Dog_Mother

I am particularly interested in hearing about your serendipitous dining memories in Tuscany (Florence and southern Tuscany)--because we are headed there this year.

I will share ours--and I cannot wait to get back there. It was Osteria Vasari in Florence in the Oltrano, on Via de Bardi, almost straight across from the Uffizi.

I had a pasta dish that makes my mouth water just thinking about it--the pasta was stuffed with pear and cheese, with a terrific cheese sauce over it.

We had just walked to San Miniato and were coming back down to il centro, and were starving (and thirsty). We said we'd stop at the first restaurant we came to in order to keep from eating our shoes. Wham! We found what we remember as one of our best meals in Italy. But I have never seen this restaurant listed anywhere. The front of the restaurant would lead you to believe it is tiny, but once you enter it keeps on going deep inside the building. We ate in the back room which had a grotto-like (rounded) brick ceiling. Very cozy and medieval feel to it.

Buon appetito!

ekscrunchy

I wrote a very food-centric report last month after we returned; you can see it by clicking on my name. My facorite restaurant in Florence during this trip was Il Guscio.

ekscrunchy

Oh, sorry. Il Guscio is in Maurenn Fant's Trattoria book so I guess it does not qualify as "never seen in a travel guide." Nevertheless, here is my short report:
We had two excellent dinners last January (2006) at Il Guscio in the Oltrarno. I had reserved a table in advance and we enjoyed the place so much that we returned a second time two days later. Dishes we particularly liked here included the ricotta-stuffed ravioli with a sauce of guinea hen (faraone); matagliati (hand-torn pasta) with sauce of shrimp and zucchini flowers; grilled baby lamb chops; grilled veal chop; peposo (Tuscan beef stew-like preparation); and the house special antipasti that included a vegetable mousse and a packet of robiola cheese baked in filo dough. In looking at the bill for one of our dinners here, I see that a meal of one house appetizer; two primi; two secondi; half-liter of house wine and water cost E. 65. Reservations are essential here. Open for dinner only. Via dell' Orto,49.

danri

Over the course of many years, I have found that memorable meals have often been more associated with the people you are with, and the events that have brought you to that location. We have given up on recommending our favorite places because they are never quite the same.

Dog_Mother

We will be staying in the Oltrarno this year--so we will look for Il Guscio and make reservations! Thank you for the tip.

artlover

Dog Mother,
I'm not sure if these were in travel guides or not--I got them from postings here and they are well worth mentioning if you're going to be in Siena--Trattoria Fori Porta at Via C. Tolomei and Trattoria Papei at Piazza del Mercato. Both were EXCELLENT!

plambers

il latinini in florence. may be the best meal we've ever had. not sure if it is in guidebooks but a local recommeded. we ate there 3 out of the 5 nights we were in florence. mmmmm.....

ekscrunchy

Il Latini is in every guidebook to Florence. It may be the most famous restaurant in Tuscany with foreign tourists. Many people like it, though.

DRJ

We wandered into Il Rossellino in Pienza last spring. Its a mom and pop place seating twenty. The entree at my first meal there was one perfectly sauted porcino cap. Memorable.

mulifat

Ciribiri in San Gimignano is a terrific restaurant off the beaten path downstairs in a small storefront. Amazing restaurant.

We also loved Osteria de Benci if Florence, especially for the drunken pasta

aeiger

Hi
I don't recall seeing it in a travel guide but the lunch counters at the Ka Dee Wah dept. store in Berlin. Had a typical german lunch. Potted meatballs and my wife had potato soup. As the people behind the counter spoke no English and my German is fragmentary, it was a delicious surprise. The meatballs were similiar to what my Mother used to make years ago and the potato soup was excellent.
We also found a Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant with about 6 tables. It was near Potsdammer Plotz and we stopped in one night. Very good Pho and Chinese food, very inexpensive.

fishee

Had 2 excellent, unbelievably inexpensive dinners at TRATTORIA IL CONTADINO Via Palazzuolo 69-71r in Florence. This is likely to be in a guidebook (but not the 2 I was using) since there were quite a few tourists mixed in with the locals, who predominated. This little place was packed due to great food and prices -- 3 courses (primi, secondi, contorni) plus glass of house wine and water for dinner was only 10.50 Euro! Gnocchi and roasted potatoes were just excellent and I loved my grilled filet of salt cod although I was the only person under 60 in the place to order this -- baccala, I think, but without tomato sauce. Order this if you love saba or mackerel -- very nice, pure taste of oily fishmeat.

Dessert is extra -- had a great tiramisu and cantucci. Had 4-5 selections for each course which was impressive given the price. A group of old Italian locals from the neighborhood chatted us up, was lots of fun. Helps if you have some basic Italian menu language skills here since there's no tranlated menu and the selections are given to you verbally. Even on a weeknight in February, we had to wait 20 minutes for a table at 8 pm. Lively yet intimate little place -- I know people usually shy away from a prix fixe menu but this place proved that rule to be incorrect.

Midnightsun

L' Osteria del Caffe Casolani in Casole d'Elsa, about 20 km from San Gimignano, 32 km from Siena. We rented a house in Casole d'Elsa for a week in 2001. It's a small town, really just three main streets. Casolani is on the main street, with tables mainly outdoors. They have a set menu every night featuring what they term as Tuscan peasant cuisine. It's simple, but it's certainly not impoverished. The typical meal is five courses: a starter (usually a soup), a pasta, two meat dishes, and a dessert. Since it was convenient, we dined there on our first night in Casole. It was so good that we returned on two other evenings, dining there whenever we did not have a prior reservation at someplace we'd heard about in advance. In 2005 we returned to Casole because we liked the town so much and loved eating at Casolani, watching the passers by. We ate there on three evenings again, even had our "special table" by the third evening, I have seen a few folks refer to Casolani as a hidden treasure, and I would certainly agree. It's also a great bargain. In 2005 the fixed price menu was about 20 euros, and the wine list had great selections for 10 - 20 euros per bottle. I don't think we could travel to Tuscany again without a visit.

TexasAggie

Pizza e Contorini in Naples. The best pizza of my life and dirt cheap too.

laclaire

My mom and I had never heard of it before getting to Florence, but La Giostra (which is actually very famous) is superb.

Best find of my life? I have the name somewhere. . . in Milan, a family pasta place that took me on an emotional as well as gastronomic journey. My mom and I just sat, ate, and had a very intense "I love you" fest. Best place ever!

Claire

dekoder

The grenier de notre dame in paris

http://community.iexplore.com/planni...ian+restaurant)

Might not be everyone's cup of expresso, but as a vegetarian, finding something as amazing as this in Paris, after eater cheese pizza after cheese pizza, is not easy.

Jeff

loisco

In Bayeux..La Coline d'Enzo..a nice change from the touristy places we had encountered a few nights before.

plambers

ekscrunchy, our honeymoon was 14 years ago. il latini seemed like a very local place at the time. there were these communal tables and we sat with locals and politicians! it was a blast. i am sure it has cought on, but i could still tell you course by course about our meals-that is how good they were!