Buca dell'Orafo — Restaurant in Florence

tl;dr please do not come here, stay away!. Food was overpriced, and just not good compared to other restaurants we’ve had in Florence/Italy. What an utter disappointment and let down!

We read online and found this place on a few lists and were so excited to have another great authentic meal in Florence. But, this place was anything but good.

The butter and anchovies were ok but it basically comes ready made and needs to be plated.

The porcini mushroom pasta was just awful. It didn’t have much mushroom taste and was a bit soggy.

The fried chicken and zucchini flowers was not fried well and had a pretty overwhelming oily taste. The chicken was not even a whole part it was just various parts that range from a single drumette to bits of leg that didn’t even make a whole one. The chicken also had a certain taste that bordered on stale and was not fresh in our opinion.

The Cacio e pepe was ok but we’ve definitely had better. I will not disagree with another reviewer who said it was really pretty bad. There was not much pepper taste and the pasta itself was way too al dente that it seemed undercooked.

Really do yourself a favor, save your money, and don’t waste a meal here. It was so disappointing and such a let down. This is especially so after having had such a great meal at another Florentine institution, Sostanza.

BE...

Been there 4 years ago for dinner with my mum and love their Florentine so much. With that good memory, visited there with my husband by driving for more than 30 mins. Booked a table for 2 and we were greeted by the lady who even didn't bring us water at the beginning. The same owner I met 4 years ago was very busy with treating French or Italian tour groups and very obviously he was extensively treating them first all the time. We had to ask for an order few times and it took 30 minutes to order our food. How terrible it is? When we finished our food we didn't have any moment to enjoy our time there as the waitress very quickly took our empty dishes by saying "finish?" before we even answered to her question. In short, ok food and very bad service. On top of that No Longer local place but full of tourists! It is really shame that my good old memory few year ago with this restaurant won't be kept any longer...it is genuinely shameful. Not to mention i felt sorry for my husband whom i made very excited by telling him so many good things about this...

We went in wanting a special meal to celebrate our engagement and came away feeling awful. So where to begin? None existent customer service who seemed frustrated with our slow ordering when we were trying to order off an Italian menu and trying to work out what we wanted. Charged for 'complimentary' bread that WE DIDNT recieve. Got basically ignored by the staff. Food overpriced, two glasses of wine, a starter, 2 courses and a 2€ bottle of water (we didn't realise they charged for) came to 60€ (and don't forget the 4€ for bread we never recieved). We didn't argue the point as by this point we wanted to leave. If you value your money and your dignity eat elsewhere. Ruined what was supposed to be a magical evening on our last night of our holiday. Truly truly appalling. Food was tasty just overpriced for what it was. Go eat anywhere else...