The 26 best restaurants in Florence

bottega del buon caffe - best restaurants in florence, italy
From historic squares to riverside views, find the best restaurants in Florence - NYTNS / Redux / eyevine/SUSAN WRIGHT

Florence is a place of gastronomic delights, with delicious street fare – such as panini and gelato – at every turn, and more than a smattering of elegant dining experiences as well. But with such an abundance of trattorias, pizzerias and gelaterias, it's hard for an outsider to figure out where the true pearls lie.

Below we have the inside track on the very best, from hole-in-the-wall sandwich bars to Michelin-starred restaurants, where ingredients are straight from the owner's organic farm.

For more Florence inspiration, here we also have guides dedicated to the city's best hotels, bars and nightlife, shopping and attractions, plus how to spend a weekend in Florence.


Find a restaurant by area


Duomo, Piazza della Signoria and San Marco

Coquinarius

The tourist-packed area around the Duomo is a bit of a gastronomic desert, but among the few exceptions is cosy, vaulted Coquinarius, a wine bar and restaurant tucked away on a cobbled side street. It’s a popular spot with both tourists and locals for an aperitivo or something more substantial for lunch or dinner. There are platters of mixed cheeses and cold cuts, imaginative salads, excellent primi such as the signature ravioli stuffed with pecorino cheese and pears plus pigeon or roast beef for mains. Desserts (made fresh in-house daily) are worth leaving room for. There is also now a branch in Fiesole with huge picture windows and a terrace overlooking Florence.

Contact: coquinarius.it
Prices: ££
Reservations: Recommended

Osteria Vini e Vecchi Sapori

It may be steps from the Uffizi, one of the city’s biggest tourist draws, but this ever-crowded squeeze of a restaurant with bare wood tables and memorabilia-stacked walls, has many local fans; the ‘no pizza, no cappuccino, no ice, no takeaway’ confirms that it hasn’t sold its soul. Exemplary classics such as hearty ribollita,  pappardelle pasta with duck sauce, ‘peposo’ (a black pepper-spiked stew), baccalà alla Livornese (salt cod in tomato sauce) and sizzling deep-fried courgette flowers are served by cheerful, chatty waiters and there’s a lovely little terrace right on Piazza della Signoria for summer meals.

Contact: 055 293045
Prices: ££
Reservations: Essential

Caffé Rivoire

With its large terrace on Piazza della Signoria, sometimes dubbed 'Florence’s Drawing Room', elegant Rivoire makes a great place for people-watching. It was founded in 1872 as a chocolate factory (the hot chocolate is legendary) and the confections it serves are still divine, as are the cakes and pastries. Local Rivoire fans are not happy with the recent, shades of pink re-vamp, but the terrace remains a lovely spot for a cappuccino or lunch or to wind down with a Negroni after a long day’s sightseeing.

Contact: rivoire.it
Prices: ££
Reservations: Walk-ins only

Regina Bistecca

As the name suggests, Regina Bistecca is all about that local signature dish, the mighty bistecca alla Fiorentina. Lots of places these days tout it, but few get the cut and ‘cottura’ just right; this lovely restaurant inhabiting an ex-antiquarian bookshop on the ground floor of a Renaissance palazzo steps from the Duomo is one of the exceptions. You start by choosing your breed of steak (priced by weight) from the generic European to the highly-prized Chianina. It is brought raw to the table with its price-tag for inspection before being thrown on the grill and returned to you perfectly cooked (ie very rare) along with a bone-handled knife for carving. If steak isn’t your thing there are pasta dishes along with burgers and salads, but do leave room for one of the desserts that are as retro as the trolley they arrive on: crème caramel maybe? The wine list is particularly strong on Tuscan reds as befits the star of the show.

Contact: reginabistecca.com
Prices: ££
Reservations: recommended for dinner

Salotto Portinari

Chef Vito Mollica became a hugely popular and respected figure on the Florentine dining scene during his years helming his Michelin-starred restaurant at the Four Seasons hotel, but in June 2022 he opened Chic Nonna (now re-named Atto) in the Palazzo Portinari-Salviati hotel, and quickly won another star. Salotto Portinari, occupying the beautiful space under the glassed-in, porticoed  atrium of the building, is his more ‘casual’, more affordable bistrot,  a laid-back, comfortable, open-plan space where you lounge on pea-green velvet sofas for cocktails and tapas, or book a table for a relaxed dinner. The all-day menu features the likes of tuna and amberjack sashimi, retro prawn cocktail, fusilli with guinea fowl ragout and braised beef cheek; you can also just order a salad or a burger. And for that very special occasion, save up for the culinary wonderland that is Atto.

