Trattoria Nella — Restaurant in Florence

The worst restaurant experience we've ever had!

We found this small trattoria tucked away from the busy main street. After checking the reviews — which were surprisingly positive — we decided to give it a try, hoping for a pleasant evening. Unfortunately, our experience was the complete opposite. While the staff seemed friendly at first, their behavior quickly became odd. At first, we thought it might just be part of the local culture or artistic flair — but it soon became obvious that most of the staff, including the owner, were drunk. Everything went wrong from that point on:

• The owner told us we’d get some bread with our starter but then completely forgot about it. I had to get up and remind him, about the bread and the water we also never got. • One of the main dishes came out in the middle of our starter, even though I had clearly asked for both mains to be served together — and they had confirmed this. • We ordered a bistecca alla fiorentina rare, but it arrived well-done. When we pointed this out, the excuse we got was: “The chef is tired.” They did bring out a second steak, which was cooked properly, but it tasted of a dirty grill and was clearly low-quality meat — despite the high price. The vegetables were also frozen and tasteless. • The staff spent most of their time chatting loudly and singing with a table of their friends, shouting across the restaurant and stepping outside to smoke every few minutes. They completely ignored the rest of the guests. • We overheard them making comments about us in Italian, thinking we couldn’t understand — it felt rude and unwelcoming. We even noticed other foreign guests looking uncomfortable and leaving quickly. • The owner was smoking behind the counter inside the restaurant, assuming no one would notice. • To top it all off, they added something to the bill that we never ordered. When my partner tried to explain the issue, the owner’s drunk colleagues started mocking us in Italian and one of them even shouted, “Just give me your money!” That was the moment we got up and left — deeply disappointed and honestly shocked by how we were treated.

Florence is full of fantastic restaurants with friendly staff and high-quality food. Please support those places instead — ones that actually care about their guests and what they serve. This restaurant, sadly, is run by people who seem to have no passion for food or hospitality — just a cold, careless attitude toward tourists they see as nothing more than...

heap but far from cheerful So, I searched Tripadvisor for trattoria near our hotel and this one came up with a strong rating. Where to begin? Service that was so slow as to be embarrassing, a manager/owner whose graceless presence plumbed new depths of surliness, very average food, truly unpleasant house white wine, tasteless bread, balsamic vinegar that tasted so bad it induced facial contortions all combined to deliver an experience that I would not wish on my worst enemy. We waited an age to order, then the bread didn’t turn up, our ham and melon arrived eventually and the meat was over salty and the melon totally lacking in any flavour. The bread finally surfaced but with no plates. How were we to enjoy the oil and vinegar without plates? At the third request the plates turned up. It seems that the staff were in fact doing us a favour. The cardboard like bread, bland olive oil and horrible balsamic vinegar were a disaster. Our main courses turned up after an age, the tables either side of us arrived 20 minutes after us but had nearly finished eating their main courses by the time ours arrived, however our repeated requests for knives produced only one item of cutlery. We gave up. The main courses were only ok. My lasagne was only Luke warm. The fastest reaction that we enjoyed all night was when we asked for the bill. The manager/owner came to our table with his card reader and treated us with total disdain, his rudeness was breathtaking. All in all, one of the worst experiences I have ever endured in an Italian restaurant. One to avoid when there is so much choice. Interestingly, since this review was first published the management have twice tried to induce me to remove it from...

I will forever remember the meat sauce on this pasta! My husband and I read a LOT of great reviews about this place so decided to try it. So glad we did! We will be back! We had early reservations (7:30) because we didn’t eat that day after clocking in over 20k steps. So when we got there, we each ordered an entree but at the last minute we also ordered macaroni with meat sauce. To say that this is the best dish we’ve eaten in Italy is not hyperbole! Husband had seafood spaghetti, which was perfect and I had the roast beef with spinach. So fresh! I have three of my thin cuts of meat to him. We ordered the house wine, which was really really good. We ended up sitting next to two tables of Americans (one woman and a couple) and we all raves about the dishes. We ended the meal with the panna cotta and, sheepishly I asked for a cappuccino (I was told not to order after noon but I was dying for one) and they were lovely about it. My husband went crazy for the panna cotta it was perfect! It was his first time having it. Make a reservation, for sure! It was busy! My guess is there’s seating for 30. It’s a charming place and everyone was having a great time. The wait staff was super nice! It’s close to a shopping street with a lot of great stores. But the food is fantastic! You MUST put it on your list of...