Mattacena in Florence

Small place with great service and delicious food, short walk from Piazza Santa Maria de Novella.

Around the corner from the apartment we are renting is a restaurant that is not only charming but the food is terrific.The owner, chef, and our waitress went out of their way to to make us feel welcomed.The very unique thing about this restaurant is they give you and opportunity to try half portions of some of the menu items. We had 3 for starters : Pasta with sardines and anchoviesPotato dumpling with broccoli and walnutsMortadella Mousse with pistachiosAll were delicious and the chef even shared his recipe for the Mousse!This left a little room for two mains : a small steak and a boneless chicken dish both served with roasted potatoes.We are in Florence for 3 more weeks and certainly will go back to this wonderful restaurant.Joanne and Bill StrauchonArizona, USA

We had a thoroughly enjoyable evening at Mattacena when we visited for dinner. The restaurant is really well located and was easy to find. As soon as you walk in the front door you feel welcomed and the staff were very friendly from start to finish.The menu is big, and there is so much to choose from that it took us a while to figure out what to have. I settled on a really delicious Ricotta Tortellini followed by the by an equally tasty Tuscan Beef Stew (apologies I have forgotten it’s name in Italian!). My partner really enjoyed both his Steak Tartare and Osobuco too. To finish we had Tiramisu, which were great, and rounded off the evening perfectly.If you’re looking for a tasty meal out that is reasonably priced in Florence, Mattacena should certainly be on your radar.

Classic, chilled tuscan restaurant, I really loved it. I ate vegetable soup and chicken filet with almonds. Both food and wine were excellent and delicious. The owner himself, Leonardo have come to my table and asked me about the goods. Tutto cerano bene e delizioso, grazie. Arrivederci.

I came to Mattacena with my boyfriend who is Italian and three friends who are from Germany. Italian food is the best and sometimes when others request a change to a traditional dish as we did with our Florentine steak most people do it reluctantly. The staff at Mattacena did not bat an eyelash at our request. They were extremely kind, professional, and quick to assist us with anything we needed. The steak was cooked perfectly and so delicious. We also had some sides of potato and spinach. Even the bruschetta was very tasty and had a great flavor. The prices are excellent for a central location in Florence with high quality food like this. The bathroom was clean and I can’t thank the kind server and owner enough for the warm smiles and care that night! I will definitely be back and recommend to others who visit the city. Thank you!

Delicious food, very nice restaurant and friendly staff.

Cozy place, with professional but yet not very friendly personal. Pasta was really tasty though and meat was good quality. You can order 1/2 portion, which is very handy when you want to try more items on a menu.We visited twice in a begining and at the end of our stay in Florence, both times wines and proseccos we wanted to order were sold out.

Good place located not far from the center. The day I went there was no air conditioning or maybe it was broken

Very expensive 150 euros for 4 .if not odering half portion you had it.

Good atmosphere and the chefs really knows what theyre doing. Our one issue was the price of the water and the bread, but thats typical of most restaurants.

Delicious food and lovely service. Steak was tender and well done.

Very good, we eat crostini and a fabulous bistecca fiorentina. I have lived in tuscany many years and am not the type of person who get fooled by tourism traps, so trust me when I say that this restaurant have a true authentic tuscan cuisine. Service was also very good and fast with nice waiters/waitress.

By pure chance we sat in for dinner at this restaurant and it was a good decision for sure! Service was awesome, in both English or Spanish...and the food was excellent. We had the beef carpaccio followed by the Manza (beefFiorentino, and this beef is next level good. So tender, you slice it like butter with a hot knife!Now, this platter is for the hard-core beef lovers, since its served bloody red, and this is the way its meant to be served and eaten. I can fully recommend Mattacena for an awesome Fiorentine meal... Enjoy!

Very good restaurant. Traditional streak cuisine plus many other good dishes, like vegetarian options. Especially the mixed antipasti from the house is highly recommended! The portions are appropriate for the price. We were for people. Discount worked as well.

Very nice place with tasty ffod in center of Firenze.

Very polite staff and so delicious food. Pasta, meat and desserts are of very high quality and richful taste. Highly recommend.

An excellent restaurant. Great food and friendly staff. Will definitely use again. Very clean and interesting decor.

Went for the Florentine steak! Was really tasty, would highly recommend the sautéed spinach as well. Staff were friendly too.

I was going to give this a one star but they didn’t charge me for the most messed up dish. Their pappardelle with mushrooms was really bad. The mushrooms were slimy and the pasta was too al dente and bland without sauce. We had a salad to which had poor quality beef and a seed that almost broke one of my teeth. Also the bread had the texture of cardboard

Nice restaurant, totally VFM, good service

Found this gem on our stay in Florence. The service was great and the food well prepared and flavorful. Would definitely come back!

