Hostaria da Fulvio — Restaurant in Florence

I had poor experience at Hostaria da Fulvio. The food tasted good and was priced well - this was not the issue. I reserved a table for 20:00 on Friday for a dinner with my mother and girlfriend. We ordered antipasto and wine, which came out rather quickly. After this, our primi piatti came out while we were still eating our antipasto. It was within 10 minutes. We then sat and ate while our waiter came and asked us if we were okay 5+ times. As soon as I took my last bite of pasta he came and took our plates and asked if we wanted dessert. We asked to have a few minutes and he came back less than one minute later. We ordered tiramisu and an additional glass of wine. Again, as soon as the last bite of dessert was taken he took our plates. He came back one minute later to ask if we wanted caffe, and when we said no he dropped off the bill at our table. At this point it had been only 1 hour, and the time was 21:00. We sat and finished our wine and 15 minutes later we were told we needed to leave. I find this extremely ridiculous as I am well aware how dinner in Italy is to be served. I spent a month in France before coming to Italy and was never treated so badly. I am not sure why we were rushed through dinner, perhaps because we were one of the only American tables there. Many people had been at the restaurant before us, and were still seated when we were asked to leave. I spoke with the man who asked us to leave (who was not our server) and asked why we had to leave when everyone else was allowed to stay. He simply said because they were busy (which made no sense as we were the only ones asked to leave) and offered us euro or limoncello which I refused. He then offered us a table for 2 (we were a party of 3) to stay at. We left and messaged the restaurant on Whatsapp and we’re told that they were busy so we had to leave. Good food,...

This was one of the worst dining experiences of my life. It seems there has been a recent change in management or staff, and the atmosphere felt more like internal chaos than a functioning restaurant.

Initially, one waiter came to take our order, but moments later another waiter rushed over and took over our table, as if there was some kind of power struggle going on. From that moment on, the second waiter served us reluctantly, as if he had been told not to interact with us at all.

As for the food: the steak and cacio e pepe were genuinely good — no complaints there. However, the tuna steak was absolutely terrible. It was dry, tough, and tasted like a leather belt. On top of that, it took about 40 minutes to arrive because they initially misunderstood our order and brought out mussels instead.

The end of the evening was equally disappointing. There was a flood in the restaurant’s bathroom, with water flowing out into the dining area. The only response from the staff was to stick an “Out of Service” sign on the door — while the water kept pouring out.

To make matters worse, the restroom had no toilet paper, no soap, and no hygiene products at all — which is absolutely unacceptable for a restaurant of this level. Additionally, the music was unbearably loud, which, I was told, was also due to the recent management change.

It’s a shame — the place has potential, but right now it feels completely disorganized, with no basic sense of hospitality or care...

Firstly the food was actually OK so props there but the wine... Don't be fooled. They have several "Bio" options listed on their wine list but as soon as you order one you are told by the owner that "if" they don't have it they will give you an equivalent wine for the same price. This seems OK, after all it is busy and they are stretched for staff so you oblige (at this point state that if they do not have what you ordered you would like to see the wine list again so you can make another choice).

Then the actual wine they serve arrives as a very generic Vermentino ("we usually sell this for X Euros (price of the wine you wanted + 5€) but you can have it for the same price as the wine you wanted), but they are busy, it tastes acceptable so you oblige (all the while ignoring the the voice in your head telling you that you are being mugged off).

Then you notice toward the end of the meal that everyone else is being served the same wine. You leave without ordering the dessert you probably would have had if you hadn't been so dubiously handled in regard to the beverage choice. The moral of the story? Wine matters, it is not an after thought, if you advertise biological wines on your list you better honour them.

The 1 star review is purely down to the handling of the wine order, the owner knew what he was doing, it should not be up to the customer to have to call him on this...