Taverna Squarcialupi — Restaurant in Castellina in Chianti

We have been in Italy for 10 days now and this was by far our worst experience. We had a reservation for four. We arrived, were seated and brought water by a waiter who kept giving us the impression he was overwhelmed. At first we felt bad but then we did start to get impatient. 40 minutes later, I had to go to the person at the front and ask if he could take our order because we wanted drinks. He ended up serving us. We ordered meals and asked for a house wine. We asked for a litre of house wine, he said they only had bottles. We said okay, a bottle of house wine is fine. He came, opened it and poured - without checking with us, not asking us to taste which we felt strange about. We come to find out that he gave us the grand selection wine. It was too late at this point, as he already opened and poured our glasses. When we saw the price at the end and asked him, he got rude with us. He also said the long wait was due to being a table of four. He laughed in our faces at the end and never apologized for the service. This was certainly not a normal Tuscan dining experience. Came based on the reviews but hope no one else experiences...

We went to this restaurant because of the many positive reviews. To be honest, they must either be completely fake or meant for a different place—otherwise, I just don’t understand it.

The restaurant is the perfect definition of a tourist trap. We ordered food for five people and paid over €200: two starters and five main courses. No wine, just water.

And what did we get? Chewy and dry guanciale (a typical local dish that’s usually so tender you can cut it with a fork—in this case, it was so tough you simply couldn’t eat it). My wife ordered the octopus, which smelled terrible and was definitely not fresh. The kids had beef, which was okay—average, nothing special, but at least edible.

We complained about the octopus and the stew. The staff didn’t care. They didn’t remove the octopus from the bill, even though we returned it immediately, and the small discount they gave us didn’t even cover the price of that dish.

Avoid this place. You’ll find much better options at the smaller osterias nearby.

Overall: 2/5 — and that’s only because the...

Fine dining even by Tuscan standards, this wonderful restaurant should have a Michelin star. Situated above the ancient wine vaults and adjacent to the Albergo Squarcialupi with a terrace view of the Chianti hills, the atmosphere was exceeded only by the quality of food and service. The Maître d' was extremely knowledgeable of the local cuisine and wines, offering insight and reccomendations to assist in choosing our dishes, and helping us pair a bottle with our meal. The service was prompt and professional, and the food incredible - of particular note was the pigeon and hand-made pici con ragu di cinta cenese, served with a red wine reduction - all locally sourced and prepared to order, as one would expect from an eaterie of this calibre, even a 5 star rating seems somewhat inadequate. All things considered, an absolutely outstanding culinary...