bookmarking

plafield,

Thanks for suggesting Omero. Mrs. Knickerbocker and I did it for dinner when we were there last June and honestly, it was the benchmark meal of the trip. A good runner-up was Tratoria 4 Leoni.

http://www.4leoni.com/index_eng.asp

HTH

for those bookmarking-

My daughter and I were in Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome late last year. Our favorite meal of our entire trip was in Florence.

It was at Semidivino, Via S. Gallo 22/R. This from my trip report:

The restaurant is small, but only one other patron appears to be seated when we come in. The atmosphere is great. Very warm, but modern. Lighting is low and we really like the ambience. We are seated and note the wine specials on the board on the front wall.

We decide to split everything we order. Up first is beef carpaccio. It is delicious. DD and I note how extremely well the beef is balanced by the arugula and pecorina it is served on. Just wonderful. Next, we order up little pasta packages that are filled with gorgonzola and pears. This is served over a cream and balsamic vinegar sauce and sprinkled with pine nuts. On the side, radicchio. Again, the balance of the plate is phenomenal. The bitterness of the radicchio marries perfectly with the sweetness of the pear/gorgonzola/balsamic sauce. This is my absolutely favorite dish of the entire trip.

Next up is steak w/porcini and shaved black truffle. All I can say is, “Yummy!”. We polish that off in short order and decide to each order a piece of cheesecake for dessert. This turns out to be the only mistake of the evening. Don’t get me wrong…it is delicious. But it is way too rich for either of us, and DD is disappointed, as she was expecting something more creamy like NY style cheesecake. With ½ liter of house white, a glass of Chianti, a glass of Brunello and 2 bottles of water, our bill comes to E69.

ristorante Buca dell'orafo on via dei girolami near entrance to ponte vecchio and Mario's at the central market. Yum Yum!

bk

My husband I went to Rome, Florence and Venice in November 2006. I am looking at pictures as I write, and one of the best restaurants we ate at in Florence was Il Messere. Wonderful Tuscan bread soup, Limoncello, wine and the waitstaff was too good to be true!!! Friendly, Cute (Silvano and Eva) made our night so enjoyable. The owner was also very friendly. We took pictures with all of them in front of the restaurant. AAAh, memories Seriously, if you want a great meal and great service, check out Il Messere.

I'm not going to tell you our favorite restaurant in Florence only two blocks from the Duomo because there are hardly any tourists there and I like to think there will not be any when we go in May

Just a hint how to find a more genuine Florentine restaurant: avoid the ones that have a tourist menu. (I think it's menu turistiche in Italian.)

I just found the address to Il Messere...Via Guelfa, 98/100R. phone 055.471967. Hope you try it! Enjoy

If Garga is still there it is the best food anywhere

Does anyone have a recommendation for where to get the best homemade pasta in Florence? I would assume most if not all would be homemade but you never know. Any thoughts?