What a find! We saw their trattoria sign in the middle of the cute Valiano main road while driving…read morefrom Cortona to Montepulciano. We didn't expect to be one of the best restaurant in the areas (check rating and how many reviews they have on the more popular other sites). The owners Davide and Emanuela will guide you through Montepulciano food and wines. Start with a great "pappa al pomodoro" and finish with an amazing home made gelato "fiordilatte with olive oil and sage"

Best Home Cooked Italian food I have ever had in my life! My Grandmother would slap me with a…read morewooden spoon but I telleth the truth! Went 2 nights in a row! Freshest selection of everything! It's this type of place that makes life worth living! I continue to fantasize about this wonderful eatery Every now and then! Bottom line it's worth flying here just to smell the fabulous cuisine wafting from the kitchen! Do they deliver?

Il Fornacino has an adventurous menu that I was excited to try. Like every restaurant in the area…read moreit offers the traditional Tuscan tagliata di chianina (is there a law?) but there's also rabbit stuffed with veal and truffles and a very on-trend Swiss chard, ricotta, and truffled egg raviolone. I started with the latter, which was delicious -- but the powerful flavour of cheese and the egg yolk drowned out the chard. My wife's potato flan was quite nice, but it arrived buried under a heap of truffle shavings that tasted of nothing in particular. My main was a special of roast suckling pig with potatoes and a savoury tuile made with the pork drippings. The tuile was gratuitous -- a chef-y touch that didn't actually taste very nice. The suckling pig was beautifully cooked but the potatoes were weirdly inconsistent; some crisp and others mushy. Il Fornacino is a good restaurant that would be the best restaurant around in most places, but the five-star bar is set pretty high in Tuscany. But the prices were very modest and the wine selection was great. It's a tremendously good value for what it offers.

Excellent! Beautiful, tasty, and well presented food. We were looking for a place with dishes…read morewith more vegetables. We've eaten a bit too much bread while having been in Italy. La Dogana was recommended, by the proprietor of our bed and breakfast, as a place to go for good food. It was perfect! Our servers were terrific, too, a very pleasant young woman and a very attentive perhaps maybe owner/chef or matte'd?

This is an amazing 5-star restaurant. Classy and sophisticated with very appetizing delights. The…read moreview alone is outstanding but the food takes it to a whole new level. Farm to table at its finest with local wines that do not disappoint.

Amazing dining experience in this small rustic Osteria! Chef Julio masterfully cooks Bistecca Alla…read moreFlorentina to perfection in his wood fired oven! Pici Con Ragu Di Cinta Sense e Tartufo is a must try. Authentic Tuscan food! Atmosphere is very cozy with shared tables.

Great dining experience. One of the best meals we had in Montepulcino. We ordered the steak, which…read morewas perfectly cooked and a couple of sides which were also delicious. The house red wine was quite good.

By far the best dinner I've ever had in Italy, and that's really saying something. Don't do what we…read moredid and waltz up with no reservation and hope lots of smiling and high school-level Italian will score you a table -- even on a Wednesday night the restaurant was fully booked. We did manage a table in the end, very luckily for us. The menu here (which changes annually) is pretty hefty but is dwarfed by the wine list, which is so thick it -- no kidding -- has a table of contents. There's a lot of wonderful things on that wine list, including a number of bottles from the Montefollonico area and neighbouring Montepulciano. The food, which started with a surprise complementary amuse bouche, was nothing less than exquisite. A number of the things I wanted to try (like the Filet and sirloin of wild boar, eggplant, chocolate sauce and raspberries) were sold out for the night by the time we'd sat down, but what we did get was truly top-notch. I'd put La Botte Piena up against any fine dining restaurant in London. The biggest surprise of the night was the bill. After a good bottle of wine, four plates of food, a dessert and coffee, we hadn't even managed to spend 100 euros.

We chose to eat a la carte, as we were 6 adults with different food needs. If I say perfetto!, do…read moreyou know what I mean? La Botte Piena aspires (correctly) for a Michelin star, and it shows in the whole dining experience. Obviously, from the name of the restaurant, they know wine. The small touches that Michelin seeks are all there. Our amuse-bouche was a delicious pasta chip with flavored cheese and a spoon of bean soup. Our primi were perfectly prepared - pastas, ricotta gnudi, ravioli. The secondi were also delicious - beef cheeks and (for our birthday boy) bistecca fiorentina. I dolci delighted us, as did the dessert wine we chose to finish our 4 hour meal. We chatted with the sommelier and the owners, which rounded out a great evening. Highly recommended!

