Where to Eat in Florence
Like a Local
Florentine food is blunt, honest, and completely confident
🗝️ Key fact: Florence is the birthplace of bistecca Fiorentina, lampredotto (tripe sandwich), and ribollita. It is not the birthplace of bruschetta with generic toppings, which is what most tourist restaurants serve.
Florentine cuisine is the opposite of fussy. A city that gave the world Michelangelo and Brunelleschi has a kitchen built on bean soups, grilled offal sandwiches, and the most expensive cut of steak in Italy — all served without ceremony. The Florentine approach to food is a kind of controlled austerity: excellent ingredients, minimal intervention, and a deep suspicion of anything too elaborate.
Eating in Florence: The Local Rules
Order the bistecca for two minimum
A genuine bistecca alla Fiorentina is a T-bone from a Chianina or Simmental cow, at minimum 1kg, served rare to medium-rare. It's ordered by weight and shared between two or three people. Anyone who offers you a bistecca for one person is not serving the real thing.
Lampredotto is not optional
Tripe sandwich from a street cart. The lampredotto (cow's fourth stomach) is boiled, sliced, dipped back in its broth, and served on a roll with salsa verde and chilli. It is one of the greatest sandwiches in Italy and costs under $5. Eat one before you leave Florence.
The Mercato Centrale upstairs is for tourists
The ground floor of the Mercato Centrale — the raw produce, the meat vendors, the cheese counters — is a genuine market. The upstairs food hall is a well-executed tourist attraction. Eat on the ground floor or at the nearby trattorie.
Florentine wine is Chianti Classico
The house wine in any honest Florentine trattoria will be a Chianti or Chianti Classico. Order the house carafe (a sfuso) unless you want to pay restaurant markup on a bottle. The quality difference between house wine here and house wine in Rome is significant — Florence is at the edge of the Chianti zone.
Where to Eat in Florence, By Neighbourhood
The neighbourhood you eat in matters as much as the restaurant you choose. Here's where locals eat — and the specific restaurants we'd book.
Oltrarno
South of the Arno, the Oltrarno is where Florentines who can't afford (or can't be bothered with) the tourist-heavy centro still eat lunch. Artisan workshops, neighbourhood bars, and trattorias that have been cooking for the same family clientele for 40 years. This is the most honest food neighbourhood in Florence.
Buca Mario
Florence's oldest restaurant, open since 1886, and still earning its reputation. The bistecca here is sourced from Chianina cattle and cooked properly rare over charcoal. The ribollita (twice-cooked bread and bean soup) is the best version we've found in the city. Book ahead for dinner.
Pro tip: The ribollita should be ordered as a starter — it's dense enough to be a meal in itself, but you'll want room for the bistecca.
Il Latini
Long communal tables, shared food, carafes of Chianti arriving automatically, and the particular energy of a room full of people eating together. Il Latini is old-school Florentine hospitality at full volume — it can feel chaotic, but it's completely genuine.
Pro tip: Arrive at opening time (7:30pm) for the best experience — later arrivals wait in a queue and the communal tables fill quickly.
Sant'Ambrogio / Santa Croce
The neighbourhood around Piazza Sant'Ambrogio and the Mercato Sant'Ambrogio is the best area for local eating in Florence. Less visited than Oltrarno, with a market that functions as an actual neighbourhood grocery and trattorias where the clientele is mostly Florentine.
Trattoria da Ruggero
A family trattoria in a neighbourhood where families actually eat. No English menu, handwritten daily specials on a piece of paper brought to the table, and cooking that tastes like someone's grandmother made it. The bollito misto when available is exceptional.
Pro tip: If you don't speak Italian, point at what the table next to you ordered. This approach has never failed in this restaurant.
All'Antico Vinaio
The queue on Via dei Neri is famous and for good reason. Schiacciata (flat Tuscan bread, lighter than focaccia) filled with rotating local cheeses and cured meats. The finocchiona (fennel salami) with stracchino cheese is the classic combination. This is Florentine fast food done properly.
Pro tip: The queue moves fast. Order decisively and eat immediately — the schiacciata doesn't improve after 20 minutes.
