Osteria Belle Donne — Restaurant in Florence

Reservations are suggested, as we had, or you can wait, and if you wait, you can have a glass of wine via the “Wine Window”. For some, this alone is with the trip. We did both for the full experience.

Although we had a reservation, we got a couple of glasses of rosé through the window and waited streetside while we watched passersby do the same. It is entertaining, and experiential.

The ambience is beautiful, with dozens of live plants overhead in a faulted stone ceiling, with pleasant, ambient lighting. It is a small, but quaint dining room, with perfect ambient lighting. I happened to be seated next to the gentleman at the wine window, so from time to time became part of the experience. Quite fun.

The restaurant is deceiving, as there is dining at street level, and sub level in a quaint and cozy space.

The menu has just enough variety, and every dish we had was authentic, and delicious. The wine selections are typical Tuscan/Chianti regional , with a good variety for any pallet.

Once we ordered, the food came out, surprisingly fast. It was succulent, delicious, and most importantly, fresh! The staff on the floor all worked together to provide impeccable service, from the moment the fresh bread, and, of course, olive oil, hit the table., Right through to removing empty plates when appropriate.

We were there on cultural exchange business between the city of Firenze, and Providence, Rhode Island, so we were always open to different elements to add to the exchange experience. As a result, we even hired one of the staff to come to United States for the 10 day event we are hosting in the city of Providence. This should speak to the authenticity of the experience.

This restaurant was a reference from our dear friend who has lived between Florence, London, and Providence for 26 years, and she was spot on with this restaurant, as she was with every other experiential referral she gave us.

If you are in Firenze, Belle Donne is...

I’d been wanting to eat here for so long - for the ‘beautiful women’ in the name, for the famed wine window, for the beautiful flowers decorating the window by the outside drinking tables… and I guess that’s about it because I’d never heard anything about the actual food. Maybe that was my red flag, but when we arrived I was really drawn in by the small, yet comfortable and beautiful dining area and the genuinely kind staff. After ordering, I went to wash my hands in the downstairs bathroom, and five steps away I could smell that ‘artificial clean’ of the bathroom. I was relieved we had been seated upstairs because I could not have eaten in, essentially, the basement (no windows) with such a nauseating smell. It’s a shame because this grotto dining area is dimly lit and almost elegant, the seating a dark green, velvety fabric. On to the food… we started with a completely flavorless vegetable soup that, even after 20 generous shakes of salt, still tasted of nothing. We had some prosciutto and burrata and… the same. The cheese tasted of nothing. I ordered the grilled chicken tagliata that, for my taste, was super undercooked accompanied by equally disappointing tomatoes and wilted rucola. No spices, no herbs, just the salt on the table that remained utterly powerless. The only other word I can think of to describe the non-flavor of my chicken and to avoid using the word ‘nothing’ again would be… wet. Ew. My husband got the vongole pasta which he said, surprisingly, had a good saltiness but that it had an extra-(unwelcome)-fishiness to it. And there you have it. Flavorless food that when it does have flavor, it’s not the kind you want. I won’t be going back, but I will recommend it for the cute wine-window that, in the end, I’ll never end up using…unfairly, I almost forgot to comment positively on the patate al forno which really saved the day and kept me from...

Of the many places we visited in Firenze, in Tuscany, and in Lucca (go!) this place was a terrible disappointment.

Most restaurants/tratterias/osterias offered wonderful and traditional dishes AND with great service and polite respect.

We were not greeted in such a way here.

We had had an earlier meal and were just looking for a few lighter dishes, and possibly a desert plus an amaro.

We started with a dish of assorted crostini. The chicken livers were very good and a crostini with anchovy were superb.

What was not very nice though was the studious way in which we were ignored.

I mean, the waiter did not bring us water, did not come visit our table to see how we were faring or to ask if there was anything else we might like to order.

The table next to us was seated with an elderly couple, she was glaring at us, we had no idea why.

Our sense was, they were discouraging American tourists.

OK, well you did a superb job. We were discouraged. I was a little sad though for my husband whose father flew more than 45 missions over northern Italy and Germany risking his life each time in order to secure freedom for future generations of Italy, some of whom were very rude last evening.

This treatment was the absolute exception and not the rule during our stay which was a delight. The Italian people are chic, creative, beautiful and uniformly friendly.

The food in Italy is terrific, the art incredible, the fashion second to none, and the history foundational.

We cannot...