Il Desco Bistrot in Florence

Had a delicious caprese salad and the server was lovely. It’s a very short walk from the Academia, highly suggest going afterwards!

Amazing restaurant we stumbled upon our first night in Florence. Food was fresh and prepared in the dining room which was a treat to watch. One of my top 2 meals in my month travels!

One of the best choices we made, the waiter was really welcoming and friendly, the food was really nice taste and presentation wise

Not only was this the best meal I’ve had in Florence (and the best I’ve had in a very long time in general), I loved getting to know the chef Luca and waiter Filippo - wonderful and talented staff, they’ll make you feel right at home in this incredible restaurant. Many of their ingredients come from their nearby farm, including the delicious olive oil and fresh veggies.They have a great selection of vegetarian choices too, perfect for a veggie like myself.

One of our favorite stops! The menu is limited, but delightful and unique. Our waiter was the best we had in Italy. So friendly and obviously in love with his city. And they have gluten free bread!

Very impressed with the service and the freshness of the vegetable platter. Enjoyable dinner!

The food was great, we absolutely loved the broccoli flan! The staff was very kind and welcoming and talked a bit with us. It was the best food in our entire stay! The chocolate cake dessert was so good!

Stop reading this and just dine here, great food and service. Lots of veggies available.

The food is delicious (especially the broccoli flan!), with many vegetarian options! The dishes are beautiful to see, almost a shame to eat them ;). Service was also kind and they think along with you which wines you should pair with your food. Will definitely come back when in florence again!

Best seitan we ever had. Food is delicious and combos are very interesting (salad with peach and sesam). Very sad we only have one evening here.Service is very friendly and very well English speaking.

We came across this place by lucky accident since it was literally next to our b&b. For me, it was a really nice experience, but for my partner who is celiac with lactose intolerance it was something special. It is not common to be able to have home made GF pasta with lactosefree mozzarella in the restaurant and many other suitable and fresh choices. We were seated for very late lunch even though it was almost before afternoon pause. Thank you.

Had an amazing dinner here the night before I left Florence, concluding my trip to Italy with perfect food and service. The staff is extremely attentive and warm with incredible smile (his name may have been Philipo?). The price is very reasonable as well. You will regret not visiting here if you go to Florence. Highly recommend, will bring my friends here again!

What a beautiful gem in Florence!I was very pleased to discover this hidden spot: you can eat original and delicious vegetarian dishes surrounded by great atmosphere, arts and super kind staff! Being italian, I was very surprised to discover such an original place so close to the city center that has maintained the italian quality but integrating modern hip style :Price was reasonable cheap, and very worth the delicious meals we had! Buonissimoooo!

Wonderful experience overall. We loved the fact that everything we ate came from the area. A number of wines was available as a glass which was a plus. Casio-e-pepe was great. Everyone should try their cheesecake though. Warm, soft, so satisfying!

Found the restaurant while we were walking in the small town of firenze and it looks so interesting that most of the menue was built with organic local products !You should give it a try.Its a bit pricy compared my standards but over all was fine!Staff was friendly and ready to answer every question about the menue!So the order for 2 persons was1 plate with bread baked with olive oil and garlic1 lasagne Al ragu1 rabbit stuffed with plums1 brocoli flan1 braised savvoi gabbage1 bottle of watter1 glass of proseccoAll that for 56 eurosI belive it was fair..P. SDONT FORGET TO TIP!!

Very recomended Place with different courses vs other places. High level courses for reasonable price.place for company up to 12 Peoples.high level service

We ate here on the recommendations of a friend and were very glad we did! They serve delicious organic food freshly sourced from their family farm in Reggello, a few kilometres from Florence. Plenty of vegetarian options for me and some great meat ones for my partner. Great service, and each dish is served with care and attention to detail. All the food was good but the salted caramel cheesecake was especially amazing!

The food is delicious. You can taste that the vegetables are garden fresh. I had the best eggplant parmigiana I’ve ever had in my life here. The staff is wonderful and very attentive. Dessert was yummy and beautifully presented.

Tuscan food with a contemporary twist - carefully considered combinations and flavours prepared with organically grown, seasonal ingredients. The menu changes seasonally and there are often special dishes for the day. It is an intimate restaurant and gets busy on Fridays and weekends so booking is recommended. Helpful service and great wine recommendations. I ate in Il Desco Bistrot 4 or 5 times on my last visit to Florence - and it did not disappoint.

