Osteria de'Cicalini — Restaurant in Florence

Nicely wrapped disappointment

Eight of us went to the restaurant to celebrate a close of a nice trip around Tuscany. Unfortunately this restaurant really underdelivered.

1. The portions were well presented but the portion sizes were tiny. I ordered a steak and got a small (about 150g) portion of meat pretty much by itself. The menu didnt have any sides, nor did the waiter upsell anything. When I received the meal I had to call the waiter and order some potatoes off the menu to make this into a proper main course. After having 3 courses a number of us left hungry and resorted with going for more food after.
2. The food was bland. Most of the people complained that the food lacked salt and taste (with exception of prawns - that were really good) We asked for parmigiana and received goat ricotta like cheese instead which was pretty tasteless
3. The cost. The group I was in didnt mind spending more on a meal - that was sort of the point of going to this place, however it was just not worth it. One thing we concluded after the meal was that it was the most expensive meal of the trip and the most disappointing one as well.
4. The hygiene. The nail in the coffin with this place was that my gf found an eyelash in her salad. The waiter was very polite and sorted it out pretty reasonably but for a place aiming to be of higher caliber it was just not acceptable.

Overall, the place wants to be something it is simply not. In my humble opinion there are many places that will provide you with a much better experience, food and value than...

I would not recommend if you are looking for an authentic Italian meal. The pasta was decent, but not great and the servers struggled to recommend things on the menu. We order the tiramisu and it was not good. We have been in italy for over a month and sadly this was the lowest rated restaurant.

In response to the restaurant reply: I absolutely agree that we could have left! I’m sure you can understand after a day of shopping how exhausting that can be after picking a spot. To correct you, we only moved once due to feeling overly hot down in the basement… which in my opinion is completely reasonable. We did share a pasta dish with intent to order more, but decided since we didn’t love the pasta to just play it safe and call it an evening. I completely understand your laws with wine and did not find it a big deal when you declined. We were staying upstairs and noticed the cork to our bottle was taken at the time of opening. Again, this is our opinion as customers of our experience in comparison to many, many restaurants we’ve experienced...

I read the reviews on here and as it is minutes from our apartment decided to give it a try. Wow! I love Burrata so when i read about the starter with pear and honey i was itching to try it and i wasn’t disappointed. My son had the Burrata and smoked salmon and hubby had the Zucchini flan - all were delicious. Next up the boys had spaghetti and ravioli - I tasted both but held out on the primi course as the main event of Florentine filet steak was to follow and again it didn’t disappoint. Next up deserts again amazing. We went all out this evening as we’d climbed the Duomo in the morning and hardly eaten so we knew we’d over spent but i loved when we ordered a big steak to share that they suggested smaller saying they could always bring more - that to me is service - we didn’t need more! . We had amazing wine but most of all amazing service from start to finish. I hope to go again before we leave as it was my holiday highlight so far. If you’ve read this far give this place a try you won’t be...