Nine of Our Favourite Florence Restaurants

Small Small but mighty, Florence is the birthplace of more than just Medici tyrants and Renaissance masterpieces: gelato, bistecca alla Fiorentina (Florentine steak), vodka pasta, negroni cocktails and more all have their origins in and around the historic city.

Given that, it's no surprise that tradition runs strong across Florence's food scene, with wood-panelled trattorias and hole-in-the-wall panini spots staying charmingly unchanged over the years. Recently, though, a clutch of new openings and freshened-up favourites have brought new culinary interest to the city, honouring local recipes and ingredients but offering an alternative approach to classic Florentine food. Here are nine of our favourite restaurants in the city right now.

Nine Florentine restaurants to try

The exterior of Cibrèo Caffe, left, and a plate of Alla Vecchia Bettola's vodka-drenched pasta. | Photo credits: Giulio Picchi & La Vecchia Bettola

Chic Nonna

Fine dining in Italy can often underdeliver on flavour and innovation, but not so with Vito Mollica's newest outpost, Chic Nonna. The Michelin judges were through the door before the paint had dried after its opening in 2022, and Mollica's fresh, dynamic cooking has already earned the restaurant a first star. As for the setting - a 16th-century Renaissance palazzo bang in the centre of town - you'll be hard pushed to find somewhere more glamorous. Go for the five-course tasting menu with Tuscan wine pairing, the star dish of which is the signature risotto.

Trattoria Cibrèo

Championing nose-to-tail cooking decades before it was cool, the late Fabio Picchi transformed the unpolished neighbourhood of Sant'Ambrogio into Florence's culinary epicentre. His legacy lives on through Cibrèo and its menu of traditional recipes that evoke the cookbook of the Tuscan countryside. Making use of the market that sits just metres away, typical dishes include local favourites such as trippa di Fiorentina (Florentine-style stewed tripe) and Ossobuco di Vitello (veal bone marrow). Order the much-written-about confit artichoke, served atop a bed of potato purée, or head to the informal sister establishment, Cibrèo Caffè, across the road for a light lunch of rustic pâtés and antipasti.

Alla Vecchia Bettola

FoodTok might be going mad for vodka pasta (hello Brutto-obsessed Londoners) but the authentic dish belongs at this rough diamond of a restaurant on the outskirts of Florence. Alla Vecchia Bettola - loosely translated as "at the old tavern" - has hardly changed since it opened in the 70s. You'll still find Massimiliano on the door, as sprightly as ever, and a bantering team of camerieri (waiters) shouting orders across the room as they juggle plates of carciofi fritti (deep-fried artichokes), baccalà alla livornese (cod in a tomato sauce) and the famous penne alla vecchia bettola (vodka pasta) between tables. The house wine comes in magnum-sized, straw-wrapped fiaschi bottles. Don't worry about the cost - you pay for what you drink. Come hungry - and ready to share a long communal table with strangers.

Interiors at Enoteca de'Giusti, and a peek at the art-deco bar. | Photo credit: Shannon Fioravanti

Dalla Lola

This tiny spot in the Oltrarno neighbourhood is proof that honouring traditional Tuscan recipes can be anything but boring. Fried frogs, snail lasagne, chicken hearts and playful vegetarian riffs on traditional offal dishes all appear on the handwritten menu at Dalla Lola, alongside tamer dishes like the inimitable spago burro e acciughe (butter and anchovy spaghetti). Pink-haired owner Matilde Pettini is descended from a family of culinary greats - her great-grandfather founded Florence's still-popular Trattoria Cammillo - but she's not afraid to mix things up with funky natural wines and laid-back service.

Enoteca de'Giusti

Enoteca Pitti Gola e Cantina, overlooking Palazzo Pitti, has long been an oenophile retreat in Florence, showcasing small-scale winemakers from across Italy. The husband-and-wife duo behind the spot opened a second site following the same ethos during the pandemic, in the quieter San Marco area. As well as an impressive selection of chianti classico, you'll find signature small plates such as the famed chicken liver pâté with a vin santo (Tuscan dessert wine) reduction, a slightly more refined riff on crostini Toscani, and burrata with anchovies on toast.

La Divina Pizza

Despite expectations that all pizza in Italy will taste amazing, Florence pizzerias can be pretty hit and miss. La Divina Pizza, a family-run establishment in the city centre that has been serving slow-rise sourdough pizza for over a decade, definitely falls into the "hit" category. Decidedly different from Neapolitan pies, pizza here has a contemporary slant: toppings include soprassata (pig's-head salami), artichoke cream and lemon zest, for example, or alpine blue cheese and onions braised in chianti.

A sun-drenched street, plus a look inside C-ucina. | Photo credit: C-ucina

C-ucina

Artfully strewn crates of vegetables and cookbooks, round wooden tables and an open kitchen give C-ucina an aesthetic that wouldn't feel out of place in Berlin or Copenhagen. The menu, devised over coffee each morning by the family members who run the kitchen, is seasonal and ingredient-led. Stop off at converted monastery Il Conventino next door for an aperitivo in the leafy courtyard before dinner, and save room for the desserts, which invariably steal the show.

Enoteca Spontanea

The walls of this whitewashed little wine bar and restaurant are lined with bottles, and almost no two are the same. Sommelier Nicola set up the space in 2022 with his sister Irene, who prepares hand-rolled pasta and small plates to accompany the bins. The wines are well-priced, unusual and mostly natural and biodynamic: expect to sample a sparkling rosé from the tiny Italian region of Molise, perhaps, or a leathery orange from a small Umbrian vineyard. Book ahead and bag a table in the window with some friends to work your way through a few different bottles and dishes throughout an evening.

Trattoria Sostanza

This iconic blue-collar lunch spot, which has hosted everyone from King Charles to Sophia Loren over the decades, never gets old. The decor is pared back yet homely, with long wooden tables and white tiled walls. Come in the spring to try the famous swirled artichoke omelette (tortino di carciofi), or settle for the signature succulent butter chicken (petti di pollo al burro) in other seasons, which is served still bubbling in a frying pan.