Ten Trattorias Where to Eat in Florence
Where to Eat in Florence
The rise of fine dining and the parallel boom in international restaurants have certainly reshaped how Italy eats out over the past few years, Florence included. But in the cradle of the Renaissance, tradition always claims its share — above all at the table. For FUL, over many months, we went looking for the most authentic Florentine cooking, from centuries-old institutions to interesting new openings. The result? The list below of 10 trattorias you absolutely have to try in our city.
La Casalinga
When eating out is about more than the food… If you find yourself on Via dei Michelozzi at lunch or dinner, you’ll notice the little clusters of people waiting outside the trattoria La Casalinga: they’re there hoping for a table, and sometimes they need a good dose of patience. Who knows whether all this happy commotion was part of the plan when, in 1963, Nello Bartarelli and Oliviero Carrai — parents of Ferruccio, Graziella and Paolo — left their work as sharecroppers in the fields to open a small trattoria. To be a regular at La Casalinga still feels like joining a new family, where in good company you can dig into excellent crostini toscani, fettunta (garlic-rubbed toasted bread) and bruschetta, generous boards of cured meats and cheeses, but also heartier plates like ribollita (Tuscan bread-and-vegetable soup), penne al ragù, trippa alla fiorentina (Florentine-style tripe), lesso rifatto con le cipolle (boiled beef re-cooked with onions) and the timeless roast beef, to name just a few of the most tempting.
Via dei Michelozzi, 9/R, 50125 Firenze FI
https://trattorialacasalinga.it/
Buca Mario
For more than 100 years, travelers from every corner of the world have come here, in the heart of Florence, to delight in old Florentine recipes. Buca Mario sits in a 16th-century buca (cellar) — one of those typical Florentine cellars beneath grand historic palazzi, often owned by noble families, that once stored salted meats and cured cuts and, above all, safeguarded the precious wine. Heading down Buca Mario’s characteristic stairs, it’s impossible not to step back in time. Today you’re welcomed by the classic Tuscan antipasto with mixed cured meats, prosciutto, salame, finocchiona (fennel-seed salame) and lardo, alongside crostini neri (chicken-liver crostini). The cave-aged pecorino with apples and Casentino honey is a delicate touch. Among the first courses are cappellacci of ricotta and spinach tossed in melted butter and fragrant wild sage, pappardelle with Maremma wild-boar sauce, bold and intense, and the classic ribollita with black cabbage and cannellini beans. But the undisputed star remains the bistecca alla fiorentina, thick and strictly rare, grilled to bring out its flavor and tenderness.
Piazza degli Ottaviani, 16r, 50123 Firenze FI
https://www.bucamario.com/index.php
Coco Lezzone
The trattoria Coco Lezzone began on a characteristic little street in the historic center of Florence in the early 1800s, first as the shop “Da Corrado” (also known as “Coco Lezzone”) and then, in the 1970s, as a temple of cooking under the Paoli family. Under owner Gianfranco, who in 2002 passed the place to his son Gianluca and his right-hand man Fabrizio Noferini, this restaurant has carried on the tradition of the trattoria and the most typical Florentine cooking for years. At Coco Lezzone, in a characterful, family atmosphere, you can savor the dishes of our culinary tradition, cooked slowly and patiently over a wood-fired stove. The old way, paired with excellent Tuscan wines. The musts are pappa al pomodoro (tomato-and-bread soup), ribollita, arista al forno (roast pork loin), fillet croquettes in tomato sauce and the plate of mixed vegetables with boiled asparagus and artichokes.
Via Parioncino, 26/red, 50100 Firenze FI
http://www.cocolezzone.it/
Trattoria Baldini
In 1924, at Via Il Prato 96r, a small family-run trattoria opened under the name “Trattoria con giardino” (the trattoria with a garden), a nod to a small space carved out of the outer courtyard where a little gravel and a few plants stood in for an actual garden (now used for other purposes). After various managements and menus, it was in the years just after the great flood that Trattoria Baldini put down deep roots, opening a long new chapter of Tuscan cooking, traditional dishes and desserts whose preparation has remained unchanged for many years. A few examples? Fried brain with artichokes, the gran pezzo (a great cut of roast beef), trippa alla fiorentina and Maremma-style wild boar, as well as the ever-present Tuscan ribollita and pappa al pomodoro. Seeing is believing.
Via Il Prato, 96/r, 50123 Firenze FI
https://www.trattoriabaldini.com/
Da Ginone
With a name like that, you might picture a place where everything, or almost everything, is decidedly masculine. Not so! Since the Civale family took over the historic trattoria Da Ginone, the soul of the place has in fact become female. Here the cooking was, is and always will be tradition, instinct and imagination — a blend that comes from the Valle dei Templi in Agrigento and the heart of the Florentine Oltrarno, near the Ponte Vecchio, the Boboli Gardens and the Brancacci Chapel. The real star is honest food, cooked to order with wholesome ingredients grown in the countryside around Florence.
If you’re wondering where to eat in Florence, Ginone’s plates will win over your palate. Try the classic panzanella (bread-and-vegetable salad), pappa al pomodoro, fettunta and vegetable soup, but also the fine selection of truffle dishes: in the house-made tagliolini or over the classic fried eggs, these rare little nuggets never disappoint. All washed down, of course, with a good glass of local wine.
