What to Eat in Florence: A First-Timer’s Food Guide
Florentine food is not flashy. This is not a cuisine that relies on elaborate technique or unexpected combinations — it is cooking rooted in extraordinary local ingredients, handled with confidence and simplicity. The best meal we’ve had in Florence was a thick slab of bistecca fiorentina, cooked over wood coals at a restaurant in the Oltrarno, with a glass of Chianti Classico and a plate of white beans dressed in olive oil. Nothing complicated. Nothing that needed to be.
Tuscany is one of the great food regions of Italy, and Florence is where that tradition is most accessible to visitors. The challenge, as with food everywhere in Italy, is knowing where to look — the tourist-facing restaurants around the Duomo and the Uffizi are a different world from the neighborhood trattorias and wine bars of the Oltrarno where Florentines actually eat. This guide helps you find the latter.
This guide is part of our broader Italy travel coverage. For everything else, see our Florence City Guide and our Florence accommodation guide.
👉 Florence City Guide: Neighborhoods, the Uffizi, the Duomo & planning your visit →
👉 Where to Stay in Florence: Find the right neighborhood and hotel →
Understanding Florentine Food Culture
The Tuscan Philosophy of Cooking
Tuscan and Florentine cooking is built on the principle that extraordinary ingredients need little embellishment. The olive oil pressed from the hillside groves around the city is among the finest in the world — grassy, peppery, intensely flavored — and it appears on everything. The Chianina beef raised in the Val di Chiana south of Florence is the source of the bistecca fiorentina. The white cannellini beans grown in Tuscany are sweet and creamy in a way that dried supermarket beans are not. The bread, deliberately unsalted (a tradition dating to medieval trade disputes over salt taxes), is made to be eaten with food rather than on its own.
This philosophy of simplicity and quality means that Florentine cooking at its best is extraordinarily satisfying and at its worst — when the ingredients are poor or the execution is careless — is bland and underwhelming. The difference between a good Florentine trattoria and a mediocre one is larger than in cities with more complex, sauce-dependent cooking. This makes choosing where to eat more important in Florence than in many other Italian cities.
The Florentine Eating Day
Florentines eat well and take their meals seriously. Lunch is still a genuine meal — a trattoria lunch in the Oltrarno, with two courses and a carafe of wine, is one of the great affordable pleasures of the city. Dinner is later, beginning after 7:30pm at the earliest, and the restaurant culture extends well into the evening. Aperitivo exists here but is less developed than in Milan — wine bars (enoteche) are the more distinctly Florentine pre-dinner tradition. For the best neighborhoods for eating and drinking, see our Florence City Guide.
Must-Try Dishes in Florence
Bistecca alla Fiorentina
The flagship dish of Florentine cooking and one of the great steaks in the world. A T-bone cut from Chianina or Maremmana beef, at least 4cm thick (typically 600g–1.2kg), cooked over a wood or charcoal fire to rare or very rare — the only accepted preparation. Served with a drizzle of olive oil and salt. Nothing else. The quality of the beef and the simplicity of the cooking mean there is nowhere to hide — a good bistecca fiorentina is extraordinary; a careless one is a disappointment. Order it at a traditional trattoria with a wood grill, and don’t ask for it well done. It will be refused.
Ribollita
The great soup of Tuscan cucina povera — a thick, slow-cooked bean and vegetable soup with cavolo nero (black kale) and day-old bread, traditionally made on Monday from the Sunday vegetable soup (ribollita means “reboiled”). It’s deeply flavored, intensely satisfying, and entirely unfashionable in the best possible way. A seasonal dish best in autumn and winter when the cavolo nero is at its peak. Order it at a traditional trattoria and eat it with plenty of the olive oil they’ll leave on the table.
Pappardelle al Cinghiale
Wide, flat pasta ribbons with a wild boar ragù — a preparation that captures something essential about Tuscan cooking: the combination of handmade pasta and the game that has been hunted in the forests of the region for centuries. The ragù is deeply savory, slightly gamey, and rich in a way that feels appropriate for the cooler months. One of the great pasta dishes of central Italy.
Lampredotto
The definitive Florentine street food — braised tripe from the fourth stomach of the cow, served in a bread roll (the schiacciata) with salsa verde and hot sauce, from the lampredotto vendors at the central market and the street carts around the city. It sounds alarming and tastes wonderful — rich, yielding, deeply savory — when made properly. Buying a lampredotto sandwich from a vendor at the Mercato Centrale and eating it standing up is a genuinely authentic Florence experience that most tourists miss entirely.
