Saporium Firenze — Restaurant in Florence

Tldr; save your money and stick to the more casual, homey, and delicious restaurants of Florence!!!

My boyfriend and I dine at fine dining restaurants often in California where we live and around the world. We love Tuscany and visited Florence quite a few times. We selected Saporium because of its story, sustainability, connection to its farm Borgo Santo Pietro in Tuscany which sounded special and promising. Unfortunately, we did not get the experience we had hoped for. The food was generally good, but not worth the pricepoint (compared to other 1 Michelin star experiences) and we were really soured by service by the end of the night and issues with payment.

Food & Drink: The menu is confusing - they offer 4 different tasting menus (abbreviated vegetarian, seafood, and meat tasting menus and longer chef's choice tasting menu) and a la carte menu. Choice is nice, but too many feels unfocused and confused. We opted for the 10 course chef's choice to get the full experience. The experience started strong -- the chefs played with a variety textures well and was interactive -- our favorites were the pumpkin risotto and snail dish with sunchokes and hazelnut oil. They started to tell the story of Saporium and the farm, olive oil, vegetables grown on their property but a few dishes in that was all forgotten and the experience started to feel bland.

The sommelier seemed knowledgeable but wasn't really very friendly. We asked for a shortened wine tasting experience. The wines just felt average to us. The sommelier basically disappeared the last few dishes of the meal and we realized at the end we were charged for a welcome drink (usually that is complimentary at other Michelin starred restaurants) and the full 4 glass tasting although we only received 3 glasses. This has never happened to us to be overcharged like this. The wine portion was an afterthought.

Service: The service started strong, we were welcomed by Riccardo, the restaurant manager, he was warm and he said he chose 'the best seat' in the house for us. He was hospitable, we asked him to tell us more about their farm in Tuscany, he said later he will explain but he just disappeared and never came back for the night. It was a shame we didnt learn more. I understand if there is an emergency and he needed to step out but the fault is that his staff and coworkers did not cover for him and continue telling the story. As a restaurant of that caliber, you cannot rely on just the one manager to carry the team. After we paid, we realized the whole staff went missing, nobody to be found and we ended up going behind the front desk to grab our jackets out of the closet ourselves. There was nobody to say goodbye or help you collect your things. It felt transactional -- like after we paid, the job was done and the staff didnt need to be there anymore. That left a bad taste in our mouth and is completely unacceptable at any restaurant!!

Price & Payment Issues: Like a couple other reviewers said, there were issues on Saporium's payment processor to hold the reservation. Saporium charges a whopping €100 per person to hold the reservation. Like others, we dealt with Riccardo and for me it was a back and forth battle to get my refund. It is fine to have the credit card on file in case someone doesn't show up. But it is NOT OKAY to charge the card €200 and not refund the amount for weeks, and that is only because I contacted them!!! What happened to me was that they said they would apply the hold amount to our final bill but instead, they charged the additional €200 to us. Riccardo messaged me on WhatsApp later that night explaining the mistake, and said he had already refunded the amount, but it turns out it never went through. So it was a back and forth battle to get my money back.

We paid over $900 for a meal and wine for 2 people. It's completely not worth the price especially for the experience we had. In the US, that pricepoint is closer to a 2 star experience in a more expensive city like SF or NYC, which Saporium is not. It's safe to say we'll...

We walked here from our Airbnb, it's definitely a far from the city centre but Florence is very walkable. Depending on when you're reservation is, you can check out Piazza Michelangelo before or after the meal.

Our reservation was for 8pm. I suppose we arrived there a bit early at ~750pm, but we were the first ones there. The hostess grabbed our name, and exclaimed that our reservation was actually for 9pm, but it was alright. At first we just believed her because perhaps our 24 hour time conversions were to be blamed, but we double checked later in the meal and found out it was indeed 20:00. It was a bit of a rude comment to make in the first place considering there was no one there yet, but we didn't let it affect us because the rest of the meal we had very good service.