Amazing food! I definitely recommend it. Good quality ingredients and tasteful dish. Try the lasagna, it is extraordinary. They also have a nice patio where you can sit and be away from the heat and the craziness. Not to mention it is right next to the Dome and the Academia.

Easily the best meal weve eaten during our time in Italy! Best lasagna ever!!! For dessert, I had the cheesecake which was so delicious!! My partner had the chocolate souffle, which was simply amazing!! Staff are very knowledgeable and very friendly, thankfully speaking better English than my Italian. The restaurant is small and intimate and the chef prepares your meals in full sight. It was so good to see him at work, and the attention to detail that was taken over every meal. I highly recommend this restaurant!

Perfect little gem with fresh and affordable food. Unpretentiously delicious.

Cosy restaurant with very decent prices, both for food and drinks (decent selection of wines at all price points). Staff was friendly and the food is truly outstanding. I would highly recommend their lasagne and cheesecake. The homemade limoncello offered at the end of the meal was the cherry on top of an already excellent dinner.

Gluten Free Menu! Clean and intimate restaurant with a great menu and good service.

Incredible food. Service was excellent. Very friendly waiter. Literally the best Lasagna Ive ever consumed. Dessert was a no-brainer-- Strawberry cheesecake was perfect. No cover either. Be aware, you may need a reservation. Small venue. Hurry up and go there!

Small restaurant with a limited menu but excellent service. Given the ratings, we expected better quality food. The appetizers especially the aubergine muffin with Burrata cheese, off the menu, was very good. The main dishes of crepes with asparagus as well as the vegetarian lasagna were ok but nothing out of the ordinary. The desert was apple muffin with peanuts ice cream was also ok. It could have been much better.

Chef is amazing. Food was delicious. I had the chicken cacciatore...perfection! We had 2 platters of various meats and cheeses to begin our meal. Beautifully plated. Need reservations. Place is quite popular.

We decided to come to this restaurant based on Google reviews and we werent disappointed. Its recommended to reserve a table as it will be full.Great Gluten free and dairy free options and the food is to die for! Staff were very aware of allergies and knew exactly what was and was not suitable. They were absolutely fantastic and I cant rate them highly enough. Fast service, even when busy and when there was a small error, it was quickly corrected and they offered a complimentary lemoncello (so all round great customer service).Toilets were clean and but there was one for everyone (not split out into ladies/gentlemen etc).Loved that the food was organic, local and fresh and you could taste that in the dishes.If youre looking for a great gluten free restaurant (or in general a great restaurant), please go to this one. You wont be disappointed.

I never write reviews but this is Absolutely the best lasagna I’ve ever had and lasagna is my all time favorite food ever. So i have it everywhere. This place has amazing food and is very casual so you don’t have to ha e two hours to eat here. Unless you want to. Which is not a bad thing.

Amazing food! My wife has celiac disease and we ate here so easily. The food was some of the best of our two week trip to Italy and the staff was very friendly. It was fun to watch the chief prepare most of dishes right in front of you and the restaurant was very clean and nice. Highly recommend!

Fantastic restaurant! One of the best vegetarian meals we had, ever!All the culinary creations were delicious! The wine was great! The service was great too!We will definitely go back to this restaurant the next time we stop by Florence/Firenze.

Delicious food and beautifully fresh! We got local salad and lasagne...yum!!! Best meal in Italy so far! Don’t expect Olive oil with your table bread, but it was fantastic that they serve Brown breads instead of the usual white. We wanted to try their raved about Olive Oil but it wasn’t served at the table. We ordered and paid for it separately. No cover charge to sit in restaurant, but would be better to have a good cover charge and access to a bottle of their delicious Olive Oil! And to be able to buy it afterward would have been amazing too! We will be back!

This is the best restaurant in Florence! All fresh ingredients and such a friendly staff! They have daily specials which are hard to pass up. I come here almost daily every time I visit Florence. And their desserts are amazing! You must visit!

My mother ordered the spaghetti with squid fresh tomatoes and olives and she said it was the best pasta she’d ever had in her life. The food is simple but prepared with the utmost care. I had the orrechiate pasta with eggplant and burrata. Excellent pasta dish. We travelled all over Tuscany for 10 days and this was one of the best plates I ate all week. It’s one of the few places in Florence where you can get rustic brown bread dropped on the table as part of the meal. It is a nice change from white bread and overall delicious. Highly recommend eating here if passing through Florence. Very low key, great food and enjoyable.

