Osteria dell'Enoteca — Restaurant in Florence

Ok 1st let me state I’m in the wine business I’m also aware that I chose not to eat meat and having a so so vegaterian meal in a steak house is on me. Let’s get to my wine experience. I stopped by late Saturday night as I know the people here and their enoteca I’ve been coming for years and considered them friends. While looking at their menu that wasn’t impressing me I asked what else was available. I was invited to look into the stock and to my surprise found a rare Loire Valley red. Even more astonishing was it was priced well below market price. As I live in Paris I told my friends that wines true value. Maybe because they are Italian and it was a French wine they actually said it wasn’t important to them and if I wanted they would reserve it for my dinner the following night. Visiting Italy i rarely drink foreign wines but said if your certain I would gladly buy the bottle for my reservation to share it with friends who never drink French wines. Upon my arrival I asked for my bottle that was reserved and another member of the team had no idea what I was talking about. We went to the cellar together and to my surprise the bottle was returned to the case but now had a price of double what was on it before. When I asked why this was he had no idea. I said please contact your partner as this wine was sold at the original price. I was told it wasn’t possible. I pressed and was told their broker offered the wine in a bulk deal. They were NOT losing money I find this to be such a lack of integrity and disgusting. I’ll never dine here again and if you had the time to read all of this I’ve only done 1 other review like this when a restaurant tried to switch a wine I ordered. Stupid way to lose a friend and...

Yep. These reviews are all correct. Only two days ago I wrote that the best Bistecca in Florence has been had, and cannot be bettered. Here I stand with egg on my face, as the guys at this Osteria dell’Enoteca have really outdone themselves.

As a huge fan of the Pitti Gola e Cantina just down the road from here, I came along to this restaurant expecting brilliant things to happen, and they did.

The first point that exceeded expectation was being remembered by our waiter Lorenzo (I’d last seen him 9 months ago in the Pitti Gola e Cantina) to walk in to a place for the first time and be remembered was a very nice touch. It had my Mrs giggling and very impressed.

The second very interesting point is the wine. I’d clearly expected it to be fantastic, but the way in which they approach their wine list is unique to me. There is no written wine list, but instead you are taken to their wine wall, where you can discuss what you like and what you don’t like, and perfectly pair a wine to what you have ordered to eat (Bistecca, obviously). It is such a nice idea, and you can chose anything from around €15-€300, depending on your budget.

For food, we had a 1.25kg Bistecca, which was from a cow that hailed from Finland. I don’t know how they ended up choosing this as their house cut, but I’m so grateful that they did. What a piece of beef. I know it is a cliche to compare it to butter, but the texture really was as smooth as it gets. We loved every mouthful.

Needless to say, another top class night of food and wine in Florence left my Mrs in pieces, and she was as keen as mustard to get my pants off when we got back to the air bnb.

I thoroughly recommend this restaurant to...

We weren't in Florence for so long so really needed a solid place to try Florentine steak and this was a great option. The vibe itself is cool (automatic door walking in, dungeon-like walls with cute decorations). Walking to your table you walk by a huge wine selection, which can be overwhelming.

We started with the asparagus and peas salad. This was pretty solid, simple but it worked. We grabbed the spaghetti with the cream of asparagus-normally wouldn't order so much asparagus but this was the pasta that sounded the most interesting to us and we did ultimately end up enjoying the sauce quite a bit and it was one of the better pasta dishes we had in Italy. Got a side of the white beans which we probably didn't need but didn't mind.

The steak: first of all it's very sizable. The Florentine way is rarer than I would ever order a steak and while I'm glad I tried it, I probably wouldn't choose it again. It's an interesting ordering process as you're essentially given the sizes they have left there for the night so you never know walking exactly how much you'll pay. I do appreciate that they cut it for you but I did feel like some of the meat was still on the bone (not that we really needed MORE meat I just didn't want to waste any). The flavoring is pretty good but there are definitely bites that are better than the others.

The service was a bit mixed. There were times they were interested in talking with us while others they didn't seem so interested and a bit aloof. This was especially true when we went to check out.

Ultimately, served its purpose in introducing us to a style of steak we hadn't had before and did so in a way...