Florence, Italy: By Giorgio, This Is As Good As It Gets!

 Trattoria da Giorgio

• Via del Palazzuolo 100R
• Florence, Italy
• South of Santa Maria Novella Station
• Phone: +39 055 284302
• Website: trattoriadagiorgio.it

 Prices: $$$$

We ate here three years ago and loved the place. Great food, lots of it, and ridiculously cheap prices compared to the rest of Florence and its overpriced tourist traps. So we returned once again and, again, we were not disappointed!

They open for dinner at 6pm, rather early by Italian standards, but make sure you get there before 8pm unless you want to wait. They have a sign-up sheet at the entrance if all of the tables are full, so simply jot your name down if you cannot find a seat. Arriving around 7:45pm on a Wednesday night, we were quickly seated and shortly thereafter our waiter arrived with our water and a half-liter of red wine.

The menu is fixed price, €13 for lunch and €14 for dinner, a pittance for what you receive in return and there is no “ala carte” menu. For that very reasonable price, you are entitled to a ½ liter of water, ¼ liter of wine (per person/ red or white), primo (first course – pasta, soup, etc), secondo (second course – meat dish), and contorno (vegetable – salad, potatoes, artichokes, broccoli, etc). Desserts are extra, but quite cheap at €2 for lemon sorbet or €3 for tiramisu, panna cotta, and cheesecake among others.

We had the homemade pasta for our primi, a bigoli (think fat spaghetti) with black truffles and mushrooms and paccheri con broccoli e salsicce (a large flat noodle in a creamy sauce of broccoli florettes and sausage). The truffle and mushroom pasta was superb with rich, earthy tones and unlike more than a few Tuscan restaurants we have been to recently, perfectly cooked “al dente”. The paccheri con broccoli e salsicce had a slightly odd taste, almost as if there were tuna in the recipe (I asked and there was not). It was not bad, but it was not what I was expecting, so my wife and I swapped plates as she found it quite tasty. I attribute it to a temporary disruption in my palate rather than a problem on their part.

For secondi we both had the scaloppine marsala e noci (cutlets, pork I believe, in a creamy marsala and walnut sauce). The meat was juicy and tender and the sauce sublime, reminiscent of a savory German “rahm” (cream) sauce and one of the best sauces I have had in recent memory. Our contorni were patate fritte (French fries), perfectly cooked – crispy and hot – and artichokes marinated in olive oil, also excellent.

The wine, a local red, was good - lightly chilled, mildly sparkling, fruity, and slightly sweet. Although very full, we could not resist sharing a tiramisu (€3). Coming in a rather large cup, there were layers of saviardi cookies soaked in coffee and sweet mascarpone cheese sprinkled with cocoa powder as is the tradition.

Once again, we were not disappointed. In-fact, Trattoria da Giorgio is the “BEST VALUE” in Florence or anywhere else for that matter. You will not have a better meal anywhere in Italy for €30 … guaranteed.

CombatCritic Gives Trattoria da Giorgio 10 Bombs Out Of 10 … More Bombs Are Better ... IT'S "THE BOMB"!

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Title: By Giorgio, This Is As Good As It Gets!

Key Words: Trattoria da Giorgio, trattoria, Giorgio, Firenze, Florence, Italy, menu, review, travel, value, pasta, wine, meat, dessert, CombatCritic, Yelp, TripAdvisor, tourist