La Bottega del Buon Caffè

We walked here from our Airbnb, it’s definitely a far from the city centre but Florence is very walkable. Depending on when you’re reservation is, you can check out Piazza Michelangelo before or after the meal.
Our reservation was for 8pm. I suppose we arrived there a bit early at ~750pm, but we were the first ones there. The hostess grabbed our name, and exclaimed that our reservation was actually for 9pm, but it was alright. At first we just believed her because perhaps our 24 hour time conversions were to be blamed, but we double checked later in the meal and found out it was indeed 20:00. It was a bit of a rude comment to make in the first place considering there was no one there yet, but we didn’t let it affect us because the rest of the meal we had very good service.
Because we were the first there, all eyes were on us for the first 30 minutes. We were treated like king and queen. They have small baskets to place your belongings in beside your table so you don’t have to leave them on the ground. The complimentary starter and champagne were a lovely addition. We ended up NOT doing the tasting menu, and just shared a number of dishes in hopes to save some money as post-​college students.
Unfortunately I don’t have access to the May menu anymore, but we ordered the following to the best of my memory:
Uovo Biologico starter (free range egg with bacon, cheese, and horse radish). This was best described as a soup with a cream and floury base. I enjoyed it though my boyfriend thought it was really weird and couldn’t really eat it.
2 of the Cappelacci di Picci (pigeon filled pasta): many people rave about this dish — we both loved it as well. The portion is on the smaller side, but we had to consider the secondi dishes coming up.
We had the Coniglio and the Agnello: rabbit and goat. Both delicious as well.
Chianti Monteraponi: a red wine recommendation. They placed our wine bottle far away from our reach. As the restaurant started filling up with people, they started to pay less attention to us, so it was a bit difficult getting their attention to fill our wine glasses.
The complimentary bread was uniquely seasoned, probably some of the better tasting bread we had throughout our Europe trip.
We did not order dessert but did get the complimentary dessert platter which contained a few chocolates surrounding this weird tree made out of cornflakes (yes we confirmed with them).
Overall we enjoyed our fine dining experience. It came to 171 euros split between 2 people including the still water. The bread looked like it was complimentary, which we appreciated. In the end we saved maybe 10 euros from the 6 course menu (which doesn’t include wine), and around 60 euros from the 6 course including wine tastings (note that we ordered a bottle of wine). I’m sure the tasting menu is splendid but I don’t think I’d be willing to pay for it on a second trip back to Florence.

This is the best meal I have had in the past year including a 2 star restaurant in Paris and Frankfurt. We had the 6 course tasting menu. The highlights were a pigeon filled pasta and a goat cheese risotto. In total there were also 3 «greetings» from the open kitchen, including a truffle tree with the (modest, for this level of food), bill

We love fine dining and don’t mind paying for it. This is a nice try but misses the mark in my opinion. The service is 5 star, but the chef has an eclectic approach that I find strange. I would not come back at any price but certainly not at these. And if the food is expensive, the wine list is over the top!
I hate inflexible restaurants. When I asked for a mixed green salad with lettuce, carrots, tomatoes and onions, they refused and would only provide a «biological» salad even though they had all the ingredients. Arrogance!

Wow what an amazing meal! My wife found this place on TripAdvisor and we decided we were going to try this if we could get a table and luckily for us, we did.
We walked about half an hour from the train station Santa Maria Novella and while we were walking, I was like where is this place, it better be good but it was well worth the walk (the walk back will burn off the calories of the delicious food).
La Bottega del Buon Caffe is a small intimate restaurant with neutral colors. The restaurant is so comfortable, beautify, cozy, just everything you would want for a wonderful intimate meal with your significant other.
We ordered two appetizers, three entrees and one dessert. Appetizers were pigeon pasta, trio of foie gras. Entrees were trio of amber jack, duck breast and pigeon. The dessert, trio of crime brûlée. Pigeon pasta was amazing as was the trio of foie gras. One of the ways they made the foie gras was like crème brûlée which was incredible. The amber jack entrée was probably the best amber jack my wife and I ever had. Generous in portion, plenty of flavor and cooked perfectly, I could have had another plate. The duck breast with figs was extremely delicious and also very generous in portions. The pigeon wasn’t as good as the first two entrees but it was definitely good. The crème brûlée was very good as it came in pistachio and almond flavor which were terrific.
This restaurant really surprised us. This was definitely one of the best meals we’ve had this year. The surprising thing is that the portion was bigger than what I’m used to here in the Bay Area and it was not as expensive as I expected.
If you are in Florence make it a note to try this place. Yes you’re in Tuscany and there are plethora of great places to try but this is a can’t miss. Let me also add the service was excellent, the chef came out to ensure everything was great and they even welcome you with a glass of persecco. I’ll never forget this place and when I return to Florence, I’ll definitely come back.