Trattoria Sabatino — Restaurant in Florence

Rude service, bland food, rough crowd.

Everything in one package and under the same roof, since 1956 or even earlier.

Once you sit in your table it does not take long to notice that there is a sea of confusion and improvisation, complete chaos. Employees do not know what their job is, and so they begin with one task and end with another, without any follow-up.

So, a waiter takes your order and then vanishes in thin air; another, that you finally managed to get his attention, takes the dishes away but does not call your next course, none of the cooks has any idea on what is going on nor make any effort about it, and you are left waiting and waiting for your food

As a result, not only service is slow but also staff is confrontational, especially an elderly woman (maybe the manager or the owner, long overdue for retirement anyway) who made a mission to knock my stuff down a chair every time she got a chance.

Then came the food. For short, overcooked rice, tasteless cold paper-thin roast beef slices with soggy potatoes. Forget about bread, olive oil or balsamic vinegar or even pepper. Too long to describe their nonexistent quality.

Finally, the bill. Since electricity went off for about half an hour, the credit card terminal was not working. Simple: make a call to report the issue: it will be fixed in minutes. No way. The “cashier”, who barely knows how to handle a credit card, did not think about why?, because, on the one hand, only exceptionally will anybody pay with a credit card and, on the other, she was busy checking vaccination cards (Green Pass), playing host to diners, slicing bread, plating desserts, screaming orders for the bar, etc., etc.

I stayed enough time in Trattoria Sabatina to came to a conclusion: nobody, either customers (very blue collar, rough crowd), staff or managers have ever knew any better and for them this is a high standard. Period.

There are any number of options to avoid this fraud of a restaurant that boast tradition and is registered as an “Storic Business” while none of its...

I am someone that rarely writes a review, because sometimes mistakes can happen. This is the one exception. TLDR: worst experience of any place I have been to ever, and that includes a hole in the wall dumpling shop down a random alley in China. Waited 45 mins to get in. We were seated on the same table as some other diners - this adds to the homely atmosphere so I gave a few extra stars there. After waiting 30 mins, we were finally ‘allowed’ to order - we tried to signal three waiters in the 30 mins and were told we had to wait for someone specific to come. The food came fairly promptly, however our side dishes never came (more on that later). Portion sizes were very small, I guess I should have known given prices are so cheap. I think an adult would need an appetizer, main, second main and a side dish to be full. The food was also really bland - my pasta barely came with any sauce. The desserts looked interesting but we didn’t try those because we just wanted to leave after the mains. We finished our mains and waited another 20 minutes for our side dishes (that never came) before deciding to just get the bill and leave. The group that sat next to us on the same table ordered their food about 45 minutes after us and got everything in one go - I actually thought they may have taken our sides accidentally. As we were leaving, I noticed some people that had been seated way before us were only just starting to eat. Quick maths tells me that these people waited about an hour to get food. When we went to pay, we were told we’d have to pay for the sides because they were on the way, we just weren’t patient enough (20 minutes not enough?!?). Not wanting to argue, we just paid it and left. I think this place is catered towards locals, as the owners and waiters seem to chat with those people more - tourists seem to be ignored somewhat. My recommendation is that you find somewhere else for dinner - plenty of trattorias around that area, and every one more deserving...

A local recommended this place so we went as a family. I certainly wouldn't recommended it for tourists and can not understand the appeal besides the affordability. I would say the portions are smaller than most restaurants -- and so are the prices.

I have seen some reviews commending the wait staff. We had the opposite experience: I would say they are dismissive and one of them in particular was borderline rude. Our kids had been thirsty ever since we joined the queue. We asked if we could fill our bottle to serve the kids while waiting in line and they said no, and that's fine. When we were seated, we went through the first bottle of water in an instant (see above) and asked for a second one. When the waiter brought the second bottle, he didn't pick up the empty one. My wife got worried about my son knocking it off the table so she tried to put it on the ground. The waiter watched this and told my wife "You can't put it on the floor, it will break". My wife explained and he said "Well, if you put it on the floor, it will definitely break". Now, is he technically right? Yes. Do we want to be lectured? Probably not. Even after giving the lecture, he shied away from offering to take the bottle away. We had to ask him nicely only to get a "whatever" look. Tourists must be making life pretty difficult for these folks and they certainly lack basic training to accommodate them.

Some other bullets: I don't understand why house-red is only served warmer than room temp, why the owner-lady walks with her cigarette lit among children in queue (I know they won't get sick, it was just super-local behavior), why I have to wait at the cashier for 3 tables to be seated to make a payment and why I have to be quizzed about whether we had any dessert.

Were we fed? Absolutely, and I thank them for it. However, this is a spot for the locals and not for the general public IMHO. Don't let the "live local" motto drive you to this spot; it is...