Il Bottegone — Restaurant in Florence

IL BOTTEGONE: OUR BASE IN FLORENCE

I am really surprised to read some of the negative reviews listed here. I can only conclude that these people were travelling during the high season when, of course, places are very busy and the service can be slow. For us, travelling in November 2017, il Bottegone was our home away from the hotel (just a few doors away). We ate dinner here all four nights of our stay: we had been travelling for 90 days and were very tired. We also grabbed quick lunches here as it seemed we were always passing through from one place to another. We found the SERVICE EXCELLENT: our waiter in the evening, Giuseppe, was friendly, attentive, and looked after our needs perfectly. At lunch time, we were always served quickly.

The FOOD was DELICIOUS: tasty, fresh and exactly to our taste. My companion had been eating suppe di verdure every day all round Europe. Here was the best! I enjoyed tasty chicken with light curried sauce, perfectly cooked risotto and the best spinach I have EVER eaten. I also enjoyed a melanzane and cheese dish and delicious salmon with beans.

We found the prices to be extremely reasonable in relation to prices in the other six countries we had visited.

I would not hesitate to recommend il Bottegone for a quick panino at lunch, a good sustaining meal at night and for very friendly and prompt service.

I stress- we were not in Florence during a busy period. We choose not to travel at that time for obvious reasons.

Thank you Il Bottegone for looking...

It's 3.5 rating is definitely deserved and it seems it depends on the time of day. Let me explain. I went for a coffee in the morning, had drinks only so no coperto service, the waitresses were attentive, asked for the check, paid with credit card, left the tip on the table and left. 5 out of 5. In the evening I went for drinks, I was met by other waiters that seemed to be bothered by the fact that we've grabbed a table for drinks only, even though the restaurant was quite empty. My wife decided to have a snack though but couldn't find sandwiches in the menu so she ordered a burger (20 euros, not that great btw). I've asked for the check, coperto service for both of us (3 euros each) even though I only had a espresso. Mentioned the credit card, the waiter came with the POS but on display the amount was 35 instead of 33 euros from the check. I didn't ask why he charged me 2 euros extra since Italian isn't my native language, just tapped the credit card to the POS. No beeping sound. I look at the waiter, the waiter looks at me impatiently and he says: Oh, but first you must select the tip percentage on the touchscreen. That POS definitely wasn't there that morning :) Awkward. 1 out of 5 experience. I would have added an extra star for the view but I went for dinner across the street and view was...

Me and my friend came to this hotel for a quick dinner on our first night. We were greeted hesitantly and were confused as they didn’t actually seat us but insinuated we just go find somewhere to sit. We ordered drinks and food through a waiter who didn’t exactly seem happy to be serving us, perhaps a language barrier? Or prejudice. We ordered 2 drinks and 2 pasta meals. The food was alright, small portions for the price but substantial. Half way through our meal a man tried to steal my friends bag and run away with it, she quickly stopped him however the staff just watched this happen and didn’t even ask if she was ok. We were then waiting atleast 10 minutes for our dirty plates to be removed and then be offered desserts or perhaps something else. We got bored of waiting and because of this situation we were discomforted and decided to just get the bill, being charged €6 service for barely any, we literally had to call the waiter over for our bill, there wasn’t service, they just...