The Florentine Restaurant — Restaurant in Germantown

My family and I went to Florentine for dinner the evening of 9/27/25.

In short, our visit fell WELL under my expectations for a good dining experience.

We arrived around 6PM, were promptly seated, and had ordered our meals by about 6:10 PM.

Our server was initially attentive, and promised to bring a take-home box for one of our party with our meal (at our request). That never happened. We also requested that the check for one of our party be billed separately. That never happened.

By 6:45, we were all getting hungry. Our server made repeated excuses for the kitchen being "backed up."

Shortly after 7PM, our food finally arrived.

Of course, we had no silverware. This led to my wife picking at her broccoli with her hands, and my son and I eating some French fries.

We flagged down our server, requesting silverware.

...and waited...

...and waited...

After about 5 minutes, the server swung by the table and dropped a wad of forks & cloth napkins before zooming away. We were left to separate the "wad" for each dinner guest.

After a few minutes (when we flagged down our server), my wife requested a knife for her Chicken Florentine.

The knife never arrived, so she ended up having to shred her chicken into pieces with the fork & her fingers.

The male owner of the Florentine was seen talking with some bar guests, focusing on what TV channel to use. He later chatted with some other guests about alcohol (he had several bottles in his hand).

His time might have been better served by folding napkins & silverware for his guests, and by "expediting" food from his understaffed kitchen out to guests so that his understaffed servers would not forget simple requests.

The food was excellent - great flavor, moist, good portion sizes.

After finishing our meal, we waited for our server to return. She was obviously zooming from table to table to point-of-sale terminal in the dining area. She seemed to be deliberately avoiding eye contact with our table so as to not be delayed.

She then disappeared into the kitchen for a while.

My wife had to go up to the bar to request the promised carryout container. My wife later had to get the attention of another server to ask our server for the check.

Despite having requested that one of the meals be billed separately, that didn't happen.

In short, obviously understaffed/overwhelmed back-of-house, understaffed/overwhelmed front-of-house, inadequate pre-dinner supply preparation (silverware/linens), inattentive owner/manager.

This was a disappointing experience. I had...

We went right after the new owners took over & opened up & we were pretty disappointed with what we had. The fish sandwich that use to be enough for 2 had been cut down to barely enough for 1 & it was soggy & not good & crispy. And the French Onion soup that we always ordered & loved had changed & wasn't as good. So we were pretty disappointed with our visit. They say you should wait a few weeks after an opening to give them a chance to work out the bugs, so I guess that holds true. Here it is at least a couple of months later & Sunday we decided to give it one more chance & we are so glad we did. The fish sandwich, which is Orange Roughy, was back to being big enough for 2 & crispy & crunchy as ever. And we love mushrooms & they had a mushroom appetizer that we fell in love with & we are hoping they put it on the menu for good. We didn't see Onion Rings on the menu, to go with our sandwich, so we ask, & they did have them & they were really good to. We didn't try the soup this time, maybe next time, but if this visit is any indication, it will be just as good. So, all in all, we were really glad we decided to give it another chance & went back. The food was great, the service was great & we love the atmosphere. They are also going to start opening for lunch & are even thinking of trying breakfast on the weekends. You would have to call or Google for info on those days & time. Also call or Google for dinner & tavern hours. So if you are ever near Germantown or just looking for a good place to eat, we highly recommend The Florentine. The owners, Clay & his wife are really nice people, & have done great things with The...

Just Wow! The Historical Florentine Restaurant has been kept to it's original historical architect, yet the menu has been updated and the food is superb! The chef's are truly amazing and we were lucky enough to be there when the owner came by offered offered samples of new menu items which were absolutely delicious! The full-service bar hosts a huge selection of beer on tap and many TOP SHELF liquors and hand-made drinks . The bar itself is a beautiful piece of history having been brought here years ago from New Orleans. Also worthy of mention is the service, as we have gone through a year of covid restrictions and still enduring (and kudos to this restaurant for staying open for carry-out and delivery). For those who are veggie eaters, the chicken gyro and Mediterranean veggies and salads are great (don't be afraid to get their house salad dressing as it is made fresh daily and it is wonderful)! As for meat lovers, all the meat is hand cut and the burgers are ground on site. The French-cut pork chops are delicious and there are several choices of fish including salmon. The Florentine Restaurant also hosts special events such as Thanksgiving, Easter, Mother's Day, etc. that we've gathered our family together and enjoyed some 'no kidding" home-cooked meals (real mashed potatoes and gravy, fried chicken, etc.) set up as a buffet, but you still have servers for drinks and such. ...