Trattoria Vecchio Mercato — Restaurant in Florence

If you care about quality, wholesome food at a reasonable price (and a place that stays open till 11:30pm), go here. It’s opposite the central market and the Florentine steak here is the best steak I’ve had at this price point. Period. Sure, you can get a great prime rib for $200 but this stuff is 1/3rd that price and very close (if not better). Order it rare, and DON’T FLIP IT - it continues cooking on the sizzling plate till it’s browned on one side and juicy on the other. Our server - Isabella - was very charming and helpful. All her recommendations landed perfectly, including the pasta, the wine and, most importantly, the dessert - her own spin on Tiramisu that’s essentially ‘Tuscany in a sundae bowl’ - lots of mascarpone with a local biscuit soaked in the fortified vin santo. Before the steak, we got a local Tuscan pasta (ask the staff) and the gnocchi that were both great too! My girlfriend and I thought it was the best meal in Italy so far - and we went to a Michelin star place in Rome. The owner even came out at the end to explain how they use a Croatian cattle breed that produces a more tender steak. Honestly the only thing I’d complain about is that not all their servers speak English (not their fault tbh) and they can be a bit understaffed at peak times. Rest...

The food was good ( we got the Tuscan classics Mugellani and wild boar pappardelle) - we enjoyed what we ordered as we wanted to try pastas from Florence. However, the service was not great. Our waitress was good, but one of the men that helped seat customers (we believed was the manager?) was rude, abrasive, and not hospitable. He made a solo diner move in the middle of his meal to accommodate another party, and would march all around the dining area disruptively, even knocking into our waitress twice, causing her to drop utensils she was carrying. It made for an uncomfortable dining experience as we were constantly on guard with the man as he caused chaos and wreck havoc around us.

Lastly, we felt like we were up-charged, with a 4 euro per person cover charge (which we are not inherently opposed to cover charges, but with the unpleasant dining experience and subpar service, we stayed for maybe 30 mins total for our meal) and my husband noticed that they mistakenly charged us more for one our pasta dishes.

Overall - the food was fine but we left with a horrible lasting feeling about the overall...

At first I was only offered a bad seat inside, although there was enough space outside on the covered terrace. After my complaint I got a seat outside. There was a used serviette in this place, which was only replaced after intense urging. The starter, a salad, was served very carelessly in a bowl. The main course, an obviously pre-made and only reheated lasagna, was very dry and contained almost no ragout, just many layers of pasta. I have never been served such a bad lasagna. The Parmesan cheese was also counted so that the guest consumed as little as possible. And you had to wait almost 30 minutes for this warmed-up dish. You don't get the pizza menu without asking, even though some guests had eaten pizza. They would probably prefer to sell the expensive dishes. You don't feel well treated as a guest. Luckily there are many better...