Florence - Top Wine Bar Restaurants

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Napoleone | Finisterrae | Porfiro Rubirosa
Cipiglio | Il Santo Bevitore | Beppa Fioraia
4 Leoni | Cestello | Via Vai

In Florence there are hundreds of restaurants and the quality is excellent almost everywhere. In this page I try to select for you some of the restaurants I prefer in town for the quality of food and wines but also for their price, location and atmosphere. All restaurants which I will talk I personally tested like in all my guides in Lovingitaly and my opinion will be based only on four parameters : flavors, location, people and price. As always I will try to avoid talking about those places too touristic in Florence to avoid to eat bad and pay too much.

I begin the guide from a restaurant that mostly impress for location, Napoleone in Carmine square, 24 (055.281015) center of nightlife in Florence, where most fashionable people meet for dinner. The place is beautiful and has a covered outdoor area and it's a pity that cars can park in the square, as internal rooms of various sizes on two floors, where the dominating colors are hot, chairs and wooden tables and atmosphere suffused with several smaller rooms suitable for containing a single large table and give more the idea of a dinner in a private house up of a mountain.
The menu ranges from hot appetizers Napoleon's traditional dishes of the Tuscan cuisine or cold cuts, bruschetta with mushrooms, chicken livers, classic tomato fillets or steaks through true gems such as salmon with black pepper. The wine list is excellent, the service is nice and fast, bill around 50€.

Talking about florence restaurants with attractive location one of the best is Finisterrae (The end of the earth in latin, both to indicate a locality in the north of Portugal and a saying of old sailors to indicate a horizon in the middle of the sea which no one knew what lay beyond) and not only because it is located in one of most beautiful squares of Italy, Santa Croce square (Pepi street corner) but especially for the originality of this place that is amazing.
A real show-window, inspired by the Mediterranean Sea, transmits the feeling of being on a ship for the wood and material of the tables, with a raised outer room reminiscent of the bridge and 5 other interior compartments each representing a sea city (amazing Marseille) before heading to more room inside, the outer compartment in the garden with soft and intimate lighting in contrast with the light of other rooms
The menu brings together Mediterranean dishes, some unpronounceable names, ranging from traditional Greek appetizers baked spinach and feta cream, to the French with cream cheese, to switch to the traditional Spanish paella with fish or vegetarian (enough for two people). The wine list is varied, the service nice, the price around 50 €.

Other show window restaurant, Porfirio Rubirosa in Strozzi street close to the Fortezza Basso, name inspired by a notorious playboy who counts between his conquests the richest and most beautiful women in our contemporary history like the divine Mariline Monroe.
The restaurant is located on two floors, overlooking the white, has a lounge bar with long white desk for drinks and appetizers and a mixed japanese and italian restaurant upstair.
The cuisine is inspired by fashion Japanese food so all sizes sushi sashimi dishes (funny the huge fake fish in the middle of the main dish) excellent and plenty mixed pat fish and vegetables, great tuna steak.
The choice of wines is wide, friendly service, beautiful location, excellent attendance, cool and trendy people. Prices are around 45 €.

In Rifredi district in Lambruschini street 15, Cipiglio restaurant launched by the excellent Stefano Bosia along with two other partners, busy every night, offers tasty dishes at a reasonable price content. The dishes are the classics of the Tuscan tradition with the exception of tuna steak, the wine list small and focused.

A true jewel in the heart of San Frediano, in Santo Spirito, 66 (055.211264) Il Santo Bevitore skillfully managed by Mark and Stephen, always full, booking is mandatory, amazing location with wooden tables, tasting glasses and bar aperitif at the entrance waiting for the table (the restaurant was once a stable), warm and welcoming environment, which takes its name from a famous book of the Austrian writer Joseph Roth then turned in film in 1988 by Ermanno Olmi, offers dishes ranging from tartare to the vegetables tomini, soups, cut meat, tuna steak. Great place!

Other places to visit, in the Erta Canina street Beppa Fioraia with a large room with vivid colors, wood tables, bottles everywhere, named after a Florentine history personality, offers classics from Tuscan cooking, nice place to dine for big group of people in good company.

I can not nominate a real legend in Florence, 4 Leoni (055.218562) in Vellutini street 1 (Passera square) close to Old Bridge a typical florentine trattoria with tables outside and inside, always full every day of the week, this place is an experience not just for the flavor but also for the beauty of the location and the friendliness of the guys who work there all wearing the shirt of the place.It's like to be in a historic square with a bar at sight when you enter on the left, warm and distinctive, terracotta floors, rough walls, atmosphere. The menu ranges from codfish to chicken breast grid, from tripe to ribollita, the fried rabbit, lamb and vegetables steak fiorentina. Classic flavors are sublime, the bill low, the place remarkable, pleasing people , the service fast and friendly.What else to pretend?

The first in Cestello Square, Cestello wonderful place, distributed in two rooms, all with wine barrique embedded inside the walls, tables and lots of beautiful people above all in the weekend, price a little high (The main disch not less than 25 €) but the location definitely deserves (are you looking for a really trendy place or not?).

The second suggestion is the Via Vai in Pisana street n. 33 (055.223132), beautiful, spread over two floors, always packed, trendy, and where meeting people becomes possible if you will sit in the large central table, bright intense lights, low prices.

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