15 euro for a smal dish, i have never seen in my life.Horrible, too much expensive and low quality

Nice food without being spectacular. The pasta was a bit too al dente and the sauce was decent again without being anything to write home about. The beef in the Tuscan beef & wine stew was excellent and extremely tender , the sauce was a bit bitter IMO. I was happy enough with the meal.

Cardboard for bread, staff forgot about us and had to be searched for just to take order, no beets in gnocchi despite advertised. Semifreddo was rock hard. Overall bland and poor; resting on their laurels so much it is ground into the ground.

As a florence native I strongly recommend this restaurant.The menu includes typical dishes perfectly cooked and the place is stunning.As a vegetarian I had at least one option per section in the menu - which is quite uncommon in Florence.I had the mushrooms pasta (tagliatelle ai porciniwhich was good but not necessarily remarkable. My boyfriend got the gnocchi with blue cheese, sausage and nuts and it was insane!The staff is very friendly and the service is super fast.100% recommended.

A little disappointed especially with selecting of a non meat dish which arrived with a meat sauce over the pasta. There was no mention whatsoever if that dish having meat. We waited a fair while to be seated and didnt enjoy our eating experience here.

I usually do not leave reviews, but this is my very first bad experience eating out in Italy (and I’m a vegetarian). I ordered probably the most disappointing veggie burger I’ve ever had. The bread was old, burned and really dry; it didn’t come with any sides; and the patty was flavorless. Extremely overpriced. I have to say that the waitress was really nice (and the service in general was fine), but the food was not. They wanted to compensate for what I guess they were able recognize was an awful burger with some courtesy biscotti (sconesbut those were so old and hard that they had to bring me a glass with some liquor to try to soften it — unsuccessfully…

Had the 1kg Tuscan T-bone steak here and it was absolutely delicious. The chef even came to my table to check if I agreed with the slice he was about to cook

It is a steak place, yet the donness was different from what we ordered.They have a good looking antipasti menu, but the 2 antipasties I tried were tasteless.the bread does not taste good :(They serve caprese with dried basil on top of sliced tomato and mozzarella.The restaurants doesnt have a terrace, but is quite big and air conditioned Inside

This is a quite place near the center of the downtown. But the restaurant offers variety of items with good taste. And the price is reasonable.

My wife will probably rate it superb. I on my side do not recommend it and will not ever go back. We were there for the bisteca florentina (typical dish if in Florence). We order an antipasti (appetizera pasta, and a florentina (I speak italian good enough to have a quick casual conversation, have spoken it since 10 YO and went to a school which secon language was ItalianI was asked if I wanted my soup and pasta before the bisteca to which I answered yes, but never came. The bisteca came first, I ordered medium but was rare (so rare that my wife who enjoys medium rare, complaint it was rather rawsent it back, came back and was probably medium rare not medium which in a cut similar to a T bone I HATE! i had to switch to English and complained that I had not got the other food....The blond young female waitress at 2 pm -with an attitude- wanted to argue, I just told her I did not want it. The place is nice, my wife enjoyed the beef and in fairness (which you will find everywhwere to the extent the cow was raised is the Toscana/Florence regionthe quality of the beef was good. Bread, olive oil, wine and water were good but none of this are dependant on the restaurant itself....thank god I had a discount....would have been MUCH MORE DISSAPPOINTED if having to pay full price....Anyway make your own conclusion, I personally believe there are much better places, with better food, better service, and better prices

Could not rate highly enough. Very friendly staff. Modern, yet charming restaurant with a fantastic menu and many options depending on how you prefer to dine. We shared a number of half plates which were all delicious. Not the cheapest restaurant you will find, but worth every cent.

Not good, unfortunately, had the Italian vegetable soup, it was barely warm. Also had the papardelle with mushrooms, the pasta was okay but the mushrooms were gross they tasted like pickled mushrooms super salty and vinegary. Everything I ate in Florence was great up until this place. Service was fine and prices were pretty low but dont go, dont waste your time.

Chose this place because of the good review, but the food was rather disappointing. Ordered two starters and both were either tasteless or not tasty. The steak was a bit overcooked, quite hard to bite. The waiters were not very attentive and welcoming, the food took pretty long to arrive as well.Yet, I do like the humours menu and the fact that you can order half portion. And they have one of the best tiramisu Ive ever tasted!

