Ristorante Storico Sabatini — Restaurant in Florence

TLDR: Avoid this place. Not only are they overpriced but they will overcharge you. Review: This restaurant was recommended to us by our hotel concierge because we wanted to have a good Florentine steak. It is a historic restaurant. We saw the negative reviews but there were some good reviews too and we chose to believe the concierge. All I can say is we were wrong! This turned out to be the worst experience of our trip and despite some redeeming dishes, the worst food we had in Italy. The restaurant is upscale and centrally located. The prices reflect that (and are way higher than any other place we dined at in Tuscany). The wait staff were very pleasant and we were happy with our welcome. But that didn't last long. As soon as we got to the ordering, the upsell started. Our waiter tried to upsell us on every thing from the wine and cocktails to the food. Despite us politely pushing back, he was insistent and persistent. After a while we made a remark about this and then, for much of the rest of the meal, our table was ignored. Like many others have stated, we got some additional appetizers (two of each despite us only ordering one) that we sent back because we recognized the tactics. We ordered the steak (it is based on weight) based on the waiter's recommendation. I don't know how it is usually served but this one came pre-sliced so we didn't know the actual weight. The quality of the steak left a lot to be desired - it was full of fat (not the marbled, Wagyu kind) and gristle, hard to cut. I left quite a bit on my plate as I couldn't cut it even with the steak knife. Desserts were the saving grace of the meal and we enjoyed those immensely. By this point, we had come to believe the negative reviews that talked about overcharging thanks to the behavior and so, gave the bill a thorough check. Sure enough - we found egregious overcharging. Cocktails we hadn't ordered, the extra appetizers we sent back all made an appearance. When we called the waiter over to ask, he didn't even listen to our entire list of what was incorrect and immediately took the bill away saying he would check. When he brought the bill back, we still had overcharges on it - a couple of cocktails plus higher charges for their premium alcohol which had not been used in our cocktails. But most egregious was that they had blatantly overcharged us for the steak. The menu price was EUR8.90 per hundred grams and we were charged over EUR11 per hundred grams. When we questioned it, the waiter blamed the computer system. Wow!! Do they type in the price every time someone orders a steak? Isn't the system pre-programmed? The difference between our first bill and the final one was over EUR160. And the waiter had the audacity to say that service charge wasn't included. After ignoring us for half the meal and us having to ask other wait-staff for water refills and forgotten dishes. We were very disappointed with this experience. It felt like they were trying to fleece tourists and while that is a feature of many destinations, we certainly did not expect it from a storied restaurant...

Hi We had our 1830 dinner tonight and it started out quite nice but like the weather tonight it changed quickly for the worse. We were seated immediately, greeted by our waitress. We ordered our meals for the 4 of us which included the Spaghetti Flambé , pappardelle with wild boar, steak flambé - medium;Scotana alla grigio- medium; fillet with green peppercorn cream sauce - medium rare .Then oddly our waitress left as she was off shift at?7 Fabio did an excellent job with the spaghetti flambé and we enjoyed it very much. The pappardelle was served at the same time . The wine was wonderful . A wonderful drink was substituted for the Paloma my daughter wanted( ingredients were unavailable ) at the recommendation of the ?bartender/ sommelier .

We were never introduced to the new waitress. we waited and waited and no food came. The bartender came over to say that the chef was busy but would be there soon to do the steak flambé. still no chef , no food. then back came the bartender with the flambé station, the lovely piece of raw fillet on the plate with the other planned ingredients . He explained that while he is usually at the bar today he would be the chef.

He confidently prepared the pan, set it aflame and made the sauce. He attempted to replate it on the same dish it came out on - to be clear - the plate that had the raw meat. i stopped him and asked for a new plate. He did not see the issue. In the US this is a health code violation and our health dept would close such a place. He saw no issue. my husband cut into it and it was RAW. not medium, not medium rare and not rare - RaW. we were told that it can’t be cooked more with the Flambé . Then we should have been told when we said medium. We sent it back to be cooked. Then the other dishes arrived . The medium rare was rare to raw but my kids didn’t say anything . The scotona was perfectly cooked medium- so someone knows how to cook properly. This left my husband with no meal while we all had food. Finally it came out though seemed a different cut.

No apologies…

We were offered a dessert menu and no one came back for our order .

We decided to ask for the check instead. The same bartender came over to ask if we wanted dessert . We said no just the check. He asked how everything was and i said fine and he asked if something was wrong- he must have known. if he didn’t know - nothing i said could help him .

For a 275euro meal, this is some of the worst service we have ever had - and no acknowledgement .

So sad because there are some good elements but customer service and food safety are not...

The Chianina steak was very flavorful but surprisingly tough (we’d had one elsewhere that was very tender). Our main disappointment was with the service: the first server we had was gracious and lovely. She asked whether we wanted the 1.2 kg steak or 1.5 kg, to which we replied 1.2. Another staff member brought a 1.5 kg steak for approval instead. When I explained what we’d requested, he rolled his eyes eyes and sighed, visibly annoyed. Approximately 20 minutes after we were seated, had already placed our order, with our wine was bottle open, with our first glasses consumed, a third person asked whether we were willing to change tables as this would help “save” them from an error they had made. We said we’d be happy to help. As we followed this new person to that other table, another server stopped him, refused to give up the table, and they argued. We were finally seated at that new table and thanked for the flexibility by the person who had asked for the favor, and who then said he’d make sure to tell his colleague that our dessert would be complimentary. The new server (who had originally stopped the swap) brought us menus, not knowing we’d already ordered, and seemed annoyed to learn this. When the check came, desserts were fully charged. My service review is because of the poor communication and alignment between servers: 1) the person who brought the meat was annoyed that our first server offered one option; when he was proposing another; 2) the person who asked us to change tables and our new server were in clear disagreement, which made us uncomfortable and led to service from someone who was annoyed we were in his sector; 3) finally, an offer for something complimentary should be carefully honored. We paid the bill in full without saying a word but we were made to feel uncomfortable at every new stage of the experience, when we were just following what each new...