Piazza Piattellina 10/11r
Tel. 39 055 217879
Closed Monday

If you find yourself near Santa Maria del Carmine around lunch time you should try I'brindellone (the "brindellone" is the cart of St. John which is used in an elaborate fire works display after Easter mass - more on that soon).

I'brindellone is a real authentic Florentine trattoria and we had an excellent and reasonable lunch there today (2 course lunch was 10€). It is located on the north side of the street in Piazza Piatellina, two minutes west of the church. Highlights were Ravioli with butter and sage, penne all'amatriciana (that spelling may be wrong!), osso bucco (a little heavy on the salt though) and some wonderful desserts, especially tiramisu cream, with tiny cookies. The house red was good too. The staff was very nice and they have some very interesting pictures on the walls of old Florence and the Calcio in Costume (another event we will be writing more about in the future). Mangia!

Update: This post was originally written in 2005. Here it is May 2013 and the lunch "menù" is still 10 euro - primo, secondo, contorno, aqua, vino e caffè - and it is still incredible. Today I had maccheroni con ragu, roast beef, salad, and bread - with water, wine and coffee, for 10 euro. And the food was incredible - one of the best bowls of pasta you will have anywhere.

Pizza Man is a sort of legendary pizza place in Florence, and they now have a new location in the center, at Via dell'Agnolo, 105/107R - not too far from the corner of Via Verdi. The pizza was good, as you can see below. They also have a fixed priced menu which was pretty good too - yesterday for lunch we had one menu (eggplant parmigiana with a green salad and a quarter liter of wine - there were several other choices), one pizza, and a large bottle of water. Total was 16 euro.

If you are looking for a seafood restaurant around Florence, Trattoria Del Pesce in Bargino, just a couple minutes off the FI-SI, is an excellent choice. We had a birthday dinner there the other night, and most everything was excellent and fresh. The wine prices are barely marked above retail. The quantities were actually too much - we never would have ordered seconds if we knew. Dinner for 4, with a bottle of white, 3 bottles of water, many plates, and a few desserts was just over $200 U.S. Highly recommended.

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We are always looking for sushi in Florence, and the other day I heard about this place Canapone Club Ristorante. They have sushi on Wednesday nights, so last night we walked over there to try it out (they open at 8:00 PM, and we did call for a reservation first). The dining room is pretty cool, with a sort of spartan feel - simple, painted picnic type tables and comfortable chairs, and the staff was friendly. The food overall was very good, the fish was fresh, the presentation was beautiful, and it was all delicious (though the soy was very salty!). We also had the gyoza which were very delicate and obviously hand made. The kids had a great tempura plate with shrimp and vegetables and another dish of chicken polpette (meat balls) on skewers with an excellent smoky barbecue sauce. We drank some Kirin beer which was a treat - I have not had Kirin in years - it is a little sweet and you can taste the corn in it. Overall it was a really enjoyable meal. The only caveat I would add is the price - sushi in general seems much more expensive here than in the states. Our meal was a bowl of soup, a small bowl of rice, one appetizer, two sushi plates (at €14 and €19) and two dinner entrees, one bottle of water and three beers. Total with cover was €105. No desserts, no bottle of wine. It wouldn't stop me from going again, but it is not a bargain meal.

The rest of the week the menu is Italian and they also have brunch.

Il Canapone Club Ristorante
Via Mazzetta (near Piazza Santo Spirito)
Tel +39 055 238 1729

We found a great restaurant last night, Trattoria Il Giova. By great, I mean very good food, reasonable prices, and friendly service. Definitely my kind of place - much more of a bistro than a fancy restaurant. It seemed to be family run - we weren't sure but it looked liked just the dad/owner/chef was in the kitchen preparing all the hot food himself. Two more woman ran the room - one was mostly the waitress, the other prepared the salads and desserts (it is just one tiny room and we did see some people turned away - calling for a reservation is probably a good idea).

Updated on October 20th: The word is filtering out about Solociccio Solo Ciccia, and while we still have our own review to write of a great lunch there, I wanted to note a couple of things quickly:

1. Wine is now included - you get a tiny 1/4 liter carafe of red that we were told comes from Dario's property nearby. It seemed more than passable for a house wine and had a beautiful clarity. Of course you can still bring your own, which we did.
2. The price is 35€ per person, not 30€ as reported in the LA Times article This is in dispute - I am going to call them to confirm the pricing.
3. I also need to confirm the name. The LA Times article uses Solociccio, all one word. I think the correct name may be Solo Ciccia however...

They hand out a card when you enter that explains they are still in a trial phase. Our review and some pictures and sample menu coming soon.

I took a day trip the other day with my friend Aki through Chianti. Our main destination was the Macelleria Tozzetti in Mercatale Val di Pesa (more on that later). It was a really beautiful day and after a couple of quick stops we ended up at the Osteria Le Panzanelle for lunch. This is a little road side place on the way to Radda (if you are coming from the north). Lunch was outside, with the breeze blowing and the sound of the small river running close by. We had an excellent bottle of local Chianti, and I had the Scottaditi for my secondo, which was very good. If you are in the area, give this place a try.

We finally got a chance to go to La Giostra, which came highly recommended by a waiter friend from Boccadama. After months of anticipation I started getting nervous when another couple of Florentine food lovers told me they had never heard of the place!

Piazza Santa Felice, 8-10r (100 meters past the Palazzo Pitti, on the left, heading toward Porta Romana)
Tel. 39 055 224060
Closed Monday

Just happened to stumble into La Mangiatoia for lunch today after a visit to La Specola (the Zoological Museum), part of the Museo di Storia Naturale, which I highly recommend - especially for kids. I liked the prices on the menu outside (€4.50 for a pizza margherita) but really had no idea what the place would be like. We only had pizza and pasta (Spaghetti Carbonara) but it was very good, and all the other food going by looked great too. We saw a bunch of different pizzas at other tables that looked very interesting (one with tuna). By the time we left the place was full and about a dozen people were waiting to sit down, and they all seemed to be Italians. So we stumbled on something good - if you want a tasty lunch at a good price and you are anywhere near the Palazzo Pitti try it out.

Via San Giuseppe 22r
Tel. 39 055 241773
www.baldovino.com

We had dinner at Trattoria Baldovino the other night, a cute, charming little place right off the Piazza Santa Croce. The service and the presentation was fast and courteous. I would say this is in the moderate to inexpensive class, and while the food overall was good, I would not call it "fine dining" (the Osso Bucco came out in 10 minutes?). We had very nice salads of Arugula and Parmigiano that came with a lemon wedge. The olive oil on the table seemed to be of very good quality. That and a little balsamic made a nice dressing. Our dinners were the Ossu Bucco, Linguine with white clam sauce, and Tagliatelle with rabbit ragu. This was my entree and unfortunately is was barely warm, which was surprising because the food came out so fast. The Ossu Bucco was delicious, and the clam sauce was good if not a little pungent. We were not blown away but it was good enough to go back for another try. My main reservations were that most of the food seemed to have been completely cooked earlier and just reheated (though not enough!) to serve us, and that the house wine (I know, house wine, but this is Italy) was very poor and nearly steaming hot.