Degusteria Italiana — Restaurant in Florence

Disappointing dining experience in Florence My husband and I are travelling to Florence for our honeymoon. Every restaurants we went impressed us with the wonder of Italian cuisine. Great food, lovely wine. However, Degusteria Italiana has made me lost faith in Florence’s restaurants. We were attracted into the restaurants with their beautiful interior designs. After we settled in, the waitress presented us with champagne and three appetisers, including chesse, truffle and games. Which it correlates to the theme of the menu: cheese truffle and games. It is quite thoughtful and the dish tastes alright. After the tasting dish, the menu was presented. The waitress was quite pushy on the food that we order, expecting us to order more. The food is over the average price of the restaurants in Florence, which is expected as the setting of the restaurant is very delicate. We ordered one appetiser and three pastas, with a bottle of wine. The house bread came first, and we were not given any butter, olive oil or any other spread. The bread was blend and hard in texture, it is the first red flag. The appetiser is at the “cheese” part of the menu, “bomboneria creamo”. We were given a pink cream of cheese which is not very appealing. The texture of the dish is mush with the taste of cheese but all the other sides and sauces did not elevate the dish. The taste of the game ravioli is very average. Anyone can get it from any of the restaurants in Florence. The truffle risotto had generous amount of truffles thus the dish is recused. I believe as long as you put enough Italian truffles on a dish, a dish would become tasty (and expensive of course). The last dish was a complete disaster. It is tagliatelle with deer and dark chocolate sauce. The pasta was perfectly cooked but the sauce tasted like melted dark chocolate with minced meat. To be honest, I am from Hong Kong, and I have travelled to different parts of europe and currently moved to London, I have not had such a disgusting pasta in my life. Imagine putting pasta into a bowl of melted dark chocolate, that is exactly the pasta I had. I understand innovation and creativity is needed for developing new dishes, however, the tastebud of a chef is crucial in this experiment. Rest assured, in Degusteria Italiana, the chef is lacking of this important skill. We do not even want to get the dessert as the gastronomical experience was not up to par. However, they managed to push the bottom line even further with complimentary sweets. The truffle aka not truffle tastes the best. It tastes like milk truffles. The almond treat coated with icing sugar was very sweet with slushy texture gave me goosebumps. The filled cookie tasted like paper. All in all, you can definitely find better restaurants in Florence at this price range. It is such a trauma for me as I have to type this review once I got out of the restaurant. Simply did not expect pasta in Italy...

This was one of the worst meals we have had in Italy during our 6 weeks travel and the rudest service!

We reserved the table for 14:30. The moment we walked in almost empty restaurant, the server greeted us that they will not have much time to prepare our meals. They claimed the left messages to inform us about “late” reservation. There were no text messages, nor e-mails from them.

We set and even without giving us a chance to look at the menu, the server start explaining very fast each listed dish. We could not comprehend what was he saying except that there is no time for this or that. Due to my egg allergies, I was not given any other option but to order the risotto. I asked for the risotto not to be all dente, but well cooked. I got the opposite: crunchy rise in off putting smell of yellow sauce with speck of powdered truffles. The presentation was not appealing either.

The wine book was ridiculously large. It looked like there were hundreds of pages in leather cover. We ordered the wine we knew since they were in rush to see us out.

The service was very disappointing. We did not expect it in the restaurant that was reviewed for Michelin star. To elaborate: at the end of the meal we were served tiny complimentary “uglies”, as Italian call marengo cookies. I know that main ingredient is egg white. The server insisted that it’s not. The chef heard him and called him for a chat. He returned to us and start reciting the explanation of the ingredients, and one of them was egg white! I stopped him and made a point that egg white as a part of the egg and that I am allergic as he was advised earlier. He left our table in obvious anger and start talking to a colleague behind the bar in upset voice. He did not even apologize for the mistake.

I do not recommend this restaurant to anybody. Why and for what they even got a chance to be reviewed by Michelin is...

My wife found this place on line so we went for lunch. The lady who sat us suggested what to get including wine. And she was spot on on her choice. She is also an owner. The food and wine was so good at lunch that we had to experience it for dinner. Unfortunately reservations online were booked for 2 months out. We spoke with our server who by the way is just the nicest person in the world and is also the husband of the lady who sat us and owner. They were able to get us in the following evening. Everything about this restaurant was perfect. It's not crowded so you have intimacy. You eat by candle light with piano music so you have an amazingly romantic aura around you all night. The food...simply put..THE BEST...We got a truffle dinner and everything from the Tartare to the final dessert was just amazing. There is a pasta dish that came with the Truffle selection that was by far the best pasta we ever had and we have never had anything like it in our lives. I have nothing to compare it to. If you're going to Florence try to get a table, if they are booked full...stop in and check for cancellations. In 39 years on this earth I've never had food this good it is by far the best place I have ever eaten at. Its so good, that this was the first review I have...