We will be in Florence for three nights at the end of April. I'm looking for your favorite restaurant recommendations for both lunch and dinner. We want places with really great food, especially Tuscan classics, whether fancy or holes in the wall. I've already searched ChowHound.

If anyone has restaurant recommendations for the Val d'Orcia, we'd love those too as we're headed there from Florence.

Thanks!

With all the wonderful produce markets (and because we really like fruits and veggies), we normally rent apartments and cook a lot of our meals when in Europe. And that included Florence last fall. For simple food court style food, but good quality, we enjoyed the second floor of Mercato Centrale (where we buy our produce on the lower level in the morning). There are numerous privately owned vendors there, including a great pizza. We sampled a variety of offerings, and all were excellent.

We stayed in the Oltrarno area (other side of the River Arno) and found more locals than tourists and lots of cute bistros and bars and great gelato. A short stroll from the landmark Ponte Vecchio bridge.

Thanks! I looked at a few restaurants in Oltrarno that looked good. We are renting an apartment in Florence, but I think we will still want to dine out.

When we were there in April of last year, we had good experiences at the following restaurants:

Lugarno (or Lungarno) Bistrot: It's on the Arno embankment on the Oltrarno side, pretty close to either the Ponte S.Trinita or the Ponte alla Carraia. It was recommended by the desk staff at our hotel. The ambiance was modern, chic, sleek, and the food was excellent. My wife had grilled lamb with mixed vegetables and I had pork wrapped in ham and covered with a thick sauce and roasted potatoes. For two of us, with wine and tip, it was $120.00 with tip.

La Antiche Trattoria delle Carrozze: This is on the Piazza S. Trinita, one block up from the bridge of that name and at the foot of the Via Tornabuoni. (It's across the from church of that name and the Palazzo Spini and may officially at the very beginning of a picturesque side street called the Borgo SS. Apostoli..) They specialized in classic Tuscan dishes, but they also had a good selection of pizzas (more in the Italian than the American style). Dinner, with tip, was in the $70 range. We liked it very much (the food and the price). I had real trouble making a selection from the extensive menu, because so many things sounded good. The first night, I ordered a lamb stew with potatoes and rosemary that was served in the same silver dish it had been cooked in; although I was hungry and loved it, the quantity was so large I couldn't finish more than 3/4 of it. My wife ordered a pizza for 10 Euros ($13) that when it came proved to be so large that we figured we actually could have just divided that between the two of us. Also, the place was packed, and packed in large part with locals.

Trattoria dei Benci: It was recommended by one or more of a our guidebooks. It's actually on a street that connects the Piazza Santa Croce with the Via De Benci, which in turn leads across the Arno at the Ponte alle Grazie. We visited it after going up to take in the sunset view from the Piazzale Michelangelo. Definitely less attractive than either of the two preceding establishments, but very busy and very popular and very reasonable: dinner with tip was $60 and, again, the quantity would have satisfied a hungry centurion at the end of a long day's march. .

I've had some nice dinners here, in the Oltrarno; I also like ALLA VECCHIA BETTOLA.



https://www.ristorante-ilguscio.it/?...edium=referral

Great - thank you both!

Some other places that looked good were L'Osteria di Giovanni, Vini e Vecchi Sapori, Osteria dell’Enoteca, Coquinarius, Bistrot 3 Tavoli. Has anyone dined at any of these restaurants?

We were in Florence in September and had dinner twice at Ristorante Il Caminetto. The ossobuco was so good I had it both times. It's a stone's throw from the Duomo. Florence Restaurants - Ristorante Il Caminetto - Tel. +39 055.2396274