Antica Fonte Taverna Fiesolana — Restaurant in Fiesole

Antica Fonte Taverna Fiesolana Poor Quality, Hygiene, and Incompetent Staff: A Restaurant to Avoid

Having lived in Florence for 10 years and worked across Italy for over 30, I am well-acquainted with the incredible culinary standards and warm hospitality that define this country. Florence is brimming with fantastic restaurants that take pride in their food and service. Unfortunately, this establishment is not one of them. In fact, it may be the worst dining experience I have ever had.

We arrived at the restaurant at 14:00 and were shown to our table. The room was unremarkable, neither charming nor memorable. With only four other tables occupied, the restaurant was far from busy. Despite this, it took 20 minutes for the waiter to take our order, which consisted of three simple pasta dishes: ravioli, pici, and tagliatelle with duck ragù—nothing extravagant or time-consuming to prepare.

After waiting an astonishing 60 minutes with no food in sight, I politely inquired about our order. The waiter, whom I suspect is related to the owner (possibly his father), curtly responded, “We are not an express restaurant, and you arrived last.” His dismissive attitude only added to the growing frustration among the other diners, who were also visibly annoyed by the excessive wait times.

The underlying problem became evident: the restaurant was operating with just one chef to serve all eight tables. A poorly managed kitchen is one thing, but when our food finally arrived—120 minutes later—it was accompanied by a giant black hair in the ravioli. At this point, we decided to leave.

When I addressed the issue with the maître d', who I believe is the owner’s son, I was met with yet another appalling response: “Are you sure? . Whilst I appreciate these things happen in restaurants. Poor food hygiene is unacceptable, but how a restaurant handles such situations is what truly defines its professionalism. This establishment failed on both fronts.

I am always willing to wait for good, homemade food in a small, family-run restaurant. However, after a 120 min wait, and the food arrives and it's contaminated, the staff are rude, and the management incompetent, there is no justification for such failures.

Florence has too many exceptional dining options to waste your time and money here. Instead, head to Piatto Faggioti in San Domenico, where you’ll find the quality, hospitality, and professionalism that this restaurant so...

To sum up; Delicious food and very good service. This place is worth visiting if you are in Fiesole or in Florence. My wife and I visited this cosy restaurant a sunday late in august. The waiter took our order and suggested very good and not expensive wine for our choice of food. Before our first course came, we were given frozen gazpacho on sticks- very good and refreshing for our palate. Our first course was a very good salad with sorbet, a superb match. Next up was risotte for me and pasta for my wife, which tasted very good. We finished our meal with a very very good fig cake with rosmary icecream. Super this one as well. I have spent three weeks eating out in Florence and Fiesole and this was...

Tutto era perfetto ! Highly recommend this place, the staff is welcoming and very friendly. The menu is available is 10+ languages and with pictures which makes it easy to understand. There are about 4/5 choices for primi and secondi and they all look amazing. The food was absolutely delicious, we had the tomato soup, the pasta al ragu and then the egg 63° with spinach and the beef. As a dessert we had the tiramisu and it was definitely the best we had in Tuscany (and we tried many 🙈). Go and enjoy your diner in Fiesole at Antica Fonte Taverna after a beautiful sunset in front of the Convento...