Caffè Donnini 1894

Im giving this place 5 stars! Not only were the people very polite, kind and knowledgeable about the food, the dinner was outstanding! I had the spaghetti and meatballs and my husband had the tort-​tele and everything was outstanding! We also had the homemade tiramisu and strawberries with cream for dessert. We ate every last bite of our food. The atmosphere was gorgeous as well. They do have some competition right next store that offers a larger percent off the meal, but in my opinion if you know your food is better and truly authentic, then you don’t have to offer a discount as big as the competition. Fake and not completely authentic food Is just that. When we come to Italy, we want the real thing. My husband and I are major food critics so we do not post these reviews lightly. Donnini is a place that gives you the entire gourmet food experience of Florence Italy that you would want.

4 days and 7 great meals in Florence then this…
I was looking for something other than Italian this evening so tried Caesar salad and chicken currie.
The Caesar had some kind of bottled dressing with near no garlic. The Currie — over cooked chicken and bland level of spice. My wife stayed Italian — Risotto– again disappointing. Service was average at best– altogether a disappointment.
They did reverse the standard seating fee to keep the cost reasonable.

BAD! Our only bad food during our two week travels in Italy! Bad service, bad ravioli and bad vegan spaghetti! C’mon– bad spaghetti? Overpriced and just not good. BUMMER.

Definitely a tourist trap. Food was OK… But as stated in the other reviews, not worth wasting a meal in Florence on. Big disappointment! The bread was terrible (stale and cold), and the pasta was just ok (I got spaghetti pomodoro and my boyfriend got lasagna). For my entrée I got a steak which was pretty good, but is hard to screw up which they successfully did not. The outdoor room was freezing and when I asked if they could close the door the waiter ignored me. The only thing this place is good for: a glass of wine to look out at the piazza. Otherwise don’t waste your time, appetite, or money here! Oh and 1 star for the service.

We came into this restaurant since they appeared to have some authentic italian food, and because we were really cold and didn’t want to keep walking. The service was poor and the food lacked taste. I ordered the Tuscan vegetable soup… which lacked soup (it was totally thick). I also ordered a Caesar salad, of which the dressing provided did not resemble a Caesar dressing at all. I had to request for bread after noticing the table sitting next to us had been served bread. The food took a long time to be served. Very overpriced, tourist trap and not worth wasting a meal in Florence.

We should have kept on walking by, but the greeter told us he could make us anything we wanted. We sat down, and requested a chicken meal with mushrooms and marsala wine, but they didn’t know what we were talking about. They never heard of a recipe like this. We ordered off the menu instead, and the food was horrible! It’s in a nice location, but you’re just there to pay their rent.

I disliked my experience — service was poor, and the charging was inconsistent; I felt as though the waiter changed the price on the spur of the moment, and actually did so for the cost of water and bread, greatly hurting the legitimacy of the restaurant. Cost was high, and food was not that great and not as much as I expected.

We walked by and had a chat with the hostess outside. She was nice and talked up the cafè up really well. The restaurant is in a nice location. We decided to eat there after shopping for a bit. The entrance was a shattered glass door, possibly by an unhappy patron, should have been the first warning sign of the terrible meal we had.
What fine restaurant hires «pimps» to lure patrons? I missed the obvious signs.
We were given a soiled linen, bread was brought out with no plates, we had to wait for spoons for our soup, and we had to request all other condiments. We ordered a bottled water and it clearly was a reused bottle filled with tap water. Clear sign was bubbles on the inside of the glass (product of turbidity in tap water) and it had several finger prints.
Our mains were a pizza and the wild boar polenta. The pizza was soggy and tasteless and the polenta was mush and flavorless.
The waiters never came back to ask how our meal was cooked because they now what they serve is Dog SH*T !! Add insult to the experience, is that I had to ask for the tab three times and waited a half hour in a restaurant with about 20 tables and 5 occupado. I recommend eating at a street vendor over this tourist trap.

Tourist trap! Terrible service and they even try to get you to tip them by asking for a 10% tip at the end of the meal. I think not when everyone else got bread except our table and it was hard to grab the waiters attention. Eat somewhere else!

food was pretty goood. service was blah, had to ask for bread. would probably come back

The food was fine, but the service was misleading and slimy. Seduced by the location and nice ambiance, we stopped to check out the menu. The hostess came up and informed us that they were running a promotion tonight: 50% off the bill due to low volume. So we decided to give it a try. When we got inside she said it was 15%… Ok, maybe our misunderstanding. The food was fine, but nothing special. Restrooms were dirty. When the bill came out there was no discount to be seen. What the restaurant had done is not charged us the 15% cover. We were informed that if we wanted the waiter to get a tip we would still need to pay the 15% after all. We felt hustled, and really wish we had kept walking to find a nicer establishment. Restaurants like this one give Florence a bad name.