La Ménagère — Restaurant in Florence

I was expecting way worse for a few reasons. Obviously the price on food was high, and looking for restaurants with 4.5 or higher, this didn't show up for me. However my girlfriend wanted to go here last time we were in Florence, and it was our last night here, and decided to give it a try. They were nice enough to give us a seat although it wasn't even a quarter full, and reading reviews about being turned away, we were sitting at a huge table by ourselves.

I was totally expecting the food to be mediocre and tiny portions, but I can't complain because it was decent compared to our lunch earlier at a small eatery that was rated much higher (4.8). The food we had for lunch at the 4.8 place could be described as disgusting compared to this restaurant.

The salmon and gnudi we had was good enough that I would happily order it again. Not perfect, but compared to the other much less expensive restaurants we tried it was certainly better tasting. Salmon could have been a little less spicy and a tad bit less cooked... but still very good nonetheless.

The service was "meh" at best. Seems the waiters like to disappear into a black hole somewhere, I can't recall them even checking on us even once. But at least they acted like they somewhat cared about us for the split seconds we saw them. They didn't rush us out, which was nice, but after asking for the check and giving it to me, they never came back. After about 10 minutes I had to get up and find someone to take my card.

I love the flowers and decorations. The lack of a waiter didn't bother me because I just sat there taking pictures of the small bouquet in front of us.

Overall the experience was memorable, food was better than much higher rated restaurants in the area, and we didn't feel rushed or pressured. I think the good things overshadowed the bad things and I would come back here again, although there seems to be a very fine line in between the good and bad, according to the low reviews I've read.

Oh yeah, and the bread was surprisingly better than almost every other place in Italy we ate at! Super crispy outside and super soft inside. Butter was great! Bread could have been served warm... but not...

I recently visited La Ménagère and, while the ambiance and aesthetic were lovely, the overall experience left much to be desired. We were seated quickly, and the manager took our order—a chai cappuccino with espresso (confirmed), tea, and the cake of the day. About 10–15 minutes later, a friend joined us, and it took some time to get someone’s attention so she could order an iced caramel café latte. From there, things got a bit disorganized. After a noticeable delay, they brought the friend's order (not the first order of chai and tea) but it was incorrect—an iced coffee instead of an Iced caramel latte. While they corrected it, another staff member informed us that we’d need to vacate the table in 20 minutes. We explained that we’d already been waiting for some time, and our order hadn’t arrived yet. Eventually, the drinks arrived, but there were more issues. The iced caramel latte was served hot, and my tea and cake were delayed even further. Throughout, the staff seemed overwhelmed, which contributed to the overall sense of confusion. When our orders finally arrived, it felt like we were being rushed to finish. To make matters worse, the chai cappuccino was served without the espresso we had specifically confirmed earlier. Staff members kept glancing at us, and the setup for a private event made us feel pressured to leave. We asked about moving to another table, and while they agreed, it felt more like an afterthought than a genuine solution. La Ménagère is a beautiful location known for being a study-friendly spot, but it didn’t feel that way during our visit. The experience, combined with the premium prices, left me wondering if I’d return. With better organization and communication, this could have been a much more...

So this place..Ofcourse it looks beautiful, I’m all for aesthetics and that’s also what made me go to this place mostly (plus the fact that I saw it had lots of healthy dishes). But as described in another review I saw (unfortunately after the fact): looks can be deceiving.. The food we ordered was good, like it was tasteful and seemed of good quality, but I would say that you pay too much for the portion that you get. I had the mixed salad with grilled chicken for €16, and I had a few pieces of each ingredient.. What really ruined our experience though was the service. I can’t remember the last time I had such bad service. The waiters did not even look you in the eyes or smiled at you, they would just put the food on the table and walk away, even when I still said thank you and smiled at them..When I ordered the guy only looked at his phone, like zero eye contact and I was already wondering if he heard my full order, and ofcourse he did not hear I also wanted fries (I never got them and they also weren’t on the bill). What he did do though was put everything we ordered on the bill twice (after he first gave us someone else’s bill). We paid and only then found out we paid everything double (ofcourse here we lacked some attention ourselves at first), but it’s still the waiter (could also have been the manager) who made the mistake, and then he was annoyed with us not noticing this immediately, I thought this was very rude.. I got the feeling at this restaurant that they get enough customers anyway and just don’t care about putting in effort with being nice to you. So if you don’t care about that, I guess you can have an ok experience, but make sure you...