Trattoria 13 Gobbi — Restaurant in Florence

This was the first time I ever felt so completely unwelcome in a restaurant to the point that I was left in tears in the middle of dinner.

I made a reservation for my mother and I almost two weeks in advance, and upon arrival the person at the door would not say hello back to us or do anything but stare at me in the face when we spoke to him. When I said we had a reservation for 2 we weren't asked the name of our reservation or what time, we were just told to go "downstairs, across the hall, and up the stairs" where we ended up alone in a separate area of ​​the restaurant with barely any decor, uncomfortably bright lighting, no other customers and not even a waiter. When we asked if we could sit in the main area, we were treated as if we were asking something insulting. We were told the main seating area was for "reservations only" and we had to repeat that we did in fact have a reservation. Then we were told that we would have to wait 30 minutes for a table in the main area, and when we said that we didn't mind waiting, it seemed to bother the waiter even more.

After waiting for less than 2 minutes, we were seated at the table near the entrance where the door slammed shut all night. We had to ask for menus after sitting alone for 20 minutes without anyone asking us anything. We only ordered a main course(Florentine steak) and the waiter didn't ask us how we wanted the meat to be cooked. When the food arrived, it was undercooked and barely lukewarm. We had to ask a different waiter if we could please have the meat cooked a little longer, and the waiter took the plate without saying anything and looked at us with complete disdain before turning and walking away. The cutlery was also very very dull and made eating our meal difficult, but at this point we didn't want to bother anymore.

In the middle of eating, when I was already in tears, the waiter asked me what country we were from. My mother answered and the waiter left immediately without making any small talk. Later in the night a couple of tables further away from the entrance became available and when we asked if it was possible to be moved there so that we could get away from the slamming door, we were told no and that all of those tables were reserved. We had a late reservation and were one of the last tables to leave, and none of those empty tables we asked about were were ever used.

It was difficult to get the staff's attention all night, but the only time during our visit where the staff was prompt was when we asked for the check. We spent the entire night hoping that we were just off to a rough start, but it wasn't the case. We were there for 2 hours.

After reading reviews from different sites, its disappointing to find out that non-locals being treated significantly worse seems to be par for the course for tratorria 13 gobbi, especially so if there are no men in your party, which was the case for us.

I work in hospitality and in restaurants in Europe and I do what I can to be an easy customer, but it was genuinely difficult to understand the hostility...

I’m going to leave this review in 4 languages, english, italian, chinese and portuguese. I want everyone to see this and avoid this tourist trap. I work in the service industry and I’m never going to recommend this restaurant to any of my clients again.

I came here in 2024 with my husband, and again 2025 with a group of people. Both times we were treated unbelievably poorly by the staff. My husband and I are italian, and our group all looked white except me, I look asian. But we were really quiet and very polite. We didn’t ask for anything out of the ordinary. We only ordered, ate quickly, paid and left quietly.

The first time in 2024, I was wondering whether their poor service was because we hadn’t made a reservation, and just walked in. So this time, we made a reservation ahead of time, but the staff was equally as rude.

The man who welcomed us asked me if I wanted english or italian menus, I hesitated a total of three seconds, which is within the normal reaction time of a human. But the man was extremely impatient and immediately exclaimed “Italian or English????” Really made me feel like I was somehow a misbehaving dog. I immediately had to blurt out the first answer that came to mind. Mind you, the restaurant had just opened, it wasn’t even remotely full.

Later the waiter asked us if he could bring us something to drink. My husband replied “water please”. Totally normal answer, right? Apparently no, the waiter got mad (???) because he hadn’t specified which type of water (still or sparkling). I’m not a waiter, but aren’t you supposed to ask us first which we prefer, instead of getting mad immediately?

At this point we decided to stop speaking Italian altogether and only engage in English with the staff. They were nice to us the remainder of the evening. The food portions are really small for the price, the food was good but it doesn’t justify the poor treatment.

Mio marito ed io abbiamo avuto il piacere di cenare due volte in questo locale, 2024 e 2025. Entrambe le volte abbiamo avuto un’esperienza talmente pessima, che tutt’ora siamo increduli. Sembra che i camerieri amino talmente tanto i turisti americani, (perché probabilmente lasciano mance), che attivamente cercano di lasciare un’impressione negativa perenne nella mente dei non Americani. Italiani prima di tutto, asiatici e qualsiasi altra nazionalità verrà trattata con una scortesia traumatica. Non occorre un genio per capire che una mentalità discriminatoria del genere non giova a un business a lungo andare.

这家餐厅就是旅游陷阱，不要说歧视中国人了，连意大利人都歧视。不希望失望，就不要来这吃了。菜又贵又少。服务员态度实在是太差了。生意怎么能这么做的？

Meu marido e eu jantamos duas vezes nesse restaurante, en 2024 e 2025. Ambas as vezes, nós tivemos uma experiência tão ruim, que mesmo agora nós estamos incrédulos. Os garçons são extremamente mal educados, impacientes, discriminatórios. Se vocês querem ser traumatizados pra vida, esse é o...

Go to Osteria Giglio - a much better food, atmosphere, and staff experience!! Order their carbonara with extra truffle.

13 Gobbi is an absolute tourist trap. When we arrived and there was no line, they still said they had to find a table and that their card payments were down. They then proceeded to give us detailed instructions on where the 2 closest ATMs are. By the way, it is illegal in Italy to refuse card payments, but I've noticed that some businesses figure out a way around it. We were sat in the corner of a basically empty restaurant.

Some menus featured the daily specials, others didn't. The waiter was extremely rude and argumentative, and my friend from the south of Italy said that that's just how people are from there, and I refused to believe it. We finally got our order in, we had to ask for water, bread & oil ourselves. We ordered 3 portions of mushrooms, but the waiter failed to inform us that 2 of these portions were on one plate. It was like eating slugs on a sad plate filled with olive oil.

Some time here is when we noticed that the restaurant was quickly filling with tourists, we believe mainly from America. The restaurant became incredibly loud as everyone was packed like sardines.

Eventually, after about 40 minutes, the group's main courses rolled out, and mine came roughly 10 minutes after theirs. I ordered the €26 truffle pasta and I wish I hadn't (I also noticed that they had changed the price of this dish on the menu). It was essentially buttered pasta with pickled white truffle that had no flavour. My friend ordered their "famous" pasta in a soup bowl, and received what can only be described as pasta swimming in tomato sauce, slopped around in a basic but chipped kitchen mixing bowl. Another 2 friends shared the boar ragu and were not impressed. Overall, no one on the table was satisfied with their meal.

An absolute waste of our money and time in Florence. We were sitting for over an hour and a half, and not because we wanted to, but because the service was so bad. At the end of the meal, we noticed it said 3 portions of mushrooms on the receipt instead of 2 (which is what we thought we received), so we turned to our waiter who once again became aggressive. Our check came to exactly €172.50 for 3 mushroom portions, 5 pastas, 2 waters. We ensured that we didn't leave a tip as we believe that it is only reserved for great service, which this was not.

The only reason I gave 2 stars for the atmosphere is because the interior was somewhat nice and aesthetically pleasing.

To conclude: I've been to plenty restaurants, and would obviously give an alternative to what I'm criticising. Go to Osteria Giglio and order their carbonara with extra truffle. The best truffle dish I've had here. Their beef with mushroom sauce is also incredible. The staff is kind and charming, and you won't have a bad...