Osteria de' Peccatori — Restaurant in Florence

Avoid as you would the plague❗I ate here twice, both my mother and I were sick afterwards and once I was eaten alive on my ankles by fleas at the outdoor seating area. It's true I only ate off the tourist menu but all the food should be good in my opinion, not just the fancy expensive dishes; that has me questioning their sanitation and refrigeration practices in general. I shouldn't be sick from eating only a pasta with tomato sauce❗ Also went there for cappucino ,THE WORST CAPPUCINO IN THE WORLD AND I INCLUDE USA COFFEE IN THAT STATEMENT. I even complained, (I speak Italian) and the coffee was still re-made weak, boiling and had no foam. I actually threw it away in disgust. I've never even had coffee that bad in the USA except at McDonalds and this coffee was a rip-off price as well at €2 when most cappucini (plural cappucino) are €1.20 except for tourist areas. Really, the food is mediocre at best compared to other Italian restaurants, not worth even the "menu turistiche" price of €10. I suggest going instead to ‘Finisterrae’ in Piazza Santa Croce instead only 2 blocks away. Walk up Via Dell'Anguillara towards Piazza Santa Croce and it's the last place on the left side of the Piazza (they serve "Jolly Caffé"). It has outdoor and indoor seating where they serve excellent lunch and breakfast, have a ton of beautiful pastries and gelato to go and a little café seating area for "collazione"(coffee and pastry, typical breakfast for Italians but a nice afternoon snack for Americans after a long day of sight-seeing) Plus they don't rip you off with a seating charge if you just want to sit for 10 min to drink your cappucino or have a nice meal outside😊 My mom went there everyday while she was here visiting and they were excellent to her and made her...

Tldr: this place seems like it’s usually a hit and occasionally a miss, but we were a hit! Great food and service.

(Maybe it’s due to our taste palate coming from the Bay Area in the US, but of the many let downs of this trip, this wasn’t one of them.)

In detail: I read the previous reviews about mediocre food and bad service so I didn’t initially aim to go here. Not to mention this place was really close to the Piazzo del Duomo so I was definitely weary it’d be a tourist trap.

It started raining and this was close so I took a chance on the reviews that did say good things and I’m so glad I did!

Service: Our waiter(s) were patient, friendly, and welcoming with us! For context, we are Asian Americans and knew no Italian. The previous reviews left me worried but we had a pleasant experience. Maybe they read their Google reviews and worked on themselves or we came in a good day. Food came out fast!

Food: Great prices. We got a calzone (stuffed pizza), seafood spaghetti, gnocchi, and tagliatelle. All were delicious (huge relief after being consistently disappointed in Paris...) Fresh pasta and great sauce.

Dessert: Got the strawberry panna cotta, tiramisu, and affogato with limoncello (fav!). We loved all of them! Fair prices; no regrets.

Overall, we left wishing we had some more time so we could come back. Recommend, esp bc...

Tonight, I was dining with friends at this restaurant. A middle-aged, slightly overweight female employee with short curly hair and black-framed glasses discriminated against us. Firstly, when we were ordering, she displayed a disdainful and impatient attitude towards us, and even curled her lips to us. However, she greeted other customers with a smile and enthusiastically introduced the dishes. Later, when we called her twice to help us collect our plates, she consistently ignored us. We were very angry and complained to another employee about this incident, hoping she would apologize for it. The employee explained that her poor English caused the misunderstanding, but I could see her attitude towards other customers and her service attitude towards us! It’s totally different!!! When she came to apologize to us, she spoke entirely in Italian. She clearly knew some English and communicated with us in English when taking our order, but she was unwilling to apologize to us in English when admitting her mistake. Instead, she chose to use Italian, which we couldn't understand, and asked another employee to translate for us. So we didn't know if she was apologizing to us. This employee didn't take the issue seriously at all, and we didn't receive an apology in the end. This restaurant really ruined my good mood for...