Ristorante Pizzeria Canto De' Nelli — Restaurant in Florence

Ripped off by shoddy service!

I ordered the mushroom tortellini, and my partner ordered the risotto. His was fine, but when mine arrived it was lukewarm and bland. The side salad and potatoes we'd ordered were nice.

I notified the server immediately, and asked if I could have a Margherita pizza instead. She said this was fine and took away the cold meal.

I mentioned that I was vegetarian while asking for the pizza, and she said that the mushroom tortellini actually had meat in it. I didn't know this, but it was irrelevant, as I was returning the meal because it was cold and didn't taste nice. She later came back while the pizza was cooking and asked if my partner wanted the tortellini boxed up to takeaway - room temperature tasteless pasta...no thanks!

When it came to settle our bill we noticed that we had been charged for three main courses - the tortellini included. We disputed the bill but the owner refused to back down and insisted we pay the full bill. She claimed that I'd returned the pasta after finding out that meat was in it, which was untrue - we didn't even know this at the time. She was very argumentative, and said that it was impossible for the pasta to have been cold, because the risotto wasn't. I don't follow the logic that every item cooked in a kitchen would therefore be the same temperature.

She repeatedly rang the full price through the card machine, and I refused to enter my pin to pay the full amount. Eventually she knocked off a few Euros, but still wouldn't back down and knock off the full price of the tortellini, arguing that if half of her customers returned their meals and she couldn't charge them then she'd soon be bankrupt. I think the lesson there is don't make bland meals, not don't charge people who have returned their meals.

Avoid this place - there are cheaper and nicer meals available in much better...

We ate at Canto Dei Nelli in Florence on a hot August day. We were seated outdoors under the umbrella facing the Duomo Cathedral. The outdoor tables were all very close together, so that you could hear your neighbors' conversations, but this didn't bother us.

The waiters seemed very friendly as they seated you, but once seated, they didn't seem to really care about serving you or checking on you. We were given menus, and 20 minutes later our order was taken.

I had a pizza that was very hard to eat - a fork and knife were served as well which didn't really help. After cutting up the pizza, I couldn't pick up a slice to eat it, but really needed that fork and knife to eat it like a meal (unlike the way we eat NY style pizza in the US). My husband had the Florentine steak which was a bit too rare for his taste. The waiter didn't come along at all to check on us, and we had to flag down another waiter to get more water and more drinks.

Several of the other patrons from the US also thought the steak was too rare. One of the neighboring tables sent back the steak and we overheard them saying it looked like the cow was still in the pasture. I thought this was funny, but at the same time, seeing how rare the steak was, I could see why they said that.

The place seemed to have a lot of locals come here for drinks but not order food, which I thought was interesting. Basically it was a restaurant for tourists. Our party of 2 had 2 drinks, water and 2 entrees and...

On my first 3 trips to Florence I went to have dinner at this restaurant a couple of times.

Now after some years I came back.

I chose this restaurant for the first one to have dinner at after being back to Florence.

It still was as great as it was all these years ago. The people are so nice and welcoming and the atmosphere is amazing. It just feels so good to eat at this place.

And the quality of the food is great as well. Portions are well sized, taste fresh and delicious and there's lots of options and variety on the menu.

They also offer so many different menu specials there for basically every taste - from Pasta to Pizza lovers etc.

And they also have really tasty desserts there.

Can totally recommend that place for a quick snack or amazing dinner with affordable prices considering...