for groups.

I recently tried this new place in the oltrarno with friends and was pleasantly surprised by not only the quality of the food but also the cool design of the restaurant. This is a very new-​age pizza and beer joint where they even confirm which flour they will be using. I really kind of respect that. We chose a few different appetizers, all of which were absolutely great (think burrata and mixed cheeses) though very small portions, which would be only complaint.
The pizza itself was very good, served already cut with an emphasis on fresh, wuality ingredients. The star of the night was the pizza topped with pumpkin, ricotta cheese and a spicy mostarda, this was absolutely incredible. I would love to eat this again. The beer is artisan-​made, I really loved my refreshing weiss but almost like the ‘morning glory’ even more. They also have a pretty nice wine list!
make a reservation as I see this being very popular with locals and just remember that though you might see ‘pizza’ and think it’s cheap, this place is a little more than average, pizzas’ around 10 — 14 euros (which is a lot.) and you probably don’t want to share appetizers because the portions are really small. Very nice place and happy addition to the neighborhood, I will be back!