Trattoria Antellesi — Restaurant in Florence

Deeply disappointing experience. Florence is renowned for its excellent streaks and my daughter choose this one for father's day dinner as we were visiting from Portugal. This restaurant offered a smaller portion of about 500g instead of the 1200+ at many others. The larger portions....1Kg+ .....were priced at e50 per Kilo and this one was e25 for half. MADE SENSE. The steak that arrived was a little overcooked but I tried to enjoy it anyway. The "cut" of the "steak" was an indistinguishable bone-in variety, and the best I can describe it is that it appeared to be a chuck cut with indistinguishable bone structure. And, if possible, it was worse! It was devoid of any perceivable marbling and required a heavy sawing motion to cut off a bite from the thickest part. And the extreme toughness verified its visuals. I tried not to show my disappointment to my daughter, but in the end, I could only choke down a few bites. But the potatoes were good! Maybe it was an off night..... Maybe it was staff dislike of a gringo...... I don't know. I didn't loudly complain..... Trying not to show my extreme disappointment to my daughter's good intentions...... But the waiter must have noticed that less than 10% of the "steak" was gone when he picked up the plate. He gave us the bill and we left. We were never asked once if our meals were satisfactory. I wouldn't recommend this experience to anyone, even if I didn't like them. I would be embarrassed to offer this food to anyone. There are many, many excellent restaurants in Florence, this just wasn't one...

Food quality: 3 stars.

Atmosphere: 2 stars. Where we were sit at was close to a heater blowing hot air. When we asked them to turn the heater down, they said ok, but they forgot, so we had to remind them.

Service: 1 star. We arrived at the restaurant at our reservation time. The owner/waiter pointed us to sit at a table which was not cleaned yet and had bread crumbs and water marks at the table . Shortly after we sat , another waiter showed up and cleaned up the table. We gave our order (sparkling water, a salad dish to share+ two main dishes). That's when things went wrong; the waiter brought us non-sparkling water, which we returned as we had asked for sparkling water. shortly after , our main dishes were served. So we asked our waiter about our salad . He apologized and said something about having a bad day. At the same time he brought us the traditional basket of bread ( which were supposed to be served before the main dishes were served). So I asked him about the olive oil and vinegar. He apologized again and said he is having a bad day and it was his fault) , and brought us bottle of olive oil with giving us any (small) plate. No vinegar was...

As we were walking along the street a man screams out hook ‘em! I was shocked so I turned around and I see a University of Texas banner in the window. When I travel abroad I like to show my school pride and home town pride so you’ll see me in various jerseys, shirts, and jackets that when seen will be recognizable.

I came up and was shocked to meet someone who recognized the logo but was an active supporter. Some of his best friends are from Texas and he has a picture of Mack Brown holding up the championship trophy along with UT sports bands. I took a picture with him and told him we’d be back for dinner.

While we were out I looked up the reviews of the restaurant and it was stated to have some of the best steaks in town.

We came back after a day of sight seeing and let him pick our dinner. It started off with a very smooth red wine, then we got raviolis with pears, the sweet pears was a fresh balance, and then the steak was the steak for 2, thick cut and cooked to perfection, finished it off with tiramisu for dessert. It was by far the best meal I had...