Osteria Santo Spirito — Restaurant in Florence

To be completely honest, you can do a lot better in a city as full of great dining options as Florence. The place is one step up from a tourist trap. The complimentary bread at the table is soft but flavorless, we left it more or less untouched. It pains me to say the bread you get at the Cheesecake Factory is better. And I hate the Cheesecake Factory.

We ordered the boar sausage, the rabbit, and the risotto dish. Only one of them was good.

To start, there are some translation issues on the menu. When I asked a clarifying question, the wait staff impatiently told me everything was in English… but when it’s badly translated forgive me for wanting to know more about the Involtini rolled in “cursed beef.” The boar “sausages” (plural on the menu) is more like an anemic serving of boar salami. It’s dry and salty, so the gaminess is glaringly missing from how it would have been as a hot, juicy sausage. The cheese and sun dried tomatoes it came with were great though. Overall, wouldn’t order it again.

The risotto was a big portion, but also lacking flavor and complexity. We had to add salt and pepper after it arrived and we didn’t finish it. It just didn’t feel worth the calories. In Italy, that’s a very bad thing. We wouldn’t order that again.

The rabbit was great! Juicy, flavorful, in a delicious red sauce with olives. The star of an otherwise very underwhelming meal. 3 stars because we felt like there was a lot of potential in some of the other dishes we saw at neighboring tables but didn’t order. On a long visit to Florence, give it a shot and decide for yourself! On a shorter trip, I wouldn’t...

I will start by saying that we had a delicious risotto with parmesan and a not so good spaghetti with garlic and olive oil. I will complain about the staff that was very unsatisfactory by the end of our night. We arrived around 22:00-22:30, ordered our meal as described above and a single glass of red wine that was 3 euros. When we received our check, we were curios why it was more than expected and we noticed that we had an extra flagon of white Chianti wine that was 8 euros, that we did not ordered or even received at the table. We thought that it might be just a simple mistake and talked with the waiter about it and he said that he will change it. He asked me to wait so that we can clear it up and after 5 minutes the cashier changed the check and this time both wines were gone and another 6 euro glass of wine was added, I told him about this and this time he snapped and talked with the manager that was next to us and she started to argue with me that I’m trying to fool them, that I ordered two glasses of wine and that I don’t want to pay them. That was foolish, having the second check with only one wine written and at the wrong price. In the end she said in a very satiric and rude tone that I can think what I want and that I can take my money. It wasn’t about the money, it was about how impolite they were with us, I could have given them those extra 3 euros as a tip, but it seemed that they wanted to rip us off. Disappointed and ruined our night. Hope others had better experience and would advise...

This was the one meal I had by myself during my week in Florence, and yet this was my favorite meal. I ordered two large pastas, which paired well with the house wine. The pici with pomodoro was extraordinary. It came to me in a huge portion, piping hot with endless steam. I did not know such "simple" food could be so delicious. The truffle gnocchi came to me still broiling in its plate (and continued to bubble for a long time). It was rich and decadent. I had to stop myself from finishing all of the pici pomodoro so I could box it up and let my companion try it later. He (a meat eater who loves rich food) was so impressed by the simple vegetarian pasta, even as re-heated leftovers, and ate it all with gusto. The environment was perfectly rustic, Tuscan, warm, and beautiful. The service was so good and so fast! Shortly after sitting down they served complimentary bread with the best olive tapenade I've ever had. At the end, when I paid at the counter, they asked me if I would like a limoncello shot. Naturally I was confused, but they seemed to be saying that this was a normal thing offered to people who spend more than €30. I asked the employee to take it with me, so together we toasted and took a delicious, very strong limoncello shot at 2 in the afternoon. I've eaten at quite a few places during my week in Florence; this was...