Trattoria Del Carmine — Restaurant in Florence

Absolutely DO NOT recommend for Americans. Everything started off nicely when they sat us without a reservation and let us pick a table. Then it all went wrong, in that it became clear they were not willing to serve us because we were American. It’s a very small restaurant, as most are in Florence, and our table was literally in the middle of the room as soon as you entered from outside. Yet despite this, no one came to our table for at least 20-25 minutes. Staff looked at us multiple times and then looked away and attended to other customers. The bartender, who watched us sit there, literally picked up her phone every time we made eye contact as I looked around the room for a server. Then two Italian women literally came in 5-10 minutes after us and, as the waiter walked by our table and smiled at us, he went and got bread and water for them and we still sat there waiting. After about 20 minutes we finally asked the gentleman who sat us for water, which he brought. He then came over and demanded our food order. We asked to order drinks first and he seemed frustrated but took our order. Then we had to ask for some bread, at which point he became very annoyed and made a comment to us about it effectively being wrong to ask for bread before ordering food (mind you there was no problem with them doing it automatically for the women who came in after us). At that point I looked around and noticed that everyone getting service was speaking Italian, which is when it occurred to me that the only difference is that we were not. So we decided to pay and leave as it was clear that we were being treated differently (and to be clear, we have been in Florence and other parts of Italy for weeks and have never had this problem anywhere else). Then a man (presumably the owner) approached and was incredulous that we were leaving and, when we tried to explain, he just shrugged like he didn’t care. I get that this is a different country with a different dining culture but, as I said, we never had that problem at any other place or time. Good luck to any travelers that decide to still give this place a try but, in a city FULL of wonderful restaurants and eateries, there really are other great options “right around...

Terrible. I have never spent time writing a review but this is an exception and please read before deciding to go there. Worst experience I have ever had as a tourist in a foreign country. Waiters were already very impatient when sitting us down, then proceeded to rush us to order while we were trying to search for the dishes because it was an Italian menu. He stood right next to me while I was having a thought about what to eat, and he SIGHED multiple times while waiting. Food was not good (we had steak and my mastication muscles were exhausted); for dessert I ordered a cheesecake with strawberry sauce, an ant came WITH it on the cake munching on the sauce. Not only did the waiter came over and glanced at the cake and said: 'What's the problem.', when I pointed at the creature on my cake having it's time he replied: 'we are on the outside (of the restaurant) this happens, what do you want me to do.', and used my fork to scrape off the sauce the ant was on. Not even a bit of helpfulness trying to serve their customers but to blame us for bringing up things so 'stupid'. I then asked for another cake and he took the plate back in, 30s later he came back out and DROPPED the plate on the table, easily recognisable that it was the same one as before, just with extra sauce on to cover the holes in the cake he made with my fork previously. UNBELIEVABLE. I didn't finish the cake because it tasted bad, and I wasn't in the mood of eating anymore not knowing how long the ant has been on the cake. The same waiter then came along and took my plate away without even asking if I was done with it, then rushed us away by putting down the bill straight away and TOLD us to go inside the restaurant and pay. TWICE. I am a very polite person in general but this was the first time I didn't say thank you or smile at all when...

Visited last night with my daughter who is a vegetarian and deathly allergic to peanuts. I have been there before, they have good food along with being aloof and kind of rude (see other reviews, it's their "thing") We politely asked about peanuts and waiter (there was not a language issue) informed us that they used peanut oil in "everything" and don't really use olive oil or vegetable oil. Then the manager came over and started to chastise us saying there were no peanuts in the back, we were wrong (waiter was right there, avoiding his glare) and we needed to order something like fish.We explained we were told there were peanuts everywhere and of course my daughter was very anxious. I told him fine, we will have a drink of our wine since they brought it, and go somewhere else. He kept chastising us....then came back and took our silverware and napkins - RETURNING THEM to the basket for the next server....then came back and took our bread! I drank glass of wine and went to the counter to pay. I nicely asked that they at least drop the charge for pane/coperto since we were there 10 minutes, they were extremely rude, and the ironically LITERALLY took the bread away. He started up on us again, very loudly. We exchanged words and then we left and had a WONDERFUL meal down the street at Mama Gina's. There are lots of great places in Florence, please find a restaurant different...