Le Antiche Carrozze

Well, sometimes you gotta try out the places you hear about. I read about this one and I actually wasn’t looking for it, but ended up in the same area. It took a moment for me to figure out where I had heard the name and then I remembered, it was in a magazine called Love Florence or I Heart Florence… or something like that. Since they were spot on with La Strega Nocciola, I thought, maybe… just maybe they would be spot on with this place.
The restaurant is beautiful… and massive. There are more tables in the back and if you head downstairs to the bathroom and there is a room to the right for private parties. The staff seemed very… well they lacked any kind of energy and the waiter seemed to be very condescending to everyone in there. He took orders on a handheld, smart phone/​iPad/​iPod something or other. There was no English menu… or so I thought. I guess I just wasn’t given an English menu, but I rolled with it because it is always more fun and interesting that way.
It was a fairly warm day and for some reason I decided to go with soup to start with. Why? Don’t know, but yes I might be a tad bit crazy. Anyway, I chose the Zuppa Toscana. If I’m being honest, I’m not entirely sure what was in it. I think there were carrots, bread… It was bland and it was hard to distinguish any thing in the soup. It is quite a large portion though.
I had a hankering for pasta, and saw: Penne strascicate alla fiorentina (ragù, burro e piselli) on the menu. I was able to make out Penne Pasta, Ragu, and Butter. It sounded interesting, so I ordered it. When it came out, it was huge portion and for 9 euro it was definitely worth it. I figured out what Piselli was… Peas! The dish was absolutely delicious. In fact that’s what saved the rating from being lower. I was really full part way through, but I pushed through it because it was so good. I would say it was one of my top five favourite pasta meals I had during this trip.
There were a lot of italians in there, but it looked like they were there for pizza and beer. And they were dressed in business clothes. There were some Americans in the restaurant as well, but it seemed as though they were only there for the Chicken and Avocado salad. I will let them have a pass since it was hot outside. With everything together, it was a bit on the pricey side, but in hindsight, if I had just had the pasta, water, and espresso, I think it would have been a good deal. It’s an ok place, but not a «must».

Typical trattoria in a touristy location. The place isn’t cheap but the food isn’t all that bad either, just nothing all that spectacular. The pizza we ordered tasted good but was pretty soggy. The seafood pasta is probably the best thing they have there but expect to pay around 20 € for the plate. The service is just so-​so unless you tip the waiter, then the service becomes phenomenal. For four entrees with decent wine we spent about 150 € for four people. Pretty steep. Oh and like most places in Italy they charge you 2 € per person for bread, even if no one at your table even touches it. Pretty lame.

This is an OK easy t get to traditional Tuscan Trattoria. The service just OK the menu is extensive. There are daily specials posted on a chalk board. The waiter told us to ignore them because they don’t change. While the food is tasty it does not feel like it was prepared with the freshest ingredients. We had the Burrato with Tuscan ham. The Burrato was creamy in fresh. We shared the Gnocchi Sorrentino and the Carozze Tagiatelle. The Gnocchi was sticky and gooey. Not typical of the better trattorias. The Tagiatelle has sausage that was chunky and of an indistinguishable flavor. Carozze is in a prime location just off Tournabini so the foot traffic is high. No problem getting people in the door. Just average food.

A quick decision to see if we could get a table without a reservation down the street from where we are staying. We were pleasantly surprised. It was nice to be able to get a single glass of Prosecco to start. Good pizza and meat and cheese plate. Wish we had room for dessert as it looked good.
The service was solid and friendly.

Gute Qualität bei vernünftigen Preisen, lokale Küche.

We needed to stop in somewhere for lunch and had an hour to kill before we could check into our hotel and stumbled upon Let Antiche Carrozze. Being that it was lunch and that I’m a vegetarian, I just went for the pizza menu and selected the Bella Napoli pizza — cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. I’m not sure why it’s common in Italy to give you like 4.5 leaves of basil on everything, I guess I’m just used to the United States where they pile the basil on. The pizza was essentially mozzarella and cherry tomatoes. Nevertheless, I thought it was pretty good and definitely hit the spot for lunchtime. I would recommend this place to others if you’re in the area and need a quick fix.