We ate here on recommendation by our host at Poggio al Sole. Let me first say that the view is…read morefantastic. You can see across the valley as well as Fiesole and parts of Florence. You pay a flat rate 20 euro for a 3 course meal: antipasti, first course and second course. I had the bruschetta and prosciutto; curried rice with shrimp; and we shared the seabass, shrimp and squid platter. My wife had the steamed mussels (fantastic) and the spinach gnocchi. All of these were on par or better than any of the places we ate during our trip to Tuscany. The price is also hard to beat! Just don't go here unless you are hungry, because it's all or nothing.

I was very impressed with this location (in one of the most impressive parks in the city of…read moreFlorence, albeit suburbs), but more so impressed with the food. I was there as part of a YELP event trying their autumn menu, when we got there, a beautiful table was set up for us with apples, and fall decorations making the room look extra special. The space is large enough for a restaurant bar area downstairs and upstairs a private table/ extra room (which would be great for dancing). The caterers were friendly and explained each dish before presenting it. The wine was superb as was each touch of details, it seemed as if they really put in quite the effort, from a delicate liver 'foie gras' type starter to a delicate porcini mushroom cake, it was all very good. Dessert was the least impressive, a panna cotta but there wasn't much flavor, though I did enjoy everything else. It is very useful to know that this venue/catering exists in Florence which would make the perfect place for a fall or winter private party. A big thank you to Yelp for introducing me to this place.

A very lovely spot located on a beautiful street. The mista salad was only fair because of the…read morebitter greens they incorporated into it. The pizza was good but not great and the Branzino was dry. Service was so so, we had to fetch the waiter to take our order. If we had had a great experience we would of course come back tomorrow.

Pretty decent but not over the top good authentic Italian. It tasted more commercialized than…read moreauthentic...especially the pasta.

Saw the reviews on Yelp and wanted to try it since we were staying around the corner…read more Had the Cacio Pepe and Grandma's Lasagna. Lasagna was 10/10 which is why my wife kept eating mine and the Pepe was still very good. Eat here for phenomenal food and value.

I highly recommend this charming restaurant. The owner took great care of us and the food was…read moreamazing! Definitely one of our highlights since arriving in Italy.

It's been over two years since we have been the Castello Del Trebbio - so, when you still think…read moreabout a place after that long it deserves a review, no? The menu is great, the service is great, the food is great, the ambience is great. The Back drop of the Castle oozing Renaissance history is beyond compare. We stayed at the Panicale's for almost two weeks and ate the restaurant several times. If I could give more than 5 stars - I would.

Perfection - We hosted our wedding welcome (rehearsal) dinner at Castello del Trebbio's restaurant…read moreSosta del Gusto. We worked with Alberto and Sabrina on this mission. Both of them were a pleasure to communicate with. Since Alberto couldn't be there the day of our event in July, we dealt mainly with Sabrina during planning. What a huge help she was - she responded to us quickly, answered all of our questions, allayed our concerns with everything, volunteered for small tasks, she was just an incredible person and so helpful, kind, and enthusiastic about everything, she went ABOVE AND BEYOND. I would work with her again in a second. We loved her! Together we planned a 4-course special menu for our welcome dinner - this was a collaborative effort, with Sabrina ultimately giving us the final say and offering much flexibility. I printed my own menus using an online vendor but the restaurant can also print the menus for you. Our guests still tell us how the food and wine were excellent, they were thrilled with the quality, taste and presentation of everything. Sabrina also helped us plan a champagne toast/reception after we started the evening with a castle and wine cellar tour. Everybody loved the our - Marta was an excellent tour guide, very engaging and personable, she had people laughing and learning, and we look back on these memories very fondly. The champagne toast was set up on the restaurant's brick patio, overlooking a valley and more mountains. It is stunningly gorgeous, I didn't want the event or the evening to end. We opted to eat dinner indoors only because our wedding dinner was going to be outside the next day. Sosta del Gusto is totally set up to have an outdoor dinner in the above described patio area. They do lots of weddings at their place and for good reason - it is a really really beautiful property. Even though we never got to meet Alberto he was helpful in initial planning and Sabrina was an amazing hostess - she really is a great person. No regrets at all with going to Sosta Del Gusto and Castello del Trebbio for our event, we would visit again no question. Highly recommend both the castle and this restaurant for any visit or event of any type. Very professional staff and beautiful presentation. Thanks again!!

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.

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.

