Ristorante Matteoni Firenze — Restaurant in Florence

STAY AWAY!!! This was by far the worst meal we've had in Italy. We came here because we wanted to try Florentine steak and this place had a 4.8 rating on google with rave reviews about their steak. They pressure their customers to leave a review before they leave the restaurant and that peer pressure is the only reason I can imagine it's so highly rated.

We should've realized it right away. The bread was the worst we've had in quite some time. It was dry, cold, stale, and lacked any flavor.

The steak was almost inedible. We ordered the "best" cut. We asked if they could cook it to medium as we overheard our waiter telling a nearby table who asked for it medium-rare to order it rare and they could let it cook further on the cast iron to their liking as they recommend it rare. We figured if we ordered it medium we'd at least get it medium-rare. Our waiter seemed offended but said he would have it made to our desire. It came out rare, and while we could hear our neighbor's cast iron sizzling, ours wasn't hot enough to be able to continue to heat the meat further. We should've sent it back but we thought we'd try it.

The steak was cold and so tough our steak knives could barely cut through it. My wife forced down one piece as she felt threatened with the waiter hovering over us and watching us eat. I doused mine in salt and pepper to give it some flavor until I couldn't cut through a piece and gave up. It was cold, tough, and lacking any flavor. There were tendons galore in the cut of meat they gave us, adding to the toughness. For €115 for the steak alone I expect way better.

The sides were mediocre as well. The beans were at least decent, but the spinach lacked any flavor. The description listed it as having chile oil and yet it was incredibly bland.

Our waiter could tell we weren't happy and tried to butter us up with free liquor at the end of the meal (it didn't seem like this was an unusual occurrence to him). He then dropped a review card on the table and kept asking us where our review photos were before we left. It was uncomfortable and off-putting.

The restaurant has nice ambiance, but I gave the atmosphere only 2 stars as the waiters hovering over the dining room was extremely uncomfortable.

I do not recommend this place in...

We have been served well, and the food was well cooked, but felt overpriced and without personality (we spent €65 for a grilled mix which was 70% pork and chicken, whilst a great beef steak Fiorentina 1.2 kg in Za zà Restaurant the day before was 10€ less even though is a way more expensive cut); the meat needed addition of salt and pepper as flavour was inexistent, although juicy and moist.

Other things felt out of place.

I asked for a Montalcino and got a Montepulciano, but had to pay the same price. (!!!) Almost €7 for a small plate of steamed spinaches for our little baby, which we asked instead of the contour for the meat? €6 just to cover 2 seats?

Honestly, something felt wrong.

We did not eat bad, and the waiter was nice, but generally I left with a sour taste in my mouth that we did not get value for money at all. You can eat way better with way less in Florence in thousands of places.

Decent, but I would not return.

UPDATE AFTER OWNER’S REVIEW: I thank the owner for replying to me.

However, I have not tried, as mentioned by the owner, 3 wines. I tried 2, because I did not enjoy the first one he gave me (a Montepulciano) in lieu of the Montalcino, and it was better, but not as good.

As per the menu, yes, true, the menu is visibile to everyone outside. The point is that we were not satisfied with the meat. As mentioned, it was well cooked and juicy and moist, but it was with no flavour and needed addition of spices. I personally believe it’s easy to respond that “around there is people selling 1kg of meat for 15 euros if you want”, but the thing is that every customer deserves to be satisfied when they pay. And the reality is that the problem is not paying cheap or expensive, that’s up to the customer, the problem is feeling you got what you paid for. Which is not how we felt eating here.

Again, not a bad place. Just an average one. A...

We went on Sunday with high expectations (given the 4.9* rating on Google).

Service was fine but a little indifferent/impersonal. The real issue was that we were left waiting a long time (longer than we spent eating): first with just water and bread (as you may know Florentine bread is not great), then with wine which we had to resist drinking as we were very hungry. We had decided to go straight to main meal so perhaps this was our error, but there was no assistance from staff or apology for the wait.

The food when it came was generally excellent. The steak was too rare for one of my companions but I thought it was great.

The wine was also very good - there was a small mix up about this (they served us the more expensive bottle by the same producer without us realising), but the service on this point was good and friendly as they agreed to charge the lower price.

Ambience was pleasant and potentially romantic, but the music playing was a series of (in our opinion) low quality musak style covers of classics - suggest the venue go with something acoustic or higher quality.

For me, while the food was excellent (including the vegetarian options, though these are limited), when you are spending this much (steak is expensive) you don't want to be kept waiting, especially with weird music! so it felt like an...