Verdoliva — Restaurant in Florence

What a mess.

I ate here yesterday and can't believe the owners can call this place a restaurant. I had to wait till the next morning to write this review because of how disappointed I was.

First, some pros. The food was fairly priced (10-15 euros per plate) and the atmosphere was great. Some of the servers were very nice and were fluent in English and Italian which was a plus. This brought us into the restaurant and from there everything went downhill.

First, I can't believe the prices on the drink menu. 7 euros for a beer, 6 euros for a coke, maybe I'll have water, but bottled water is also 4 euros. Here I noticed on the menu in very small writing at the bottom was a note which said all water in the restaurant was potable and safe for consumption. When the male waiter came to take my order, I asked for tap water and he went on to tell me that, "the water in Florence is not safe to drink," and "I would get sick."

I told him what it said on the menu and he left to get me some tap water. I ordered the cacio e pepe, which is a very famous Italian pasta consisting of cheese and pepper. What was brought to me was a sauce that tasted like packaged carbonara sauce with table pepper cracked on top. This wasn't cacio e pepe but I decided to eat anyways because at this point I was hungry. What greeted me at the bottom of the plate was a great oily soup. The pasta was so greasy that it literally pooled at the bottom of my plate.

I advise anyone thinking of eating here to find another place to eat. This "restaurant" was not worth the euros I spent...

The only good thing I can say is the interior design is nice, and I lived a good life before whatever food poisoning they gave me kills me. When we ordered our drinks, my friend had her Aperol poured into her plate with her olive oil & bread, to which the waiter laughed and walked away, leaving my far too polite friend confused and with Aperol infused starters. She then found a ball of black wool floating around in said Aperol, which we sent back but were told we were being unfair as it was part of the orange. Possible they use a new species of black and fluffy oranges to which we are not accustomed but we decided to err on the side of caution and insist on a new drink, sans fluff. A side of fries was ordered with the steaks my compatriots chose as their mains, but these fries, whilst lovely, were brought out 20 minutes before their main meals. Unfortunately the lifespan of a fry once on a table surrounded by hungry westerners is less than 20 seconds so these were all gone by the time their mains arrived. Once our mains did appear, they were without flavour. The steak, gristly and anaemic. The fish, utterly without flavour. Finally, and most fatefully, myself and my three comrades have been in gastrointestinal distress from the moment we departed the venue. If in doubt, fellow travellers, heed Dionne Warwick,...

When we arrived not one waiter would look at us, even though they did not seem too busy - and we sat ourselves down on one of the many empty tables for a nice little coffee with the view, or so we hoped. After 10+ minutes of waiting for someone to come and greet us and bring us a menu, I went up and asked for menus. After more than 10 minutes of waiting to order after getting the menus, we called out to the waiters who continued to avoid eye contact. One of the waiters clearing a table said 'One minute' - so we waited, another 5-10 minutes. All in all, half an hour for nothing - no service, no coffee. As we got up to leave, the waiter signalled 'one minute' again - but we left frustrated. They clearly don't care at all about their business reputation as they know because of the view, they will be guaranteed more people to come past. Definitely do...