I can confirm what has already been posted here. Yes, it is hard to find (look for the Hausbrandt…read moresign, see pic). Yes, there is in fact a grandma cooking the food (just as Jeff J. said, two in fact). Yes, the food is amazing. Maybe the reason this place is so hard to find is that it is a hidden gem that feels so authentic that you only hear whispers about it. But it is real folks. We started our meal with the fried polenta with ragu. The combination is a meal in itself. You can tell the ragu was fresh and well made because you could see the chunky bits of garlic, mushrooms and meat. The next course was the lasgna. It was rich with the ragu and ricotta. The noodles tasted homemade. It was a delicious dish blessed by a nonna. The last course was the steak Florentine. You can order it by weight. My conversion math may have been off because we got a HUGE cut of porterhouse. But it was absolutely tender and delicious. We enjoyed this delight to the bone. The service was exceptional. We were the only non-Italian folks in the restaurant but we were treated like family. I will also add that while I enjoyed our food selection, I noticed that the pizzas and pork/veal shank were also very popular and looked incredibly appetizing. My only regret is that we found this gem of a restaurant on our last night in Barga. I wish I had more time to taste more of the menu. The family owns another restaurant in Lucca (la Donna Clara) and one that's 3 km away that does seafood.

Writing this review is ridiculously painful because figuring out how we got there and its address…read morewas impossible. Their "webpage" is on Facebook, but their address on Facebook is inaccurate (stating that it's in Lucca city). On the receipt, there are two addresses, their page on TripAdvisor is matches one of the address on the receipt. When I put down the address here, the location on Yelp doesnt seem right. I tried to Google Map this place, but street images were taken in 2011, and this place wasnt opened yet. Long story short, we were driving down from Renaissance Tuscany Il ciocco resort on the SP20 looking for a restaurant, and happened to turn into this one off the side. It seemed like a traditional Italian restaurant you see on TV with cozy red chequered table cloths, a wood fire oven, and ladies behind the counter busy making pizza and pasta for you. We ordered a 4 seasons pizza (6EUR) and a personal sized lasagna (8EUR) - both of which came out of the wood oven! It was so delicious. We came in just before noon and there was only one other table filled but as we were leaving this place filled almost to the max and when we were driving out, people were waiting for our parking spot! WIth a beer and capuccion, our total was only 18.50 for too and we were so full.We really felt it was traditional Italian home cooking - awesome comfort food. We are still wishing to go back!

The eight of us stayed at Casale Giotto in Vecchio for a week and had the pleasure of dinning at O…read morePer Bacco for three dinners. The service we received from the owner was fantastic from the first moment we arrived. If you like spicy, the owner makes his housemade spicy olive oil that adds a nice kick and touch to the food (luckily we were given a few bottles to take home with us)! We had read wonderful reviews of theirs restaurant and I'm happy to say that every dish was delicious and lived up to expectation! We've basically tried everything on the menu between the eight of us and our 3 dinners here. It's hard to pick my favorite dish, but the steak tartare was so fresh and focused on the taste of the beef with its minimalistic presentation. The Spaghetti alla chitarra al ragù di pesce was very different and the first that I've seen on a menu, but oh so delicious! The Tagliata di manzo con rucola, parmigiano e patate al forno is quite memorable, with its fresh taste of grill on the medium rare sliced steak. The tiramisu here is a must have and does run out, so make sure you have the owner out one aside for when you're ready for dessert. There is just something special in the food here that make it so delicious, the service is attentive and warm, and that tiramisu is really something else! So glad this restaurant was a part of our Tuscan experience - can't wait to go back for another few meals! Thank you for such a memorable Tuscan dining experience, O Per Bacco! The Mack Family

THE best food I ate my entire trip in Italy (by-far)…read more You have it in your mind that just because you are in Italy that everything is going to be better than Olive Garden or Chef Boyardee. Nope. This place met all my expectations of what a small-town Italian ristorante is meant to be. Our visit to another place locally yielded poor results, with sub-par food and offerings proving my point that our idea of Italian food doesn't hold water. O'perBacco was recommended by another great Trattoria that was closing due to our American stereotypical attention to details such as hours of operation. Oops. That mistake ended up being a blessing in disguise as the location on the piazza with the statue of Giotto made for the perfect backdrop with Italian families enjoying the beautiful weather. This is what I had envisioned when signing up for this trip. This is the postcard-picture you hope for. We were greeted immediately, and sat on the piazza for that little extra touristy flare that worked perfect for our group. In broken English, and menus in English for our less informed, we ended up chosing all the specials and NOT ONE PERSON complained. House wine was on-point, and the food quality was tremendously fresh and well prepared for what I had fear was going to be another bust. Not tonight Luigi. I would come back to Italy JUST to eat at this place.

I was in Lucca and stopped here for dinner. The reviews were good and the menu online showed more…read morefish being offered I thought they would have more seafood, but being in Tuscany, I realized that most places don't. That's OK. The inside was very homey and nice. The owners, I believe are a husband and wife team who are helpful. Salmon carpaccio was an appetizer special - it was excellent Swordfish for the main was a mistake. Should have stuck with a pasta. This fish looked like it was frozen and it's was fair, nothing special. Tiramisu for dessert was so good. totally made up for the swordfish. It was made fresh that day and you could tell. This and the service raised the rating from to 4.

Both the gorgonzola gnocchi and the lasagna were some of the best dishes we have had in Lucca…read more Great service and a super helpful staff