Osteria Pepò — Restaurant in Florence

This was by far the best meal we had in Florence and the most fun experience. After being sent to a much more expensive restaurant our first night and being not only disappointed by the food, but turned off by the very rude waiter we had, we were told to go to another restaurant that was around the corner from this one. There was a very long line, so while my husband and granddaughter were standing in that line, I decided to investigate and went around the corner and found this hidden gem. They had one table left for 3 and I told them to save it and I was going to run grab my family from the line. I brought them back and we had the best meal of our trip. My husband loves lasagna and he deemed this the best he's ever had in his life. I ordered the wild boar. It was enough meat for 3 people and much more than I could eat. I was surprised at how tender it was. They make salads here, and I was missing salad, which I found hard to find on the menus, so that was wonderful. Their house wine was delicious and so affordable. The tiramisu very good. They have a waiter, Francesco, who is a big personality and we were lucky enough to get him the second time we went. It was our last night in Florence and my granddaughter wanted the lasagna she didn't get the first night. Francesco recognized us and greeted us with hugs, treated us like family, took a pictures with us and brought us lemoncello and a taste of grappa to end our evening. The grappa I dubbed "Italian moonshine"...too strong for me! But it was good for a laugh. This time my husband got the mushroom risotto, I got the eggplant and my granddaughter got the lasagna. All were good, but the lasagna rules! The prices were half of what they were in the tourist places and the food so much better and the service excellent. The young woman who had waited on us a couple of days before, took time to tell us out of the way places to go shop, flea markets, artsy places, nature places, and we had a wonderful time, avoided crowds and appreciated her telling us how to navigate the trains. This is the kind of place we will come back to every visit because the people feel like family. And we did go for lunch at the place next door that everyone said was so good and we did not like it nearly as much as this restaruant. It was not clean, was too crowded and the food was not nearly as good. So, this will be our go to...

( Updated) I got a reply from the owner today and he/she kind of attacked me personally. I wonder if they threaten people who give them bad reviews to get 4.5 rating. The owner also conveniently didn't respond to why they charge twice for a replacement dish. ( I could have argued about that on spot but I guess I am a more decent person than they do, so I just give them the money they want and don't want to bother other customers).

It also looks to me that he/she is might be blind, because I only post 4 reviews in the past two years and two of them are high reviews, but he/she believes that if I give bad reviews to his/her restaurant, that is because I should change the way i look at the world. Wow!

We were recommended to this place by our hotel. checked out google review before we go. We went out of our way to get to this place and ended up very disappointed. The veal steak taste like very dry pork chop. the pasta is ok but no where near the good pasta place we had in other 4.5 rating restaurants. I told the waitress that I don't think it is veal because it tasted like pork chop I made at home. The waitress told me that if I don't like my meat, they can replace it. They took away my veal ( I ate all the potato and one third of the meat) and I ordered a new dish. But when the bill comes, they charged me the full price of the new dish and half price of the veal. That is not what " replace" means in USA and in Asia. By my understanding, "replace" means they should only charge one dish instead of both. If I knew they are going to charge me twice I wouldn't have ordered a new dish , what's the point to waste money if two of our order already turned out not good?

I don't know how they got the 4.5 rating. The restaurant was very empty when we arrive, that could be a red flag. The next table a girl ordered pasta, she also stopped eating just...

I’m sorry but I cannot give this place as good a review as others. This is my third night in Florence, and the food was my least favorite - not bad but ...meh! Admittedly, I paid almost twice as much for the other meals, but I got seafood one time and Bistecca alla Florentine the other, for which you would expect to pay more. Also this place calls itself “home cooking” so I should not expect anything but a good value everyday meal - which is what it was. However, I had higher expectations based on the fact that the hotel desk person said this was his favorite place.

I got the house red wine (as I normally always get in Italy), which was an overly sweet Chianti, that I often get in the US and hate. Having come to Tuscany, I can now appreciate a good Chianti - this was not it. They have an extensive wine list on a chalk board - I recommend one of those over the house wine. I got the grilled pork with truffle sauce, which was good, but nothing memorable. It could have been a plain mushroom sauce and I would not have noticed the difference. Good, but no “wow” factor. I did not get a chance to see the other reviews first, so perhaps the ossi bucci, or peposo are much better. I also got the grilled vegetables, which I always get with every dinner. It was my least favorite version. I think they used a mandolin to slice the vegetables, because they were so thin and so very few of them. Flavor was OK. BTW, I never got any complimentary Prosecco as other reviewers have indicated they got. I also agree with other reviewers, the bread was ordinary and not hot/fresh.

I was not unhappy with the meal, it just was not as good as other dinners I have had here in Firenze so far. It was a good value for an everyday meal. However, have not intention to returning on this trip, as I might with the other...