Via dei Serragli, 35/R, 50124 Firenze FI
https://www.ginone.it/
Trattoria Mario
The year was 1953 when Romeo, Amelia and their son Mario opened the business on Via Rosina, in the historic Borgo San Lorenzo. The coffered oak ceiling, still visible today, dates all the way back to the mid-1500s and once belonged to the old stables of the Palazzo del Gattamelata, now Palazzo Alessandri. At first the place was a wine shop where the workers of the Mercato Centrale would gather. In 1957, with Mario’s marriage, it became a trattoria with table service and hot, traditional dishes lovingly prepared in the tiny kitchen — bean-and-vegetable soup, trippa alla fiorentina, pappa al pomodoro, arista, spezzatino (beef stew) and stewed salt cod. Today Trattoria Mario is a gathering place that, thanks to the passion handed down by Mario and Elena to their children Romeo and Fabio and the rest of the family, keeps the sociability and flavors of old Florence alive. The menu changes every day, but you’ll always find the bistecca alla fiorentina, their superb ragù and the ribollita — the very dishes that won over chef Alessandro Borghese in the episode of the TV show 4 Ristoranti devoted to Florentine trattorias.
Via Rosina, 2r, 50123 Firenze FI
http://www.trattoriamario.com/index.html
Sabatino
Here too the story takes us back to the 1950s — 1956, to be exact — when Valerio Buccioni took over the trattoria with his father Sabatino and mother Fidalma, giving it the name “Trattoria Sabatino” and keeping intact the character of the neighborhood eatery it had been for years. Even now you’re welcomed into this popular local trattoria with warmth, hospitality and a smile. Home cooking rules here, just like the food your mother or grandmother would make, moving deftly from trippa alla fiorentina to salt cod with chickpeas, from peposo alla fornacina (peppery beef stew) to francesina, and then Livornese-style pork chops, lung stew with potatoes, roast larded veal, hen, boiled veal tongue and trotter, marinated anchovies (on Fridays) and boneless fried chicken. And the soups: pappa al pomodoro, zuppa lombarda, farinata mugellana, rice-and-cabbage minestrone, in constant rotation. Why not finish with a pear baked in wine and sugar, or cherries or grapes preserved in spirit? The menu follows the seasons and the traditions of the calendar, and it’s still typed up fresh each day on an old, long-discontinued Olivetti. Just like in ’56.
Via Pisana, 2/R, 50143 Firenze FI
https://www.trattoriasabatino.it/
Da Burde
An icon of Florentine dining, the historic trattoria Da Burde on Via Pistoiese feels like a village all-rounder. To this day it still works as a bar, wine shop, tobacconist, tavola calda and, of course, a trattoria. A temple of tradition, with a particular focus on meat and wine thanks to the experience and constant study of brothers Paolo and Andrea Gori. A few tips? Their Tuscan antipasto of mixed cured meats with chicken-liver crostino; there’s no shortage of soups, from farro-and-bean soup to ribollita, carabaccia (onion soup), chickpea cacciucco or pappa al pomodoro; the house first courses include pasta (fresh, too) with meat sauce, alla carrettiera, tomato, pollo scappato, white Chianina ragù, pesto or ham sauce; among the mains, roast beef, chicken, roast pork loin, prosciutto, caul-wrapped pork liver, and braises and stews such as Chianina pot roast, Calvana-breed peposo, trippa alla fiorentina, lampredotto in zimino (tripe with chard), chops braised in sauce with potatoes, stewed mutton, stuffed chicken, rolled veal, francesina with onions (every Monday) and boiled meats with sauces and pickles. In short, at Da Burde there really is something for every taste. And yes, there’s room too for the wood-fired grill, for fish and for plenty of rustic house desserts.
Via Pistoiese, 154, 50145 Firenze FI
http://www.vinodaburde.com/
Cibrèino
The bistro of chef Picchi’s celebrated culinary sanctuary, Cibrèo Trattoria (better known as Cibrèino) serves traditional dishes that, like rare treasure, are made fresh each day — nothing frozen, nothing vacuum-packed, no greedy shortcuts, just the honesty of a good family. A pot of broth simmering slowly, a pan of soffritto with celery, carrot and onion sweating gently, a bottle of oil telling its story through the scent of its bright green: these are the guardians of Tuscan cooking, forever keeping watch over Cibrèino’s stoves. It takes just a touch of their magic to turn the soups, the ragùs and the roasts into a caress of flavors and emotions that will carry you off to this little culinary paradise.
Via dei Macci, 122r, 50122 Firenze FI
https://www.cibreo.com/trattoria/
Trattoria dall’Oste
Another landmark of the Florentine dining scene, Trattoria dall’Oste is the fruit of a path taken up with youthful passion by a group of young people who set themselves the task of engaging with the centuries-old heritage of the bistecca alla fiorentina, the most traditional dish of our cuisine. Here everything is built around meat, in an investment that is cultural before it is professional. It’s a study that is both culinary and personal, uniting the trattoria’s cooks and staff in the search for ethical, sustainable farms and the selection of the best Italian and international beef, through a process of continuous learning.
Via dei Cerchi, 40/R, 50122 Firenze FI
Via Luigi Alamanni, 3/5r, 50100 Firenze FI
Borgo S. Lorenzo, 31, 50121 Firenze FI
Via degli Orti Oricellari, 29, 50123 Firenze FI
https://trattoriadalloste.com/