Good presentation of the plate.I had a risotto with black rice and some seafoods and that was very good. Tiramisù was also good.The owner told me to write a nice comment if it was good and it made me laughing, but I really had a good lunch time there.

One of the most disappointing meals I had in my life. With the pretty decent reviews on Google, Yelp, and TA, I decided to give this place a try especially since they were offering 50% off via TheFork. However, I left in the middle of my meal as the steak wasnt very good nor was it cooked to the doneness I requested. Honestly, felt like the 48 EURs I paid (post-discountwas a complete waste of money as I could have gotten a much cheaper and better meal at a local pizzeria or fast food joint.The service was disappointing as well as they brought out a salad (made to order with up to six ingredientsbut without one of the ingredients we requested as they didnt have any of it left. Shouldnt they have at least asked us whether we wanted something else instead?

Had some lovely antipadto and shared numerous 1/2 plates of mains between 4 of us. Everything was absolutely beautiful, especially the rabbit and the pasta with cured pork and truffles. Desserts lovely ad well. 10 mins off the beaten track but well worth the visit. Close to train station.

I came here three days in a row during my stay in Florence! The food is exceptional, you can find both traditional and revisited dishes. Of course, you should try the real Fiorentina steak! As a dessert, if youre not completely full (even if you areyou should try the compote with vin santo and cantucci! I absolutely suggest this place, both for the food and for the very friendly staff!

As tourists, exactly what we had hoped for a classic florentine steak. The menu and atmosphere set a high expectation and the food was fantastic. We all tried different cuts of steak and loved it. Restaurant was clean and the staff was friendly. Would recommend to anyone looking for an authentic experience!

Excellent food and smart communication through the menu. Also, there is an intersting story about the roots of this restaurant on the plate paper, really nice to read it during the wait. The place is cozy, nice decorated, nice visuals. The menu has 1/2 portions, so you can order more 🤔. The prices are medium. The coffee is good. The dessert was not so tasteful, but it looked good. Weve tried the 20€ menu, for two persons. It was more than enough. The second meal was a surprise from the chef - check the pictures. 😊

Authentic Italian Ristorante with good service & reasonable price (considering location)!!

Food was great, atmosphere was cute, menu had variety, and was easy to understand. Unfortunately, -3 stars because the service was the worst we received during our two weeks in Italy; we were left unattended throughout the entirety of our meal, needing to get up and literally find the waitress. To drive home the poor service...we ordered tiramisu - the waitress misunderstood and brought cheesecake - no harm, but she literally proceeded to argue with us. I get the language barrier, but this is the only restaurant in dozens that we had any trouble at. My recommendation, if American, find elsewhere - there are plenty of highly rated options available to you.

I ordered just plain chicken and spinach and the chicken was crispy, tender & moist-amazing! I wish I had gotten the full portion! My friend ordered the beef w/ carmelized oinions and we both agreed this is the best meal we’ve had yet in Florence!

If you are looking for good vegetarian/vegan food, this place wont disappoint you. Casual dinning with kids and they can customize. Additionally, you can order half portions if you are not too hungry or would like to try additional dishes.

We had a family dinner without reservation. Good steak. But medium to well done turned out to be very very well done. I think the barbecue also wasnt prepared properly since the meat wasnt grilled homogeneously. Some parts were burnt, some were bloody. But this could be my bad luck. So I just kept 1 star in my pocket. Recommended.

A hidden wonder. The menu is very extended, complete and also very peculiar because of the mezza porzione. You can order half portions of almost every antipasto (also at half the price). This makes Mattacena unlike any other restaurant I have visited in Firenze.The Mattapiatto, a plate of cured meats and small aperitivos of your own choosing, is excellent, plentiful and well priced. Truly recommended.Overall, good place!

Found this gem by wandering around the streets of Florence at night. Plenty of variety with the option of half-size meals - and the food is sublime! Staff are friendly and multi-lingual. We loved this restaurant so much we came back for more the next night.Great food, great service, great value. Eat here - you wont regret it.

This place came up as one of the top places when I searched for steak in Florence. It did not disappoint. We came and were immediately seated.The service was absolutely amazing and very cheerful and friendly.When choosing our steak the waitress made recommendations and we were very pleased with what we received. We could not have been happier with the food, service and the experience as a whole!

Great place for regional/locally sourced good with both a traditional and modernised items. We did a tapas type stoke of eating with half servings of specific dishes. Theres also an organic tilt too for all those who care.

Wonderful service and food. Not only has premium steak cooked just right, but has write a variety of half dishes. If you like variety, half dishes are the way to go. Great desserts to top off the meal.