I'Tuscani — Restaurant in Florence

Had a lot of hope for this restaurant. Unfortunately it did not live up to the hype. The employees were kind but the service needs a lot of improvent. It started out when I ordered a bottle of wine. The waiter, as usual, showed me the bottle and then immediately poured it into a decanter away from our table without letting me see the cork or even try a sip before decanting it. Then it gets worse - the waiter disappeared out of sight with the decanter and bottle. When he came back he put the decanter on the table, no bottle or cork in sight and poured some wine to try. This was very odd and showed lack of good server skills especially in what is supposed to be a steakhouse. The wine was roughly $90 but retail was around $30. They have a very limited wine list for a steakhouse which is unfortunate and it was the only DOCG Brunello that they offered - it was 3.5/5. Second, the appetizer dish came and it was delicious and well priced. Finally our steak. When our steak arrived I was expecting at minimum new plates, different from what we had our appetizers on. This did not happen. Same platr and same fork for our entrees that we had our appetizers on. Now for the steak. Though it looked amazing and was cooked closer to rare than medium as we ordered - it was COLD. It was if they cooked the steak when we received our appetizers and let it sit on the counter. It truly baffled me how they could serve it like this. The wellness of the steak was not so much an issue but it being cold was a different story. After taking a few bites we figured it wasn’t worth the $90 to have cold steak so we asked the waiter to warm it up which he kindly did and apologized for the inconvenience. The issue with this is that now the steak was overcooked. Anyone knows you can’t take a steak off the grill and then try to cook it again. At close to $180 for the meal, it was not worth it. They offered complimentary dessert but we wanted to leave as soon as possible. This place has a lot of potential but could use a manager who understands the restaurant business - especially...

Had dinner reservations here for dinner to try the bistecca alla Fiorentina. We ended up choosing the local beef, which was a wet aged maremmana steak. It was 129 euros for the steak, which is comparable to a tomahawk steak in NJ.

I had a glass of red wine, and they gave little complimentary dishes of a tomato puree for an appetizer (forgot the name but it was really good).

We chose porcini mushrooms and white bean sides. They brought out a plate of roasted vegetables instead of the mushrooms, which they took back, but then a manager came out to inform me that they didn't have any mushrooms. We accepted the roasted vegetables instead. Preferred the beans over the veg and too bad about the mushrooms.

They asked how we wanted the steak (medium rare). The steak came out more medium than medium rare and lightly seasoned with a little salt and rosemary. I was surprised it was overcooked rather than undercooked, which we would have preferred. I was aware going in that many steaks in Florence weren't heavily seasoned - I do prefer mine seasoned more, rather than add extra salt. We didn't know at the time, but the olive oil was also something that is used on steaks in Florence (this was not mentioned by the server). We wanted to try it the way it was served to us without adding anything, but I wish we had. It seems that dry aged is more flavorful than wet aged - though this was the first wet aged steak we have ever tried. I'm glad we tried it, but we weren't blown away for this price.

For dessert, I wanted to try cantucci e vinsanto while in Florence. The alcohol was a bit strong for my taste, but the biscotti were pretty good lightly dipped in it. We also ordered an espresso.

Some of the menu item descriptions are a little eccentric, which makes it confusing once it translates to English. We enjoyed the...

We got there as they opened and it was difficult to find due to them not having an outdoor signage. Once we were seated the waiter spoke English but had difficulty explaining the menu. He did not write anything down and several items had to be clarified multiple times for a party of four. He was very nice and enthusiastic and was clearly trying. One basket of bread was stale and had been refrigerated probably from the previous day. We ordered an appetizer of mixed sliced meats that was delicious and the only reason for the second star. We were looking for some of the famous steaks of Florence and this place was highly recommended. We were assured that we could order medium steaks. One of our guys ordered a fried steak which amounted to a poor version of an American country fried steak. It was chewy and not at all a quality piece of meat. The rest of the table ordered the sliced sirloin cooked to medium and it was served rare with some pieces venturing into the blue territory. The steak that we did eat had very little flavor. Due to being a sliced steak there was no reason for the meat to not be cooked to order other than a refusal to do so. If they didn't intend to cook to order they should have stated so and we could have ordered differently. The peas with our meal appeared canned and came out cold. The sides of potatoes were very good. The ambience of the room would have been nice if the staff hadn't been moving tables and heaters around the entire time. The food was over priced for the quality and there were questions about the bill due to an unknown surcharge or...