Osteria dei Cavalieri — Restaurant in Pisa

Came here with my boyfriend because I saw the restaurant in the Michelin guide. The restaurant not only didn't hold up to the expectations, but was very disappointing in general.

First, a comment about the food: appetizers were good, nothing to say about this. In the prosciutto with fried dough, the meat was tasty and the dough was crunchy and soft at the same time. The tripe was also very tasty. in both of our first courses the pasta was slightly overcooked and the sauce barely tasted like anything. In the ravioli the beans looks like they were thrown in the plate during the plating, with zero condiment. In the tagliatelline with rabbit and sauce of asperagus, there were barely any asparagus. THE MAIN COURSES WERE TERRIBLE! In the boar with polenta the boar was super dry and lost all of its taste, and the olives were very bitter. In the tagliata with rucola and parmigiano the rucola didn't have any condiment and tasted like it was unwashed. Some pieces of meat were okay, but most of them were chewy. The dessert was average, but took 30 minutes to arrive.

Then, a comment about the service. some dishes that were mentioned to some tables next to us, who looked like usual customers, were not mentioned to us we ordered all of our dishes at the beginning of the meal. Despite this, every other table in the room who arrived even later than us got all their food before us we were never asked how the food was, while this happened after every course with every other table in the room

Overall, we see no reason for a presence of this restaurant on a Micheline guide, but mainly no reason for a rating of more than 1 star. Will recommend not to go to any...

This is one of the best restaurant in Pisa, good service, and excellent value for money (and I'm usually a difficult customer see my other reviews).

The important tip is to let the owner suggest you what to take and that is not on the menu (it depends on what they found fresh on the day's market). If you don't speak Italian this might be a problem but trust him. He doled out two last serving of porcini on the tagliata that were worth it.

The owner will treat you as a friend even if it is the first time he ever sees you. Essentially he will tell you what is the best combination for you. I was ordering a first course but he just brought me to rank with an "Impossible! Your fellow companions had chosen only main courses." If you like to be treated with the formality of an English earl this restaurant is not for you.

I went there twice in the course of the week. Always well deserved, Reservation is a must.

---- A dinner for 4 ----------------------- Entrees: 2 - artichoke, squids and shrimps 1 - ribollita (black cabbage, bean soup) 1 - swordfish carpaccio Main dishes: 2 - tagliata (roasted slices) of beef with porcini (Steinpiltz) 1 - rabbit with potatoes 1 - half lobster tagliolini Desserts: 2 - chocolate flan and egg's cream 2 - semifreddo zabaione and egg's cream Beverages: Still and sparkling water at will 1 and 1/2 bottles of Chianti Fibbiano 2 glasses of Moscato 1 glass of sherry 2 coffees and 1 tea Total...

I feel badly giving a low rating to this restaurant because the service was truly excellent. We popped in on a Tuesday in mid-October, so not high season. We were warmly greeted and seated inside with menus straight away. The atmosphere was like a cozy inn, and we were happy to be in a cool place out of the sun.

Unfortunately, the food was far below average. I ordered the arugula salad with baby squid, which sounded promising as I love both those things. The squid, despite being tender, did not taste fresh and had no seasoning, it really could use some lemon. It came atop maybe 4 leaves of arugula. Not quite the salad I was expecting. I also ordered grilled vegetables on the side, which tasted awful. The vegetables (thin slices of zucchini and eggplant) had no flavour and no seasoning. It came decorated with peppers that tasted like they had been pickled in paint thinner, really awful, and some random raw grated carrots. My husband had the mushroom tagliatelle, which we also thought couldn’t go wrong with. The noodles were strangely like ramen noodles, very eggy and overcooked, very plain tasting. Maybe we ordered the wrong things? They seem like simple dishes I could make at home, not anything you can mess up unless the ingredients...