Culinaria de Gustibus Bistro — Restaurant in Florence

My wife and I are on our honeymoon so were looking for some great places to eat during our stay in Florence.

All signs were positive booking Cucina de Gustibus. Great reviews, nice location outside the touristy area, interesting menu.

Unfortunately eating there was easily the most disappointing food experience of the trip.

The good news: In full credit, the appetizers were awesome. We got the poached egg and the zucchini flowers, both were beautifully plated and delicious. The wine was solid with different options by the glass. And there are nice seating options with an outdoors parklet and indoors section.

The less good news:

It took an hour and a half after for food to come out, sitting in near-90 degree heat. The whole time, zero communication from the waiter and zero attention to things like filling water glasses unless we flagged him down. No “sorry it’s on the way,” no acknowledgement, nothing. Meanwhile, tables to the sides of us that had seated later were getting their food. As we were getting ready to just call it a night and grab some pizza, we got a single “it’s coming” from the waiter and it came 5-10 minutes later.

I got the beef cutlet and it was totally underdone (gray the whole way through) and pretty flavorless. They never asked a doneness preference, which I’m totally fine with, but “default to well done” is not what anyone expects.

My wife got the vegetable couscous which was adequate but also underflavored and with veggies nowhere near as good as the ones from the cheap bistro lunch we had earlier that day.

Wrapping the whole thing up, the waiter initially gave us the wrong bill to pay and I needed to correct it. And it ended up being the most expensive meal we’d had across lake combo, cinque terre, and Florence.

We’re pretty nice people and try to go out of our way to not be fussy, use as much Italian as we can, thank the staff, tip, etc, so we were just confused and disappointed. I hope it was just an off day for them, but really can’t...

This was an amazing gastronomic journey that left us with only positive impressions and emotions. We highly recommend visiting Florence during the Christmas season and definitely dining at this restaurant for a Christmas dinner. It’s cozy, delicious, warm, and delightful!

My boyfriend and I chose this place completely by chance and decided to make a reservation. When we arrived, instead of a classic menu, we were offered a special Christmas menu with several courses to choose from, including fish and meat options. We decided to try both, and we didn’t regret it for a second.

The flavor combinations were something we had never experienced before! Imagine shrimp tartare on a bed of the creamiest ricotta, marinated rabbit thigh with mashed potatoes, or sea bass fillet with soaked cherries and green sauce. It was absolutely unforgettable! I could go on describing all the dishes we enjoyed that evening, but it’s better to visit and experience it for yourself.

What makes this place truly special, though, are the people. Tommy is an incredibly kind and friendly person; we thoroughly enjoyed talking to him and being his guests that evening. Personally, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to thank the chefs for their outstanding work and shake their hands.

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and will definitely be back again❤️

couple from the...

This has been one of the best, if not the best, restaurant experiences of my life. My wife and I ordered a zucchini starter to share and both had the same tortelli pasta with eggplant and bacon. The food was definitely up to the famous Italian standard - extremely tasty yet non-pretentious. Presentation matched Michellin-level restaurants, especially the zucchini flower. Service was impeccable thanks to our extremely kind and pleasant waiter Matio (I hope I got the name right!). Crazy how we would’ve went somewhere else because the restaurant was fully booked when we came in without a reservation, yet the manager/owner (not sure) chased us down the street a minute later to let us know that he found a table for us because of a no-show. The staff overall was extremely warm, kind and thoughtful. Very grateful for that. This is my first ever review of a restaurant on google, despite having been to the “best” restaurants in both the US and Europe, simply because I never felt that urge to express my gratitude towards such a wonderful little place. I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised to see this beautiful restaurant on some famous guide in a few years....