Mercato Centrale (Ground Floor)
The ground floor of the Mercato Centrale is one of the great covered food markets in Italy. Whole Chianina carcasses hanging from hooks, 30-year-old Parmigiano wheels, fresh pasta being cut by hand, and the lampredotto cart outside that is the most important eating experience in Florence.
Nerbone
Inside the market since 1872. The bollito sandwich — boiled beef sliced and dipped in its cooking broth, served on a roll with salsa verde — is one of the definitive Florentine lunches. Arrive by noon; the best items sell out. Cash only, no reservations, communal seating.
Pro tip: Ask for the bread to be 'bagnato' (dipped in the broth) before they add the filling. Non-negotiable for the proper version.
Lampredotto cart (outside)
There are multiple carts outside the market — look for the one with the longest queue of Italians. The lampredotto (cow's fourth stomach) is boiled in a vegetable broth, sliced, and served on a roll. It smells intensely savoury. It tastes extraordinary. Order it spicy.
Pro tip: The correct order: 'Un panino con lampredotto, bagnato, con salsa verde e piccante' — bagnato means the roll is dipped in the broth first.
Must-Try Dishes in Florence
The dishes that define this city's food identity — and where to find the best version of each.
Bistecca alla Fiorentina
T-bone steak from Chianina or Simmental cattle, grilled over charcoal and served rare. Ordered by weight (minimum 1kg), shared between two, seasoned only with salt and olive oil after cooking. One of the most expensive plates in Florence — and one of the most worth it.
Buca Mario or Buca dell'Orafo — both source properly from local farms
Lampredotto Sandwich
Tripe sandwich from a street cart — Florence's greatest street food contribution. The fourth stomach of a cow, boiled, sliced, served on a roll with salsa verde and chilli. Non-negotiable. Under $5, eaten standing up.
The cart outside the Mercato Centrale, or Nerbone inside the market
Ribollita
Twice-cooked Tuscan bread and bean soup — stale bread rehydrated in a thick vegetable and cannellini bean soup, left overnight, and fried in olive oil the next morning. Dense, deeply savoury, peasant food at its most perfect.
Buca Mario or any trattoria that writes it by hand on a specials board
Pappa al Pomodoro
Bread and tomato soup — even simpler than ribollita. Day-old bread dissolved into a thick tomato and basil broth, finished with Tuscan olive oil. Summer dish, September is the best month.
Any honest trattoria in Oltrarno or Sant'Ambrogio
Cantucci con Vin Santo
Almond biscotti dipped into Vin Santo (sweet dessert wine). The proper Florentine end to a meal — ordered instead of dessert, the biscotti dunked until they soften in the golden wine.
Standard offer at the end of any meal in a proper Florentine trattoria — just ask
Best Markets in Florence
Mercato Centrale
Ground floor: Mon–Sat 7am–2pm
The greatest food market in Florence. Butchers, cheesemakers, fresh pasta vendors, lampredotto carts outside. Go for the ground floor — the upstairs food hall is excellent but designed for visitors. The ground floor is where Florentines actually shop.
Mercato Sant'Ambrogio
Mon–Sat, 7am–2pm
Smaller and more local than the Mercato Centrale. Outdoor vegetable stalls, indoor fishmongers and butchers, and a lunch counter serving simple market food at honest prices. The most authentic daily market experience in the city.
The Food Tour We'd Actually Recommend
Florence: Cooking Class at a Tuscan Farm & Local Market Tourood
From $94/person
Starting at $94, this GetYourGuide experience pairs a market exploration with hands-on farm cooking. You’ll master pasta and bistecca while learning to source ingredients like a local. It offers a tactical, farm-to-table education that justifies every penny of the price tag.
Affiliate link — no extra cost to you
Tourist Traps to Avoid in Florence
Any restaurant with a chalkboard reading 'bruschetta' with avocado, prosciutto, or anything other than tomato and olive oil. Florentines don't eat that.
The restaurants immediately facing Piazza della Signoria — the city's most beautiful view from the most overpriced chairs in Tuscany.
Gelato shops serving fluorescent-coloured gelato piled in peaks above the tub. Authentic artisan gelato is served flat, from covered metal containers, at a slightly soft texture. Anything else is industrial product.
The Mercato Centrale upstairs food hall for lunch — it's well run, but you're paying a premium for the location. Eat on the ground floor or in the neighbourhood.