Contact: chicnonna.com
Prices: ££-£££
Reservations: advisable

Santa Croce and the east

Cibreò Trattoria

The late, great Fabio Picchi’s celebrated Cibreo is beyond the budget of many pockets, but its more casual off-shoot (aka Cibreino) is a relaxed place in which to enjoy the legacy of Picchi’s famous Florentine-based cooking. White linen is replaced by traditional ‘carta gialla’ (yellow paper) placemats on rustic bare wood, while the service is more casual, and you may have to share a table. Start with a robust ‘minestra di pane’ (bread soup) or lasagna before moving on to chicken and ricotta ‘polpette’ (meatballs) or the famous Roastbeef (sic) braised in white wine. Desserts – particularly the chocolate torte and the cheesecake with bitter orange marmalade – are legendary.

Contact: cibreo.com
Prices: ££
Reservations: Recommended

cibreo, florence, italy
Cibreò Trattoria is the more casual off-shoot of famed restaurant Cibreò

Del Fagioli

One of a dying breed of traditional family-run trattorias still in business in central Florence, dark wood-panelled Del Fagioli is the real deal. The menu of Florentine classics includes fettunta (toasted bread) brushed with garlic and drizzled with tangy olive oil, hearty bread and bean-based ribollita, polpettine fritte (fried meat balls)  and succulent bistecca alla Fiorentina, priced (as is usual) by weight and best accompanied by cannellini beans. There are heavy white linen cloths on the tables, white washed walls hung with paintings and the robust house red comes in an old-fashioned straw 'fiasco' flask.

Contact: 00 39 055 244285
Opening times: Mon-Fri lunch & dinner
Prices: ££
Reservations: Recommended

Semel

Marco Paparozzi, dapper owner of this brick-vaulted hole-in-the-wall of a sandwich bar overlooking the Sant’Ambogio market, makes some of the very best – and most original – panini in town. Small 'semel' rolls come stuffed with an ever-changing choice of fillings such as pecorino, pear and truffle, wild boar with polenta or anchovies with orange; it all depends on what Marco digs up in the market. A diminutive glass of house plonk will wash it down nicely. This is a popular place and there’s nowhere much to sit, so you’ll probably end up munching on the pavement.

Contact: N/A
Opening times:  Mon-Sat, 11.30am-3pm; closed Sun
Prices: £
Reservations: Walk-ins only

Santa Maria Novella, San Lorenzo and the west

Il Gusto di Xinge

Polimoda fashion school graduate and Beijing native Xinge Liu opened her second Florence restaurant in January 2023 on the busy ring road just west of the station. A sophisticated, minimalist urban space, it’s all deep terracotta and midnight blue with a ‘60s vibe which works particularly well at night. With the help of her chef mother,  she serves up creative bao and dim sum from an open kitchen using a mix of traditional and Italian ingredients plus the odd luxury touch of gold leaf, truffle and foie gras.  Dishes look as good as they taste – crispy scarlet pork balls hang artfully on wood branches, vegan ravioli come wrapped in mauve pasta trimmed with gold, a sweet sesame sphere sits on a candy floss cushion. Cocktails (‘Beijing Mary’, ‘Green Dragon’, ‘Lost in Translation’) are curated by Florentine mixologist supreme Julian Biondi. A few details need tweaking (the service is sometimes touch and go, and the plates are too small for all that messy food), but this is arguably the best Chinese food in Florence and it’s fun!

Contact: ilgustodixinge.com
Prices: ££
Reservations: essential

Casa Ciabattini

While still within walking distance of the centro storico, this new-generation osteria is far enough off the tourist radar to have a local feel. The young chef-owners have gone for a winning formula; traditional local home cooking ‘fatta bene’ (done well) using properly sourced, strictly seasonal ingredients and minimal waste. Three bright rooms in shades of green with chequer-board floors; one looks onto the open kitchen, another onto the street with a wide marble counter where fresh pasta (the house speciality) is rolled daily. Seasonal variation showcases ingredients such as mushrooms, truffle, artichokes and asparagus, while other dishes are fixtures: sinfully-rich chicken liver paté served with toasted hazelnuts, light-as-air gnudi with tomato sauce and peposo, a peppery beef stew.  

