Trattoria da i Bigi e i Birghe — Restaurant in Florence

My wife and I, with our 3 teenagers, came here on our first night in Florence. We were looking for a place that had real Tuscan food, without pretension, and also that wouldn’t break the bank. It far exceeded our expectations. We all absolutely loved it. One of our kids said it was one of the best meals of his life (After eating in Paris and Venice). When you walk up, it looks like a Gelato stand, which they do have, but go to the left and there’s this amazing restaurant. We were warmly welcomed by Tito, who set the standard for great service that continued the whole evening, and quickly brought us complimentary Prosecco. We ordered some amazing crostini for antipasti, along with a Tuscan specialty of fried dough with cheese and prosciutto. Then we had pizza with sausage and truffle oil, the pasta with wild boar (highly recommended), ravioli with porcini, tagliatelle with porcini, and risotto. All were excellent (as was the house wine, by the way), perfectly prepared with fresh, high quality ingredients. We also met the manager, Alex, who was so friendly and informative. He shared the special olive oil they use, how they source their ingredients, and discussed the recent renovations the restaurant has made over the last year. He also began talking about the seasonal porcini mushrooms they use, harvested from the Tuscan countryside. You could tell how excited he was! He said, “wait, I’ll show you!” And he brought a bunch to the table. He started taking about how perfect they are when fried—which I don’t think was on the menu. We asked if he could make some and he said “of course!” They were FABULOUS. Light, flavorful, perfect. We finished the meal with house-made tiramisu, which was of course rich and flavorful. At the end, he brought us complimentary limoncello with lemon sorbet. It was an incredible meal we will long remember. By the way, there was another couple eating there who said they are there every night while in Florence. Do yourself a...

I picked this restaurant based on excellent reviews. I was clearly wrong in my choice. Upon my 9pm arrival (with a reservation) my party of 2 was a clear disturbance. Immediately upon seating, waiter was asking us what we wanted. We are used to ordering all at once, but not even having a chance to look at the menu was a bit rude and felt rushed. We ordered the second time after being rushed again. It took until every party (except us) left the restaurant to get our appetizer. We got the bruschetta plate. The two tomato dishes were bland. I haven’t had a tomato in Italy that I didn’t like until this meal. The mushroom crostini was the most bland mushroom dish I’ve ever had in my life, and I used it to cleanse my palette from the chicken pate which tasted like CAT FOOD. It was disgusting. It didn’t get any better after the appetizers. The dinner was rushed and also cold. I got the mushroom and beef ravioli and my mom got the lasagna. My food was cold and bland. My mom’s lasagna was ROCK hard (just like the focaccia they brought us to start). The lasagna seemed to have been made hours ago and kept under a heat lamp. It was disgusting and 1/3 was inedible. After we shoved our food down (since it was about 10pm and our waiter had LEFT, and the entire waitstaff decided they wanted to leave) the one waiter left kept trying to get us to try dessert. We kept asking for the bill but they made us very uncomfortable. After finally receiving the bill, it was one of the most expensive meals I’ve had in all of my Italy travels. The food was disgusting and WHY would you take a reservation that late if you don’t want patrons dining and you just want to go home? I would have never made a reservation at that hour if your entire staff didn’t want to work and your food was stale… genuinely such a bad meal. I ordered MCDONALDS after and it was better. Such a terrible restaurant and I don’t know how it has such...

Update after 4 years(2025):

Trattoria de' Guicciardini is now called Trattoria da i Bigi e I Birghe.

In our case, the rebranding is not a positive change. Even the simple things like “tagliere” from antipasti menu were downgraded and they felt inferior to the versions we tasted 4 years ago.

For comparison I posted the tagliere from 2025. You can compare it with the one from 2021 to understand why this place went downhill. For us this place had emotional value and we came to Florence for one day just to have dinner here. It was extremely disappointing.

Still positive: Vito and Alex still work here and they are great people. The ambiance of the restaurant is mostly the same. The wine list is still very good.

2021 review:

I highly recommend this place!

I ate here 2 times in a row and if I could stay more in Florence I would come to Trattoria de' Guicciardini everyday, that good it is!

The restaurant is near the Ponte Vechio (200m) so please don't make the mistake, like i did, and eat near The Dome, it's full of tourist traps.

Eat at Trattoria de' Guicciardini for this reasons: Very high quality ingredients. Very good local wine. The menu is full of really traditional tuscan dishes. The eating area it's very pleasant, music is not loud and it's some kind of local music. The staff is amazing! You will find here the best chefs and the best waiters. Very nice people!

Probably I forgot to say some qualities of this place but the food was so good that I could see only my plate.

Next time I come to Florence, I get out of the plane, come here to eat and only after I go to check in at the hotel.

Grazie to all the people who are working at this restaurant everyday and made me and my fiance feel very welcomed.

See you soon,...