Panzanella
A summer salad of day-old Tuscan bread soaked in water and vinegar, with tomatoes, red onion, basil, and olive oil. The bread doesn’t become soggy — it absorbs the tomato juices and vinegar into something that has its own specific texture. A perfect expression of the Tuscan cucina povera ethic — using what’s past its best to make something excellent. Available spring through autumn; best at peak summer tomato season.
Crostini di Fegato
Chicken liver pâté on grilled bread, typically served as part of an antipasto misto at traditional trattorias. The Florentine version — made with capers, anchovies, and vin santo — is more refined and complex than you might expect from what sounds like a simple preparation. A standard opening to any serious Florentine meal and a reliable indicator of a kitchen’s quality.
Schiacciata
Flat Tuscan focaccia bread, dimpled, brushed with olive oil and sea salt — sold in bakeries and sandwich shops across the city. The everyday bread of Florence, used as a sandwich base and eaten as a snack. In autumn, schiacciata con l’uva — the same bread topped with fresh wine grapes — is one of the most seasonal and distinctly Florentine things you can eat. Find it in bakeries during the September grape harvest.
Gelato
Florence has some of the best artisan gelato in Italy. The same rules apply here as everywhere: dense, intensely flavored, stored in covered containers rather than mounded in colorful peaks. The concentration of good gelaterie in the Oltrarno is particularly strong. Avoid any gelato near the Duomo or Uffizi that has been mounded high in day-glo colors — these are indicators of artificial coloring, excess air, and poor ingredients.
Where to Eat in Florence by Neighborhood
Oltrarno — Our Top Pick for Eating
The Oltrarno is the best eating neighborhood in Florence, full stop. The combination of working craftspeople, local residents, and a tradition of independent restaurants and wine bars has created a food scene that is more genuinely Florentine than anything on the tourist-saturated north bank. The trattorias here serve the city’s classic dishes at prices significantly below the centro storico, and the wine bars (particularly along Via dei Serragli and around Piazza Santo Spirito) are excellent. This is where we eat every evening in Florence. For accommodation in the Oltrarno, see our Florence where to stay guide.
Santa Croce — Good for Evening Eating
Santa Croce has a reasonable concentration of good restaurants and is livelier in the evenings than much of the centro storico. Less tourist-saturated than the Duomo area, with a better quality-to-price ratio. Good for dinner if you’re staying on the east side of the center.
San Lorenzo and the Mercato Centrale
The Mercato Centrale is one of the great food market experiences in Florence — fresh produce, meat, fish, cheese, and specialty Tuscan products on the ground floor, with a food hall on the upper floor that serves good lunch options without the formality of a sit-down restaurant. The lampredotto vendors outside the market are the definitive street food experience. Worth a morning visit regardless of whether you’re buying.
Centro Storico — Exercise Caution
The restaurants around the Duomo and the Uffizi require careful selection. The tourist pressure is intense and many establishments survive on one-time foot traffic rather than repeat local custom. The rules: handwritten menus, no photographs on display, no touts outside, no plastic-wrapped menu stands on the street. Walk two blocks in any direction from the major sights and the situation improves considerably.
Types of Dining in Florence
Trattoria
The foundation of Florentine eating culture. Casual, family-run or family-style, with short seasonal menus focused on Tuscan classics. Wood tables, house wine in carafes, waiters who know the menu because they made it this morning. Lunch menus at good Oltrarno trattorias offer exceptional value — two courses and wine for €15–€22 per person.
Enoteca (Wine Bar)
Florence has a strong enoteca culture — wine bars that serve serious Tuscan wines by the glass alongside food, from small plates to full meals. An enoteca is an excellent choice for a lighter evening, for wine exploration, or as a stop between sightseeing and a proper dinner. The quality of Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino available by the glass at good Florentine enoteche is a genuine pleasure.
Osteria
In Florence the osteria tends to be slightly more casual than a trattoria — a neighborhood spot where the emphasis is on simple, honest cooking and good wine at reasonable prices. The distinctions between trattoria and osteria are largely semantic; what matters is the quality of the cooking and the local character of the clientele.
Our Recommended Restaurants and Bars in Florence
Buca Mario — Centro Storico
Claiming to be the oldest restaurant in Florence (established 1886), Buca Mario serves traditional Tuscan cooking in a classic setting near Piazza della Repubblica. The bistecca fiorentina and the ribollita are reliably well-executed, and the wine list has good Chianti Classico representation. Historic, reliable, and a genuine Florentine institution rather than a tourist trap.
Trattoria Sostanza — Centro Storico
One of the most beloved traditional trattorias in Florence, known particularly for its butter pasta and its bistecca. The dining room is old-fashioned in the best sense — communal tables, no-fuss service, the same menu it’s served for decades. Reservations essential.
