Buca Mario
Founded in 1886, Buca Mario is Florence's oldest restaurant and sits in a vaulted cellar just steps from Piazza della Repubblica. It has fed everyone from Orson Welles to generations of Florentine families, and its ribollita, bistecca alla Fiorentina and pappardelle with wild boar remain benchmarks of Tuscan cooking.
What to order
Begin with a crostini misti — chicken liver pâté on grilled bread — which is the canonical Florentine antipasto. Follow it with ribollita, the dense bread-and-black-cabbage soup that is hearty enough to be a meal on its own, especially on a cool evening.
For the main event, the bistecca alla Fiorentina is cut from Chianina beef, grilled over wood coals and served rare (al sangue) — it is priced by weight at roughly €55 per kilogram and shared between two. Ordering it well-done is, politely speaking, not the done thing.
Atmosphere and booking
The dining room is all exposed stone, low arches and white tablecloths — it feels like eating inside a medieval wine cellar, which is essentially what you are doing. The service is formal but warm, and the wine list leans heavily and correctly into Tuscany.
Reservations are strongly recommended for dinner, especially Thursday through Saturday. Book directly through their website or call ahead — a table by the old stone wall is the one to request.
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