13 places I recommend
These are the 13 restaurants, bars and ice cream shops in Florence I have eaten at myself and would recommend.
Where a section has more than one place, they are numbered from my favourite downwards. 
marks the ones not to be missed.
Don't forget you can take the map with you
A proper old Florentine trattoria on Borgo San Iacopo, in the Oltrarno, where the Tesi family have cooked since 1945. The steak comes off wood charcoal, the fritti arrive in great piles, and there are handmade tortellini alongside older Florentine things like brains and little meatballs and, oddly, a curry. It's my favourite restaurant in Florence, with simple, hearty and traditional dishes done exceptionally well. They also have fantastic gelato: one of the best chocolate gelati I have ever had.
Address: Borgo San Iacopo, 57/r, 50125 Firenze FI, Italy
The restaurant has been on Via Panzani, near the station, since 1955, fitted out with furnishings taken from a deconsecrated sixteenth-century church. It made its name on flambé service in the sixties, and Rubinstein and Montale used to eat here. Still the best sea bass I've ever had.
Address: Via Panzani, 9/A, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
The Antinori have been making wine since 1385, for twenty-six generations, and bought this palazzo off Via de' Tornabuoni in 1506. The restaurant opened on the ground floor in 1957, reviving the old Florentine habit of noble families selling their estate produce from the front of the house. It's a really beautiful restaurant with excellent quality food.
Address: Piazza degli Antinori, 3, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
The kitchen on Piazza dei Nerli in San Frediano is seasonal and Florentine, part restaurant and part salotto, with local craftwork on show. More modern than a typical trattoria, it was good, and the restaurant is pleasantly designed.
Address: Piazza dei Nerli, 8r/10r, 50124 Florence FI, Italy
The restaurant opened in 1880 in the cellars of Palazzo Antinori, on Via del Trebbio, and claims to be the oldest in Florence. The vaulted ceilings are papered with old travel posters from all over the world. It's famous for its interior design, which is pretty cool, and they also have some great Florentine dishes, the bistecca above all.
Address: Via del Trebbio, 1r, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
The restaurant sits up at Rignana in the Chianti hills, about 23 km south of Florence, in what used to be the estate's olive mill. The Abbarchini family started it in the eighties, and the third generation cooks there now. The terrace looks over the vineyards and olive groves, and the estate itself turns up in documents as far back as the tenth century. The cooking is simple and traditional, built on fresh ingredients.
Address: Via Rignana, 13, 50022 Greve in Chianti FI, Italy
The Milanese Da Giacomo was brought up to a Renaissance villa in the hills above Florence. It's a fish restaurant above all (the Milan original built its name on seafood) and you eat it on a terrace with the whole city laid out below. The same great food you can get at Da Giacomo in Milan, but with a fantastic view of Florence.
Address: Via del Salviatino, 21, 50137 Florence FI, Italy
The Latini family has been feeding Florence since 1898, when Angelo opened a wine shop selling cheese and cold cuts. His nephew Narciso turned it into a kitchen in the fifties, and they were among the first to serve hot food to people digging out after the 1966 flood. Giovanni Latini took over a failing osteria on Via del Moro in 2004 and runs it with his wife and daughters, a few streets from Santa Maria Novella. The food is great and the atmosphere cosy.
Address: Via del Moro, 22r, 50123 Florence FI, Italy
Giovanni Santarpia has made pizza since he was fourteen, first at Castellammare di Stabia and since 2020 on Via Senese, south of the river. He was named pizzaiolo of the year in 2019, and the place has been on the Top 50 Pizza list every year since it opened. Delicious pizza, and I really loved the mortadella and pistachio pesto starter.
Address: Via Senese, 155r, 50124 Firenze FI, Italy
Carmine Calascione opened this on Via dei Macci, near the Sant'Ambrogio market, in 1991. He came from Naples, and at a time when Florence ate thin crisp pizza he is credited with bringing the Neapolitan kind, with its high, soft rim, to the city. Best pizza we had in Florence.
Address: Via dei Macci, 113r, 50122 Firenze FI, Italy
The bar sits in the atrium of the Four Seasons on Borgo Pinti, in the fifteenth-century Palazzo della Gherardesca, with a large private garden behind it. I know it might not be an exciting choice, but this was one of the most delicious meals I had in Florence.
Address: Borgo Pinti, 99, 50121 Florence FI, Italy
Leopoldo Procacci opened this on Via de' Tornabuoni in 1885, and five generations of the family ran it before the Antinori took it over in 1998. It was granted the royal arms in 1925, and the walnut shelving and green marble counter are still in place. They're famous for their little sandwiches, especially the truffle ones.
Address: Via de' Tornabuoni, 64R, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy
A small, plain gelateria on a side street near Santa Croce, where the same family has been making gelato since 1930. Four generations of it now. You order at the counter and eat standing up or on the step outside. It's my favourite gelato in Florence.
Address: Via Isola delle Stinche, 7r, 50122 Firenze FI, Italy