Contact: casaciabattini.it
Prices: ££
Reservations: recommended for dinner

Trattoria Sergio Gozzi

A homely, lunch-only spot located in the crowded San Lorenzo market area, this gem of a place is popular with both tourists and locals. The Gozzi family have been doling out Florentine and Tuscan specialities since 1915, and the décor (white walls hung with paintings, white linen cloths on rustic tables, a 'banco' at the entrance) seems to have changed little since then. The menu varies somewhat with the seasons but is staunchly traditional; robust bean and black cabbage soup or ribollita, pasta with simple tomato sauce, 'peposo' (a tasty beef stew laced with black pepper) and succulent arista (roast pork).

Contact: 00 39 055 281941
Opening times: Mon-Sat lunch
Price: £
Reservations: Walk-ins only

trattoria sergio gozzi, florence, italy
Trattoria Sergio Gozzi is a tempting spot for lunch

Pizzeria Starita

Ask any Neapolitan to name his five favourite pizza places in Naples, and the chances are that Starita will be included. Now fourth-generation pizzaiuolo Antonio Starita and family have opened a branch of this 1901 institution in Florence, near the San Lorenzo market. A signature montanarina, a light puff of deep-fried dough topped with cheese, tomato and basil will help you peruse the long and varied pizza menu that offers the classics alongside more unusual choices such as porcini e noci (with ceps mushrooms and walnut cream) or smargiassa (mozzarella, pesto and sun-dried tomatoes). The coup-de-grace? Angioletti (deep fried dough balls) soused in warm Nutella or pistachio cream.  

Contact: 055 2381179
Prices: £
Reservations: Recommended

Giotto

Ischia-born pizzaiolo Marco Manzi has been serving up Neapolitan-style pizzas with puffy, light-as-air crusts in Florence’s western suburbs since 2016; many cognoscenti consider his pizzas to be the best in town. His second, much larger restaurant opened in July 2022, a brightly lit space with bold colours, a golden-hued pizza oven and tables on historic Piazza Santa Maria Novella. Using top-notch ingredients sourced from the best producers, Manzi’s pizzas are divided between the classics such as Marinara and Sole di Napoli (with yellow piennolo tomatoes, capers and Cetara anchovies) and the likes of ‘Bistecca’, a focaccia topped with beef carpaccio and a rich demi-glace sauce; those puffy rims are achieved through a minimum of 30-36 hours proving. The drinks menu features a wide choice of craft beers plus a limited selection  of wines; go for a crisp biancolella white from Ischia. 

Contact: pizzeriagiotto.it
Prices: £-££
Reservations: advisable

L’Architettura del Cibo

The entrance to this intriguing restaurant is through an anonymous metal door set into a blank wall in a residential neighbourhood near Piazza delle Cure.  Once inside, you walk through a magical garden to a kind of glass-house built round an oak tree, cozy with low lighting and a fireplace in winter, open to the garden in summer. Chef Giuseppe Papallo’s culinary influences cover the length of Italy, from his parental roots in Calabria and Friuli to his adopted Tuscany. Dishes such as cappelletti stuffed with pigeon with a liquorice and king oyster mushroom sauce, lamb in a herb crust and  pan-fried turbot with roasted red peppers and sorrel are creative and skilled, guided by the seasons. Tasting menus start at €75. The wine list is an interesting mix of unusual labels from all over Italy; ask the sommelier for advice or go for one of the wine flights.

Contact: architetturadelcibo.it
Prices: ££-£££
Reservations: advisable

Oltrarno

Il Santo Bevitore

This stylishly retro osteria on the Oltrarno side of Ponte alla Carraia – all dark wood paneling and ceiling vaults – is ever popular with locals and clued-in tourists. It's surprisingly gourmet for what looks, at first sight, like a bohemian drinking den, with a menu that is committed to carefully-sourced, healthy seasonal produce. There are veggie soups and salads, sure, but there are also flourishes such as buckwheat tagliolini with pheasant breast and candied fennel. Puddings are good too: cinnamon crème brulée with diospero ice cream, maybe, or inky-dark chocolate fondant. The short lunchtime menu is particularly good value.

Contact: ilsantobevitore.com
Prices: ££-£££
Reservations: Essential in the evening

il santo bevitore, florence, italy
Il Santo Bevitore is a stylishly retro osteria - Il Santo Bevitore

Burro e Acciughe

From the same stable as popular, neighbourhood osteria 'Il Guscio' just up the road, shabby-chic 'Butter and Anchovies' (it’s one of the starters) serves up good, no-nonsense fish and seafood dishes on a quiet, residential street in the Oltrarno backstreets. It opened a couple of years ago but is still something of an off-the-radar novelty, even with the locals. That said, the restaurant is steadily making a name for itself with its fresh oysters and tuna carpaccio, tagliatelle with sea bream and rocket and olive pesto and earthy squid and artichoke stew.    

