Braceria All'11 — Restaurant in Florence

Extraordinary place with phenomenal Italian food and incredible atmosphere due to the owners of this restaurant.

We walked by and barley noticed it due to the construction outside. Once inside we quickly fell in love with the renovated Italian decor and the little garden.

We decided to stay and eat, once we got the whiff of the truffle. Turned out, they have dedicated a section of the menu just for dishes with truffle.

I have now tried about 7 dished of their dishes. Everything in each dish was thought through and excellently prepared. You can sense the good quality of each ingredient, and you can feel the care for the combination of flavours.

Their wine menu is also just wonderful. We got one of the best red wines we have ever gotten on glass. They offer a wide selection of wine from excellent wine reserves around Tuscany.

The atmosphere was marvelous as well. Light music in the background, cozy and authentic decor, but most of all, the service was sublime! Two out of three of the owners (the last owner is the head chef in the kitchen), cared for their guest with charm, engagement and attentiveness. They mastered the combination of engaging with their customers whilst letting them have their own moments.

I have now been here twice. The second time was just has good as the first and I am very much looking forward to my third visit.

Braceria all'11 has become one of my favourite...

It can be very hard to find a table around Florence at the weekend, so I was happy to find a table at this place at 10pm on a Friday.

I started with the truffle tagliatelle. It was quite simple but tasty. The pasta is not fresh pasta but that is ok. Could maybe do with some more seasoning. I had a glass of red wine which was good. Not 13 euro a glass good but good. In hindsight I could have bought half a bottle.

As I was eating alone, I did not get the t-bone bistecca. I got the “entrecote” steak with pepper. It was well cooked good quality meat. However I noticed quite quickly that it did not taste like entrecote or ribeye. There was not a single piece of marbling or fat in the steak. It had long grains. The meat was lean and a bit chewy. To me this seemed like flank steak. Because it was well cooked and still tasty I did not say anything at first but ate it. It also was not that expensive at 25 euro. I’ve paid more for worse steak.

I decided to mention it as I was paying. The waiter said he never heard that from a customer before and would check with the chef. I heard nothing more. Silence.

This place seems good for the classic t bone. It really is not that expensive compared to other places and what you pay in Northern Europe. Food is decent quality and fresh. People around me were clearly enjoying it. I just had a disappointing experience with flank...

I can’t give it a 5 despite excellent food. The pastas were delicious, especially the pear ravioli, which was so unique and delicate. The Bistecca alla Fiorentina comes in choices from several locations, all dry aged for different amounts of time ranging up to 100 days. Excellent. The restaurant is on the Santo Spirito side of Florence, which is great for wandering day or night. A great location. The inside is a bit formal if not bordering on sterile, which is where the vibe starts when you walk in. Vibe matters. We were seated “efficiently” and our server came to the table quickly and his very first words were “how can I help you?”. No welcome, no introduction, no thanks for coming, no let me tell you all about our menu, just had his pad and pencil out and was ready to scribble an order mechanically. The mood at our table fell - and this was an energetic group of 8 eating its way through Italy. Total buzz kill. The owner (we assume) swung by a couple times to check on us and was polite and friendly. But the wait staff didn’t show any personality until it was time for the end of the meal free lemoncello. Cool, but the mood caused us to skip any dessert and only order 1 bottle of wine! They had a couple of shots with us and laughed a bit, but if they wouldn’t been engaging like that from the start it would have been a much...