We stopped in on our first day in Montepulciano after checking in to our Airbnb. We had the most…read moreincredible, delicious, and memorable meal of our entire trip. Plans on returning next year!

Hands down, this is the best place that I ate at while I was in Italy…read more The restaurant was very unique with a vibrant interior that you can't help but love. The salad, pasta and vegetables were nothing but amazing. The pasta was fresh and the tomato sauce was indescribable. The freshness was out of this world. What also made this experience perfect was the hospitality shown by the owners. They were extremely kind and friendly. The male owner also goes around and sings to the guests, which is a great surprise. It's a very family oriented restaurant with home style cooking and beautiful ambience. 5/5!

Wow, wow, wow. We stayed in historic Montepulciano and this Osteria was recommended by the locals…read more We had a beautiful experience siting on their outdoor patio overlooking the Centro. Ate a delicious plate of pasta! Friendly service! Highly recommend!

Both our pasta dishes had little flavor. The photo in menu had lots of meat. In reality maybe 3…read moretablespoons! Boiling a few large shrimp took 45 min. Hectic service. Overrated.

One of the best meals we ever had in Italy. The service was friendly and not rushed but the star of…read morecourse was the food. Everything was absolutely scrumptious but we were vowed in particular by their peposo which I recreated once we got back to the US. Will definitely go again next time we are in Tuscany!

Really nice place. The Chef makes sure you are happy with your meal. I would definitely come back!…read moreMy husband and I shared a steak..it was delicious and huge! No English menú but thats ok. Chef will help you. You MUST try the their tiramisu.

We went May 1st, first of all, the restaurant truly carries that Tuscan brick-stone tavern, charm…read more The staff was accommodating, knowledgeable about wine selection, the food was absolutely delicious, walking down to the cellar definitely had an awe factor. The staff cut us up a platter of their cheese in the cellar. Tiramisu for desert topped the 5 star experience. EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: You need reservations that can only be made by calling them, no online reservations capabilities. You should call 5 days in advance. Worth it. Our bill came out to less than $250 + Tip for 2 bottles of wine, 6 main entrees, 2 appetizers, 3 Tiramisu, and cheese platter - NOT BAD if you ask me. Because we gave them a nice tip - they gave us a bottle of wine as a thank you gift.

Taverna di San Giuseppe was a disappointing meal for us, especially in a city with so many great…read moredining options. We ended up here by mistake (confused it with another spot), and unfortunately it didn't live up to expectations. The restaurant fills up with reservations for two seatings, and from the moment we sat down the pace felt rushed. We ordered drinks and a starter while deciding on the rest, but multiple staff members kept coming by trying to take our full order. It felt like they were pushing to move things along quickly. There were a couple positives. The chicken livers to start were quite tasty and something we didn't see often on other menus. The primi were underwhelming. The pasta didn't taste fresh like many other trattorias in Siena, and the dishes overall were just average. The lasagna in particular was mushy, and the sauces didn't stand out. The secondi were slightly better -- pork ribs, Barolo-braised beef, and a "small chicken" -- but still nothing that justified the higher prices. They do have an underground wine cellar built into a cave, which is interesting to see, but there are other places in Siena with much larger and more impressive cellar spaces. Also worth noting, they add a "10% tax" charge rather than the typical €2 coperto per person. Overall, a rushed and fairly mediocre meal at a higher price point. With so many better places to eat in Siena, this is one I'd skip.

This restaurant should really get 10 stars for its food. My mom and I had a lunch reservation when…read morewe first arrived in Montepulciano and we got the Pici all'Aglione della Valdichiana which was phenomenal. It was actually so good that we inquired about a reservation for dinner the next day! And again we got the same exact thing. I was too full to finish mine so we took it back to the hotel and I ate it at 10:40 pm cold and it was still amazing! Everyone was so friendly and it was such a great find. I cannot recommend enough!

The service and food was outstanding! They even asked me if I wanted the restaurant's Wi-Fi while I…read morewaited!