Contact: burroeacciughe.com
Prices: ££
Reservations: Recommended for dinner

Essenziale

Simone Cipriani, one of the leading lights in nouveau-Florentine experimental cuisine, works in an industrial-style space that makes no concessions to soft lighting and frilly napery: everything is pared down, emphasising what goes onto the plate. Cipriani’s dishes riff on his Tuscan roots, but world influences and a good dose of flair mean that there is always something interesting on offer. The menu formula changes frequently, but on a recent visit, the lunch menu (Tuesday-Friday and great value at €22) offered a salad of endive, fig and walnuts with caramelized onions and goat’s cheese, risotto with mushrooms and cavolo nero and ‘Nashville style’ fried guinea fowl and liquorice panna cotta.

The more elaborate dinner menu is €65 for six courses and gives equal billing to meat, fish and vegetables; dishes change often reflecting seasonal availability,  but you can expect the likes of salt cod ‘tripe’ in tomato sauce with tempura onions and tomato risotto with kimchi. The short wine list is intelligently chosen and well priced.

Contact: essenziale.me
Prices: £££
Reservations: Essential

essenziale, florence, italy
Essenziale is renowned for its nouveau-Florentine experimental cuisine

Gunè San Frediano

This cocktail bar and restaurant, with its elegant, pared-back retro look, is surrounded by the artisan studios, antique shops and neighbourhood stores of the San Frediano neighbourhood. Order a signature cocktail while you choose from the menu, which is full of references to the owner’s Lucanian (Basilicata) and chef Mirko Margheri’s Tuscan roots along with the odd flourish of something more exotic. Whether you choose one of the tasting menus or order à la carte, you can expect the likes of Nigiri Maki with caramelized onions and scampi, spaghetti with sea urchins, mullet roe and sake and the highly-recommended variations of local ‘Valdarno’ pigeon with truffle. The wine list showcases the lesser-known wines of southern Italy but covers much more.

Contact: sanfredianorestaurant.com
Prices: £££
Reservations: Recommended

Osteria dell’Enoteca

This relaxed, new-generation osteria is from the same stable as brilliant little Pitti Gola e Cantina in Piazza Pitti; the dynamic young team have opened another wine bar in Via Giusti (north-east of the Duomo) and a new restaurant in Via San Niccolò. Here, in the Oltrarno location and against a background of exposed brickwork, crisp, white linens and attentive service, the seasonal, Tuscan-based menu offers the odd twist: top-notch charcuterie, cauliflower flan with aged parmesan fondue, stand-out tagliolini with wood pigeon ragù, and melting, slow-braised beef. Bistecca alla Fiorentina (which the chef quite rightly refuses to serve more than ‘medium-rare’) is another reliable option. There’s no wine list; you choose from a fairly-priced selection displayed (along with clear prices) in glass cabinets.

Contact: osteriadellenoteca.com
Prices: ££
Reservations: Recommended (for dinner)

osteria dell'enoteca, florence, italy
Osteria dell’Enoteca is an excellent example of a new-generation osteria

Gurdulù

Named after a character in an Italo Calvino novel, this deli/takeaway/eat-in hybrid has a  sophisticated retro look belying its reasonable prices. A long deli counter is laden with top-notch cheeses and charcuterie plus dishes to go (gnocchi alla Romana, meat balls in tomato sauce, braised endive and hazelnuts, interesting salads). There is also an ambitious  menu of more complex dishes to eat in, unusual choices such as barbequed beef with pineapple and cashews and duck en croute with sesame and foie gras and they make their own excellent sourdough bread and more-ish focaccia. There’s a great selection of wines to compliment it all, and in warm weather, tables are laid in a delightful little courtyard garden at the back.

Contact: gurdulu.com
Prices: £-££
Reservations: Not necessary at lunch; recommended for dinner

gurdulu, florence, italy
Gurdulù has indoor and outdoor dining for all weathers

Gelateria della Passera

Ice cream is an essential element of any visit to Florence, but it’s quite hard to find the real deal. Cinzia Otri’s artisan gelateria, set on the Oltrarno’s prettiest square, may be tiny, but it packs a punch; she studied ice cream making at Bologna’s Università del Gelato and the 20-odd flavours are made using only top-notch regional, all-natural ingredients. In-house classics include almond, coffee, pistachio and crema, but there are also curiosities such as mojito and monnalisa (with apple, orange flower, sultanas and walnuts). Seasonal fruit flavours include pear, fig and chestnut plus refreshing summer melon or strawberry sorbets.  

