Trattoria La Gratella — Restaurant in Florence

To Francesco, you served us yesterday (July 16) and it was truly a pleasure to have you as a waiter! It was our 4th day in Italy (and first time in Europe) and you made the dinner such an enjoyable and welcoming experience.

This place is 10/10. We ordered the fiorentina steak (obviously) at 1.3kg which is the minimum order for my wife and I and we were stuffed. Francesco is honest with his recommendation that all you need for 2 people is the steak and a side of potatoes (we went for the baked onions instead of potatoes). It was HEAVEN. Coming from Canada, prime steak is our gold standard but this was on it's own level. Tender and flavorful with no additional salt needed. My wife is not a meat eater and even she ate her side of the steak! The baked onions were delicious too. At first we found them salty but it grew on us as we ate each one. I compare it to eating a french onion soup bomb in each one. Paired with the steak in the same bite, it was something I will never forget. We finished off with a lemon sorbet that was the perfect balance of sweet and sour which cleansed our palette from all the meat we had and overall brought an amazing meal to an end.

Another thank you to the employee at the door. We came without a reservation (which you WILL need) and he worked something out to have us seated all the same which he didn't have to do but he did so it was greatly appreciated.

I also love how they serve the steak on a "grill" with some leftover charcoals (just slightly hot enough to still cook the meat) which was a welcome sight as I know many restaurants will serve their steak simply rare take it or leave it.

If you are a tourist who wants to enjoy a classic fiorentina steak without the hassle while enjoying the staff, this is the spot. I made a reservation again on Saturday.

In short, you need to eat here LOL

Final bill was around 170euros (with 0 regrets) 1.3kg fiorentina steak Baked onions Lemon sorbet Water House wine (about half a bottle worth) Aperol spritz

UPDATE We went again and Italian hospitality knows no boundaries! Antonio our waiter made this another incredible experience. Started us off with a complimentary glass of prosecco and ended our meal with a shot of lemoncello each (and this was offered to everyone!)

We ordered the fiorentina steak again (last meal in Italy so there was no other option) - reread the review above as it was just as good.

The baked onions ironically enough were probably cooked better this time (being less salty) but my wife and I found us missing the saltiness from the other night 😂 still delicious though!

The only addition we got this time was the wild boar tagliatelle which was delicious! Meat was very tender and not gamey at all. Pasta was a perfect al dente and the sauce was balanced with a good amount...

Just imagine the largest, best steak you've ever had - perfectly cooked on a bed of charcoal to keep it warm. THAT'S what Trattoria La Gratella serves.

I'm visiting Florence from California and all my friends recommended that I get some good Florentine steak. I did a lot of research on Google Maps and I made a reservation for this trattoria. I highly recommend booking a reservation online because 1. It is easy to do so and 2. There was a constant line outside the door!

I made the reservation at 7:00 (their opening time) and was seated immediately. We ordered the following which was THE PERFECT amount of food for four individuals: -- salad side dish (it is actually quite large -- eggplant starter dish -- Pappardelle al cinghiale (wide tagliatelle with wild boar sauce, recommended by our server) -- a bottle of Chianti red wine (of course) -- onion soup (surprisingly very good) -- desserts: tiramisu, lemon sorbet, panna cotta -- finally, the star of the meal: a 1.5kg "La Classica Fiorentina" steak

My review will be about the steak because the whole point of coming here is for that giant cut of delicious meat.

They serve it over a bed of charcoal which is so perfect because it keeps the steak warm but doesn't cook the steak too much throughout your meal. My server didn't even ask how we wanted the steak cooked, he just assumed medium (which is imo the only way to cook steak)

I'm not even exaggerating when I say that this is the best steak I've ever had in my life. I've been to Kobe, Japan and I grew up in Argentina/Uruguay. This steak is really REALLY good. It's lean, very meaty but somehow also melt-in-your-mouth. There's appropriate chunks of fat on the grill so you can balance your lean cuts with the fat. The charcoal lends a bit of additional flavor but the steak is just good in its simplicity with the large chunks of salt the trattoria provides at your table.

Our meal started with a sparkling wine and ended with a limoncello (complimentary, which is always a good sign). All the Google review raved about the tiramisu but honestly I thought it was just okay. Very chocolately and not enough coffee flavor for me. My favorite dessert out of the three we ordered was the panna cotta. I think I've had terrible exposure to panna cotta in my life because this panna cotta was very different from others I've tried.

The service? Also excellent. Very friendly and helpful. Fluent in English. Our server suggested the perfect amount of meat to order for our family of four. The minimum order amount for the t-bone is 3kg so we decided to go with 1.5kg of the Florentine instead.

I highly recommend Trattoria La Gratella to any Florence visitor looking for a great...

We would not recommend this restaurant for a few reasons.The food wasn’t good for its price, and the service was far from considerate.

The risotto was one note and the ham was very dull and mediocre. What we experienced didn’t match the price at all, it seemed like rice mixed with sauce with uncooked ham and heated. It left us no memories.

The lemon ravioli was a nice fresh dish, and generally proper. But as the best meal of the course, it demonstrates the unremarkable nature of the dinner as a whole. The first few bites are much more impressive than the rest, as the taste is imaginable, plainly lemon mixed with truffle cream.

For the main course, we got ourselves a filet mignon. Just on first glance, the filet lacked a proper sear, and was not in the small circular shape that I’ve grown accustomed to. The steak itself was still tasty, if cut in thin layers, the meat was tender. It was hard to cut the steak, as the fork was round, not flat, therefore it was hard to hold. We could tell the meat was good in quality, but in Florence, you should expect more.

We also got eggplant as the side dish for our steak and It was too sour and cold, although the eggplant had grill marks on it. We couldn’t finish it as it wasn’t enjoyable at all. We are not sure if the eggplant is supposed to be cold, but it was definitely too sour as a side dish.

At the end, we had a traditional cake as dessert. It didn’t taste delicate, but instead just a random ice cream sponge cake. I don’t think it was made with anything of good quality.

As for the service, our waiter did not have the proficiency we’d expected. Firstly, he was slow to notice any of our needs. We had to wait and wave for him to get our finished plates and for checks, although there were less than three tables then. Also, he’s very passionate, which is supposed to be good, but as he talks so loud, and he continued chatting with the customers as he walked away, we were in the middle of their chat and it was hard even for us to understand the person sitting across. In general he seemed frivolous, and didn’t take his job seriously. He also asked every customer to leave a Google review after dining, which is the reason I assume the rating of this restaurant is so high.

To make things worse, someone ordered a dish with a smoking plate, and the front part of the restaurant where we were, was full of smoke...