Gustavino

We enjoyed a very pleasant, very good meal here. We started with a shared bowl of hearty, starchy ribolitta, the classic bread and vegetable soup of Tuscany. I loved this soup when I first tried it here in Florence 5 years ago, and Gustavino’s version reminds me why.
The salt encrusted branzino with roasted potatoes was simply prepared with garlic and rosemary, and was moist, flaky, and very good. The ‘Vegetarian Flavors Triad’ had two hits and one near miss: the vegetable flan (really a light soufflé) and the smoked scamorza with pear and honey in puff pastry were both very good, but the play on eggplant parmigiana left us craving actual eggplant parm.
We enjoyed an oaky Chardonnay with our meal, and were even topped off at no additional charge. We were again happily surprised by a warmer level of service than we’d experienced in our prior two visits to Italy including, as is sometimes the hit-​and-​miss custom here, we were treated to complimentary limoncello as a digestif at the end of our meal.
One oddity — the frosted glass box in the middle of the second dining room turns out to be the restroom. While we were seated a bit away from it, the dining room is small and there are some tables that are much too proximate for good taste.

Very, very good place. Modern décor, yet on a side winding street near Santa Croce. We had a female exec chef who was great. Young waiters from all over Europe who spoke perfect English. Very cutting edge cuisine (sea urchin/​black pasta). Nice wine list. Great apps. Check it out.

OMG this place is amazing. We had the best appetizer, FILO pastry with artichoke and pesto sauce, a terrific pumpkin pasta, a FILO pastry entrée and a chocolate moose for desert. An amazing local wine selection, we met the owner of the winery!!! so humble, so kind, and an enthusiastic wait staff, Cosmo is the head waiter and very accommodating. A must go to place! So happy our concierge recommended else we would have missed out. Modern, trendy ambience and elegant, delicious food.

Accueil excepionnel, design top… Cuisine trés fine et parfumée… Service irreprochable.

Love this place. Loved the modern décor, food presentation, cleanliness and friendly staff. We were recommended by our hotel for this place. The food portions aren’t huge but if you are looking more for quality in flavor and ingredients this is your place. There were four of us so we each ordered a different pasta. The black fresh pasta was amazing! The handmade pasta with ricotta and blue cheese is amazing! I would have never imagined those flavors together would be pure heaven. Salmon pasta ravioli with lemon sauce and the one pasta with broccoli was delicious. House wine was excellent and at a great price.
As we were leaving the chef showed us how to make the ravioli. What a special treat!
If you are looking for fresh pasta this is your place!

We DO NOT RECOMMEND; HAVE NEVER FELT SO UNWELCOME ANYWHERE.
My wife and I are NOT hard to please. We read good reviews online and decided to go have a few glasses of wine. When we arrived we were placed at a front table. No one would serve us or even look at us so we could not order for about 15 minutes after seated. Finally the nice hostess actually had to tell the servers to serve us. We had one glass of wine, no one looked at us again. Zero glances in our direction.
As I raised my hand to ask for another glass of wine the server gripped something in Italian to another server, motioning like my wife and I were doing something wrong. We asked what the problem was and a nice gentleman said they wanted to move us to another table.
After one hour of sitting there and only one glass of wine served, with no other service my wife and I decided to leave.
It was not a pleasant experience at all. We DO NOT recommend.

You always remember your first — whether it was good, bad, or indifferent.
This was the first place that I had pici (a thicker spaghetti) and our first night in Italy. After eating it, I had to have it every other meal in Florence. Their pastas are homemade, served al dente, and you can taste the difference. We ate outside in a quaint narrow alley and a street performer must have passed every 5 minutes (it was very clique being serenaded the entire meal).
Now back to the pici… it came with deer ragout, fresh thyme, parmesan, and bitter chocolate. YES, I said bitter chocolate! I didn’t think it would all go together, but it all meshed. At the end of our meal, our waiter gave us a gift (a small bottle of the olive oil they use). Great gesture!