Angiolino - Ai 13 Arrosti — Restaurant in Florence

I have been eating at Angiolino for almost 20 years and the food was always consistently perfect. Unfortunately, the restaurant was sold around the beginning of the year and the new menu, the new cook and the new owner are as bad as you can get in a horrible tourist trap or bad cafeteria. This is NOT the Angelino of last year, far from it.

Here is the long version of our experience. We went there last night (our second night in Florence) and noticed that they had remodeled and all the employees were new. I asked the waitress/hostess if they had a table for us. She almost had a nervous breakdown. After about five minutes I walked to the cashier and asked if they had a table and he said yes. I usually walk away from restaurants that do not have a professional greeting the guests, but my wife insisted that we stay and unfortunately we did.

After we sat down, it took the waiter a good 20 minutes to get us the menu and another 15 minutes to take our order and to bring us water and bead. I usually get an order of tomato bruschetta which is very simple dish (chopped tomatoes on grilled bread). They brought two small pieces of cold burnt toasted (not grilled) bread with Parmesan and mozzarella. Needless to say that our twins were so hungry by then that I did not send it back. We ordered a tagliata (steak cut in long thin pieces) for two and Milanese for the twins.

After another 30 minutes, the Milanese came but the sides and our dish did not. I asked the waiter and he immediately got the steak but not the sides. The steak was nothing short of horrible; we ordered it rare and it was over cooked in a pan (again not on a grill as it is always done in Florence); it was as bad as you can get. I did not say anything and after another 10 minutes we finally got our side dishes.

After the meal, the waiter asked me how the food was and I told him it was not good. He said he is sorry but they have expanded and have to serve 200 people, hence the bad food. He asked me to talk to the owner (which was at the cashier). I tried to talk to him about the experience, but he could not be less interest in hearing about the bad food (I guess he already knew) and was abrassive. I thanked him and walked out.

To close, it is a shame to have lost a good restaurant that we loved. The current owner should not be in the service industry and needs to learn to listen to his customers. He also needs to hire a chef that actually knows how to cook or send the chef to...

We didn't order a table, just walked in, so we got a table in front of the bar, which was just okay. The waiter seemed very busy and didn't even smile once which I think is quite rude for a fancy restaurant like this is. When you greet your customers with a smile you make them feel more welcome.

We sat down and went through the menus, then the waiter came and wanted to take down our drink order, we asked to see the wine list and my husband asked if they would recommend any red wine with the stake and the waiter pointed out some wine that costs 60 euros! I was not ready to spend that much on a wine bottle so we found some other that was 30 euros and was very good.

We ordered some mixed meats and cheeses for appetizer which was just fine, all the meats and cheeses were good but I didn't like much that bread that had some liver or some toppings on them.

For main course we ordered the 1 kg T-bone steak that costed 56 euros. It came with some potatoes but no gravy. We asked if we could please get some gravy on the side but the waiter just said no, they didn't have any. That was kind of weird considering the people next to us had told us just to order some gravy, they did and got some. Totally weird for a fancy-expensive restaurant like this.

Since this was my husband's birthday dinner we decided to get some tiramisu as well - I think this was the worst tiramisu I've ever tasted. Felt like it was just some pudding with cheap chocolate sauce on top. My husband had one extra glass of red wine with the tiramisu and I had one glass of prosecco and the final bill came down to 133 euros total. This is the same price as for a dinner in restaurant in Reykjavik so compared to where we were I think this is...

The only reason I went was because my lovely airbnb hostess told me it’s a MUST, and the food was phenomenal. Truffle tagliolini superb, the veal was also cooked beautifully—meat was tender and the CRUST on the steak!!

However, never have I experienced or witnessed such unfriendly discrimination in ALL of my travel experiences, ever. I studied abroad previously in Florence so I know (very) basic Italian, the owner/host(?) greeted everyone ‘buona sera’ just stared at me until I spoke and then pointed to my seat when I explained in Italian that I had a reservation. Waiter didn’t bother, gave me an English menu, two other parties in my sight of view were provided Italian menus, one customer (female and alone) had to REQUEST an english menu—only difference was that they were white and I am not. (I was wearing a casual dress, appropriate attire for dinner, nothing out of the ordinary).

Normally, this wouldn’t be as much of a deal but at the end, before I pay, I’m scanning through my receipt which my waiter closed very quickly before asking me to pay, I asked about a €3 coperto on the receipt (trying to figure out if it was table cover or if he had secretly charged a tip) and then directly asked about it, his reply, I QUOTE: “Oh usually cash or card if you don’t have.” I asked: “Italian restaurants charge tip now?” and he said: “Oh you know some are different, usually in cash.”

Like really? So if you want to have a good time AND a delicious meal, don’t go alone or if you must since you’re traveling solo…don’t be non-white.

A part of me is really hoping this was a once-off situation for this restaurant because truly the food was delicious and it sounded like everyone else was having a...