Contact: gelaterialapassera.wordpress.com
Prices: £
Reservations: Walk-ins only

gelateria della passera, florence, italy
The ice cream served at Gelateria della Passera is the real deal

Beyond the city walls

L’Angolo del Mare

This smart yet unpretentious little restaurant, in an off-piste location just south of the football stadium, is considered by local cognoscenti to be the best place to eat hopping fresh fish and seafood in the city. The owners know their bass from their bream (they used to have a place on the coast) and take daily deliveries of what comes in off the boats. There are no frills and flourishes in the kitchen, just good, reliable cooking showcasing top-notch ingredients; oysters and tuna tartare to start, griddled octopus and aubergine, a fabulous tagliolini with astice (lobster), oven-baked catch of the day on a bed of potatoes and tomatoes. Wash it all down with a bottle of fizzy Franciacorta or a mineral-y white from Mount Etna from the well-priced wine list.

Contact: langolodelmare.com
Prices: ££-£££
Reservations: Essential

Da Ruggero

For an authentic, family-run trattoria serving textbook versions of traditional Florentine dishes, this small, wood-pannelled trattoria south of Porta Romana is one of the best choices. Usually full of locals (it’s far enough from the city centre to deter all but the most dedicated tourists), Da Ruggero specialises in classics such as ribollita (bread-based vegetable and bean soup), ossobuco and garlic and rosemary-spiked arista, or roast pork. In spring there will be risotto with asparagus maybe. There’s a short wine list, but the robust house red is a perfect match for this style of cooking.

Contact: 00 39 055 220542
Opening times: lunch and dinner, closed Tue & Wed
Prices: ££
Reservations: Essential (for dinner)

Sabatino

The Buccioni family has been serving good, honest home cooking to a mix of blue-collar workers, local residents, students and clued-up tourists in their simple San Frediano trattoria since 1956, and in spite of a move to just outside the old city gate somewhere along the line, it essentially hasn’t changed much. The short, daily, no-frills menu is typed on a vintage Olivetti and features the likes of tagliatelle with either meaty ‘sugo’ or tomato sauce, ‘rosbif’ (sic) with roast potatoes, roast pork, baccalà (salt cod) and pears poached in red wine. It’s all homemade and prices are ridiculously low; pastas come in at around €5, mains at €6.50 or so; the rough and ready house wines cost €1.50 for a 250 ml carafe. You can’t do better than that.

Contact: trattoriasabatino.it
Prices: £
Reservations: Walk-ins only

Saporium

Set just back from the riverside walk on the south bank of the Arno, and glowing from its recently-awarded Michelin stars (one green), soothing, leafy Saporium is an outpost of Danish-owned boutique country property Borgo Santo Pietro. Personable young chef Ariel Hagen’s menus give equal billing to fish, meat and vegetables showcasing produce from the property’s extensive bio-dynamic farm and fermentation lab with sophisticated, highly technical results. Standouts of a recent dinner included cavolo nero risotto with sheep’s milk kefir, sole on a bed of lentils topped with a blob of caviar and perfectly pink pigeon. The wine list is a vast tome; ask the green-clad sommelier for advice or go for one of the flights. Tasting menus start at €170, but at lunchtimes you can eat three set courses for €85. 

Contact: saporium.com
Prices: £££
Reservations: essential for dinner

Riva Kitchen

In spite of (or maybe thanks to) its off-radar location on the south bank of the Arno in the western suburb of Isolotto, Riva Kitchen – a recent addition to boutique hotel Riva Lofts – is quietly drawing a local following for its excellent Tuscan-rooted food and atmospheric setting. Chef Michele Berlendeis’s menus offer a regularly-changing choice of four dishes for each course, all of them tempting; whipped chicken liver mousse with toasted hazelnuts, taglierini with juicy clams and salty mullet roe, marinated pork ribs with celeriac purée. The well-priced wine list is equally brief and to the point. In summer, dinner is served in the delightful garden overlooking the lap pool and the river; in winter you cozy up by the open fire in the brick-vaulted living room. It’s a brilliant place to escape the tourist crowds.

Contact: rivalofts.com
Prices: ££
Reservations: essential


How we choose

Every restaurant in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who has visited to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets, from neighbourhood favourites to Michelin-starred restaurants – to best suit every type of traveller’s taste – and consider the food, service, best tables, atmosphere and price in our recommendations. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest opening and provide up to date recommendations.