Osteria dei Pazzi — Restaurant in Florence

On advice from one of our Italian advisors, myself and a group of five other American college girls who are studying abroad decided to come here for our last dinner in Florence. We can confirm it is definitely not a tourist trap. That being said, if you are a tourist, especially an American one who is unfamiliar with the metric system, ensure you understand what a hectogram is. As it was our last night in Florence, many of us opted to try a Florentine steak thinking surely it would be a reasonably sized portion of meat. This was a mistake. Our waiter brought out the raw meat to inform us that the weight in total was 4.8 kg of steak for 5 women. We attempted to process that information, but before we realized what was happening, we had nodded along, approved the amount and the steaks were on the grill. We had just enough time to come to a state of acceptance that we were about to spend 66 euro each on a 2 lb steak for each 20 year old girl before the food came out, and let me tell you, this meal was well worth it. The steak was so delicious we each nearly finished the entire thing, and with enough wine the financial anxieties of that evening melted away. The leftovers were delicious too. We only endured a bit of mild, good natured, and deserved judgment from the staff, but the sympathetic free limoncello (after our card went through) was much appreciated. Thank you for a night we will certainly never forget, and for the delicious mistake which made up for itself in laughter, flavor, and a...

Unfortunately, despite the rave reviews for this restaurant, we found, after visiting on our first night in Florence, that it is nothing more than a tourist trap. The atmosphere inside the restaurant was not great, with a lot of very loud music playing. Service was fine, but the overall environment was cold and impersonal. The biggest issue was the food.

They claim to have homemade pasta and food prepared fresh by the chef, but I question if the preparation is merely a microwave. We ordered, and the food arrived within just a few minutes, which was our first warning sign. Every dish we had was terrible. Lasagna was extremely dry and flavorless, bolognese tasted bland and like it had been made with canned sauce, and the ravioli was extremely acidic and seemed like it came out of a bag on a store shelf. The worst and most concerning offender was the “truffle” pasta. There was a pile of scraps of some type of mushroom on top, but the dish was cold and tasted nothing of truffles. In fact, it smelled — and tasted — like bleach. Everything we ordered was lukewarm and seemed to have been reheated.

Oh, and the “cover charge” added mandatorily on top of the bill was insult to injury. I will also note that no one even said thank you or goodbye as our party of four left.

I cannot warn you enough not to go to this restaurant. The food is absolutely terrible, and the environment is cold and gritty, lacking any of the charm and warmth that we have experienced in many other restaurants here in...

This place was absolutely amazing. We ordered the artichokes with parmesan cheese as an appetizer to begin. I actually don't even like vegetables but the olive oil, artichokes and parmesan cheese together tasted great. Bread came at the same time, this was probably the weakest part of the meal but it was still fine. For the main course we ordered pasta dishes. I got a garlic pasta with breadcrumbs which was amazing. Light garlic sauce on perfectly al dente pasta, when you add the bread crumbs it was like something I've never had before. My wife ordered spaghetti alla caratierra, which she thought was the best pasta she had ever eaten. For dessert we got pannacotta with chocolate sauce and tirimasu which were both awesome. Overall the service was great. The waiter explained everything to us in English and was super helpful. The owner or other waiter was super joyful singing and greeting guests with a big smile. The experience was amazing. I'm in Florence for only 3 days but I might be back...