The degustation menu was fantastic, I was eating alone and they provided a beautiful selection of food and wine with great service and attention to detail. I highly recommend this restuarant.

Very small. Nice decor - especially this ‘painting’ on the wall. Had this roasted veal with salad, tender meat and salad with great flavor. A little too salty though... reduce your use of salt, chef 🤨

Excellent food. The best restaurant in Florence and Italy. Very friendly owner as well. The food is to die for. The taste is still in my mouth. We had the Spanish flan with sheep ricotta cheese & the codfish mousse for appetizer. Both were amazing. For primi the puréed bean soup with octopus, and for secondi we had the veal roast beef with was out of this world. For dolce we had raspberry ice cream and strawberry Bavarian. We highly recommend. We booked the restaurant for the next 2 nights.

Delicious food, excellent service, lovely wine and fantastic family-produced olive oil. My wife and I each had a meal of 4 courses and enjoyed every minute of it. Highly recommended for those in Florence/Firenze and with sensitivities to gluten or dairy.

Pretty good food - lovely flavours, but the pasta in my lasagna was ever so slightly overcooked - didn’t mind it too much when the porcini and salsiccia were so good. Service was good enough, though one of the waiters refused to pour a little olive oil on a plate for us saying that it was too precious, and that he’d only consent to pour a few drops on a slice of bread (?). We’re Spanish, so it’s not like we’ve never had good olive oil before... 😂

Got here after the TripAdvisor recommendations. and they were good.This is a non-mainstream restaurant with a warm and outgoing personnel.The menu is rather short, therefore the dishes are very delicious.Had one of my best cooked lamb. Cake great as well.Prices are are rather low to middle class. As we spent our last evening in Firenze and Italy - it was a perfect place to do it. Thank you for that!

A really nice place with great food and service. Lovely courtyard. If it was a bit cheaper it would be perfect.

What a gem. I rarely give 5s but this was the best meal weve had in Italy. Classic, fresh and with a couple of twists to make the dishes pop. Well worth a visit.Veg is grown by her sister just outside of Florence, and the love really shows.... Curiously all the staff had the most beautiful hands! An odd observation especially after visiting The David, but there you go!

Excellent experience. Delicious food. This place was perfect for my husband and I as Im vegan and hes a meat eater. Presentation is phenomenal and there are many vegetable based options on the menu. Highly recommended.

Very, very good food at reasonable prices in a casual atmosphere.And the staff was very welcoming and attentive.

Open kitchen, rapid service, warm and welcoming atmosphere, very tasty authentic food. Its not snobby, its not pretentious, its just good quality ingredients prepared well. Gluten free seemed to get a mention on the menu if you care about that.

This restaurant is absolutely amazing! If youre looking for a place to go in Florence, stop searching. This is the one. The atmosphere was lovely; the main area of the restaurant is cosy and intimate and has bright and appealing decor. The waiters (I believe ours was called Shamswere lovely and genuinely interested in us as customers. They also knew a heck of a lot about the food and were clearly passionate about what they were producing. And as for the food, it was superb. It was all organically sourced and was cooked to perfection. It was clean, tasty and healthy. I loved this place. If youre into healthy foods, if you need vegan or gluten free food or just appreciate some very fine dishes, visit this place! Thank you to everyone there for such a lovely dining experience.

I researched gluten free places in Florence and was so happy to find this gem. After a morning of sightseeing we found the bistro. We sat and had delicious glass of wine while they made us lunch. They presented me with an amazing bowl of gluten free pasta with wild boar. It was amazing!!! Lunch was so good that we decided to try dinner during our stay as well. Dinner was a 5 course dinner that was incredible. Shams was so attentive, kind, fun and the perfect host we could have wished for. Food, wine and fun! We highly recommend this wonderful bistro. Fresh and delicious! Make a reservation if you want dinner since it is a hidden gem. And enjoy!! Ciao!

Great quality food. Had a nice starter to share, with some beautifully flavoured salami and a really nice tart. Mains were tasty, both the regular pasta and the gluten free. Really nice service too.

We had a great lunch at this cozy restaurant at few steps from the Accademia Gallery with great organic food. Highly recommended while in Florence.

The words that come to mind are creative, fresh, bold and new. The fennel salad with oranges was delightful. My wife had an artichoke appetizer that didnt disappoint. We both had the daily specials, a pork sirloin and a roasted chicken. This restaurant is not the typical Florentine fare but it is well worth a visit.