We stayed at the Hotel Athenaeum for 2 nights while visiting Florence as part of a tour. The first night we stayed, there was a dinner at Riflessi, the restaurant that is attached to the hotel. We were able to have a wine tasting event here along with dinner, and were very happy with the service.
The food: was fairly standard but didn't blow us away--during the wine tasting event, they had bread, cheese, and salami. The dinner came and we enjoyed the pasta with meat sauce, the main dish was chicken breast, which was slightly dry, but the spinach and potatoes were great (see photos). the Chocolate mousse for dessert was very good. I'd say about 3 stars.
The service: I wanted to give them 5 stars but with the OK food, it balanced out to 4. These guys went above and beyond to make our experience a great one. The staff were so accommodating to our 2 kids and also the dietary requirements of my family (some dairy-free requests). The kids were bored during the wine tasting but found entertainment in the small toothpicks that were used to serve the cheese and salami. The waiters noticed the kids were building little designs with the toothpicks and brought over two bowls of toothpicks to provide them with even more entertainment while we adults were enjoying our wine and dinner. They were friendly and fluent in English.
The 2nd night, we went out to dinner and one of my kids didn't want what was on the menu, so we came back to Riflessi and the guys here baked up a cheese pizza which was perfect!
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PROS: excellent service, convenient location for those staying at Hotel Athenaeum. Since it's affiliated with the hotel, you can bring your food up to the room and just leave the plate/utensils outside the room or in the room.
CONS: the food itself was OK (for the prix fixe menu). Kind of a small place (our tour group of 31 people filled a little over half the dinner space).
BOTTOM LINE: if you're staying at Hotel Athenaeum, these guys will take care of you. read more