Because we were the first there, all eyes were on us for the first 30 minutes. We were treated like king and queen. They have small baskets to place your belongings in beside your table so you don't have to leave them on the ground. The complimentary starter and champagne were a lovely addition. We ended up NOT doing the tasting menu, and just shared a number of dishes in hopes to save some money as post-college students.

Unfortunately I don't have access to the May menu anymore, but we ordered the following to the best of my memory:

Uovo Biologico starter (free range egg with bacon, cheese, and horse radish). This was best described as a soup with a cream and floury base. I enjoyed it though my boyfriend thought it was really weird and couldn't really eat it.

2 of the Cappelacci di Picci (pigeon filled pasta): many people rave about this dish - we both loved it as well. The portion is on the smaller side, but we had to consider the secondi dishes coming up.

We had the Coniglio and the Agnello: rabbit and goat. Both delicious as well.

Chianti Monteraponi: a red wine recommendation. They placed our wine bottle far away from our reach. As the restaurant started filling up with people, they started to pay less attention to us, so it was a bit difficult getting their attention to fill our wine glasses.

The complimentary bread was uniquely seasoned, probably some of the better tasting bread we had throughout our Europe trip.

We did not order dessert but did get the complimentary dessert platter which contained a few chocolates surrounding this weird tree made out of cornflakes (yes we confirmed with them).

Overall we enjoyed our fine dining experience. It came to 171 euros split between 2 people including the still water. The bread looked like it was complimentary, which we appreciated. In the end we saved maybe 10 euros from the 6 course menu (which doesn't include wine), and around 60 euros from the 6 course including wine tastings (note that we ordered a bottle of wine). I'm sure the tasting menu is splendid but I don't think I'd be willing to pay for it on a second trip back...

Wife and I came here while in Florence for a week and this was by far the worst meal I had. We pad 660 euro for the 10 course tasting menu and annoyingly was pitched an upgrade for caviar which happen to be the best part of the meal. To start we walk in and the host who barely could hear as he whispered sat us at our table. We then sat there for about 5 mins then they ask us to go to the bar which you have to go outside and in another door to get 3 drinks that were mediocre at best. Finally after sweating at the bar lounge that take us back outside and sit us at our table again. Then proceeded to sale pitch us caviar which I expected to be apart of the experience at 215 per person. We agree without regret as it was the what part of this experience.we even meet the Chef and he was there for the first dish to come out. The entire meal we were literally sweating because the restaurant was so hot that we were using our water glasses to cool us down . We then get served our first dish. Was a solid 7.5 out 10. Well following that not a single thing was good. Literally every dish was disappointing and nothing went together. We couldn’t hear a single thing they told us about the dishes so after 3 dishes and asking them to repeat themselves we gave up and just took it as is. The waiters literally whispered to you . They were all nice and polite but it drove us crazy. So anyways we keep getting dishes and nit a single thing was what you expected from a Michelin star restaurant. One dish still stands out and not in a good way it was 3 pastas with a mussel on top of each. Absolutely terrible. The mussels were dry and rubbery. I couldn’t even eat em. I spit the one I ate out and let the servers take it. When I told em how I felt they argued and seemed annoyed . And my wife felt exactly the same about the dish . 0-10. Got few more dishes that I can’t remember that’s how little awe they gave to arrive to the final dish. A horrible cut of steak that had fat that wasn’t edible on it and no flavor. Was extremely chewy. Not what you’d expect. We didn’t finish this dish either . The entire experience was such a let down as this was our fist Michelin star dinner and nothing was good. The united flights food stood out more than any dish we received. My wife emailed them and pretty much was told that our opinion doesn’t matter. I won’t ever recommend a single person here and would love to be refunded if possible. This was the worst food we had in our entire 9 days in Italy without a doubt . The restaurant was beautiful and being able to watch the cooks was awesome but the food itself was the biggest let down I’ve ever experienced in a high...