Il Latini — Centro Storico
A loud, communal, deliberately overwhelming trattoria experience near the Palazzo Rucellai — long wooden tables, prosciutto hanging from the ceiling, carafes of house Chianti, and an all-in menu of Tuscan classics served in rapid succession. Not subtle, not cheap, but genuinely fun and the food is better than the theatrical setting suggests. Book ahead.
Buca dell’Orafo — Centro Storico
A traditional Florentine trattoria immediately south of the Ponte Vecchio, with a terrace and a reliable menu of Tuscan classics. Better value than its location might suggest and a good choice for visitors who want quality food without walking far from the main sights.
Il Santo Bevitore — Oltrarno
One of the finest wine bars and restaurants in Florence, on Via dei Serragli in the Oltrarno. The wine list is exceptional — strong on Tuscan and Italian producers — and the food is creative, seasonal, and carefully sourced. Not a traditional trattoria but a genuinely excellent contemporary Florentine restaurant. Book ahead; it’s popular with both locals and discerning visitors.
Trattoria da Ruggero — Oltrarno
A neighborhood trattoria in the quieter part of the Oltrarno, popular with local families and professionals, with a menu of Florentine classics at prices that feel almost out of place in a city that has become expensive. The ribollita and pappardelle al cinghiale are among the best versions in the city. No-frills, honest, excellent.
What to Drink in Florence
Chianti Classico
The wine of Florence and the most important red wine of Tuscany — Sangiovese-based, from the hills between Florence and Siena. The quality spectrum within Chianti Classico is enormous, from the simple house wine at a neighborhood trattoria to the Gran Selezione tier at serious restaurants. Drinking a good Chianti Classico with bistecca fiorentina in Florence is one of those wine-food combinations that makes complete sense geographically and gastronomically. Explore what’s available by the glass at good enoteche.
Brunello di Montalcino
Italy’s most prestigious red wine, from Montalcino in southern Tuscany. Made from Sangiovese Grosso, aged for years before release, and capable of extraordinary depth and longevity. Available by the glass at good Florence enoteche at prices that are still significantly below what you’d pay in export markets. Worth seeking out for a special occasion.
Vin Santo
Tuscany’s traditional dessert wine — made from dried Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes, aged in small barrels for three to ten years, resulting in a sweet, oxidative, complex wine that ranges from amber to deep mahogany. The classic Florentine dessert is cantuccini (hard almond biscotti) dipped in a small glass of vin santo at the end of a meal. Available at most traditional trattorias.
Negroni
Technically invented in Florence — Count Camillo Negroni allegedly asked a bartender at Caffè Casoni in 1919 to strengthen his Americano by replacing the soda with gin. Whether the story is entirely true or not, Florence takes it seriously and makes excellent Negronis. A pre-dinner Negroni at a bar in the Oltrarno is one of the finer ways to begin an evening.
Coffee
The standard Italian rules apply: espresso at the bar for €1–€1.50, cappuccino for mornings only, sitting at a table costs significantly more. Caffè Gilli on Piazza della Repubblica is the most historic café in Florence and worth visiting once for the setting; your daily coffee is better found at a neighborhood bar.
Tips for Eating Well in Florence
- The coperto: €2–€3 per person at sit-down restaurants. Check the menu before sitting down
- Eat lunch in the Oltrarno — the best value and the most authentic Florentine cooking is found at lunchtime in the Oltrarno trattorias. A two-course lunch with wine for €15–€20 is genuinely achievable
- Don’t ask for your bistecca well done — it will either be refused or you’ll be eating an inferior dish. Rare to medium-rare is the correct preparation and the only one that shows off the quality of the beef
- Try the lampredotto at least once — buy it from a vendor at the Mercato Centrale, not from a sit-down restaurant. The street food version is the authentic one
- Explore the enoteche — Florence’s wine bar culture is excellent and an enoteca in the Oltrarno is one of the best ways to spend an evening without a full dinner commitment
- The olive oil on the table is not a formality — Tuscan extra virgin olive oil is genuinely extraordinary. Use it generously on bread, beans, and everything that crosses your plate
- Book ahead for the best trattorias — the most popular places fill up, even midweek in shoulder season
Eating Well in Florence: The Short Version
Florence’s food culture rewards visitors who eat where Florentines eat, order what Florentines order, and resist the pull of the tourist-facing restaurants around the main sights. Cross the Arno to the Oltrarno. Order the bistecca. Drink the Chianti. Have the ribollita in autumn. Try the lampredotto at the market even if it sounds alarming. Florence at the table is one of the great eating experiences in Italy — it just requires finding the right tables.
👉 Florence City Guide: Neighborhoods, the Uffizi, the Duomo & planning your visit →
👉 Where to Stay in Florence: The best areas and hotels for every budget →
For our full Italy coverage, visit our Italy travel hub.