Restaurants in Northern & Western Tuscany
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La Corte dei Vini
Strategically placed between Piazza Napoleone and Piazza San Michele, this friendly ‘enoteca e picola cucina’ (wine bar and small kitchen) is a great choice for an aperitivo or casual meal. It specialises in rustic dishes, including tortelli Lucchesi (meat ravioli) and minestra di farro della Garbagnana (soup made with spelt). Get here early to score a choice table on the front terrace.
reviewed
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Cantina Senese
Food- and value-conscious harbour workers are the first to fill the long wooden tables at this wonderfully unpretentious and friendly eatery, with neighbourhood families arriving later. Ordering is frequently done via faith in one’s server, rather than by menu. The mussels are exceptionally good, as is the cacciucco di pesce (fish stew).
reviewed
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Trattoria da Leo
Ask a local to recommend a lunch spot, and they will inevitably nominate this bustling trattoria. The clientele of tourists, students, workers and ladies taking a break from shopping have one thing in common: an appreciation for the cheap food and friendly ambience on offer. The food ranges from acceptable to delicious, with stand-out dishes including the vitello tonnato (cold veal with a tuna and caper sauce) and torta di fichi e noci (fig and walnut tart). No credit cards.
reviewed
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Enoteca D.O.C. Parole e Cibi
Changes its menu weekly; you can enjoy fresh pasta dishes, superb seafood and a variety of carpaccio served with bread that - for once - is entirely worth that vexing coperto (cover charge in restaurants). The wines are excellent; it styles itself as an enoteca, olioteca (oil) and whiskyteca so you can be confident of getting top quality lubricants, whatever your preference. For dessert, a sugary, chocolate pastry, with vanilla cream.
reviewed
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Ristoro al Vecchio Teatro
The Vecchio Teatro’s genial host is proud of his set menu, and for good reason. The four courses are dominated by local seafood specialities and diners will encounter delights such as torta di ceci infranti con le arselle (an unusual savoury cake of smashed chickpeas with mussels) and risotto with prawns and orange. The dessert finale includes a castagnaccio (sweet chestnut cake) that has been known to prompt diners to spontaneous applause.
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Antica Trattoria il Campano
The adventurous Tuscan menu - pasta with leeks in cod sauce, octopus salad, or beef marinated with tomatoes, almonds and hazelnuts - at this long-time trattoria has the added advantage of being translated in English. Of the dining areas - under vaulted arches down or beneath bare rafters up - downstairs is the more elegant. Tagliere del Re (minimum two people) - a wonderfully rich platter of 12 kinds of Tuscan antipastos - is a meal in itself.
reviewed
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Il Montino
Students and sophisticates alike adore the cecina (chickpea pizza) and spuma (a sweet, non-alcoholic drink) that are the specialities of this famous pizzeria. You can follow their lead or instead opt for a foccacine (flat roll) filled with salami, pancetta or porchetta (pork). Order to go or claim one of the outdoor tables. You’ll find it in the laneway behind Caffetiera Ginostra.
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Cibbé
Wine bottles fill the shelves and tables are marble-topped at this no-frills osteria tucked behind a box-hedge terrace. Hailed by Slow Food as a gatekeeper of local culinary custom, Cibbé is the place to try bozza di Prato (a round unsalted bread loaf typical to Prato) and mortadella di Prato (smoked pork salami spiced with black pepper corns, nutmeg, coriander and garlic).
reviewed
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La Clessidra
At the upper end of Pisa's dining scale, La Clessidra cooks up a clutch of themed menus, including a menu tipico di Pisano (minimum two people) featuring wholly local fare, and a seafood equivalent, in a formal setting. Dolci (desserts) are girth-widening and the tourist-free green lawns of neighbouring Piazza Martiri della Libertà are a post lunch siesta delight.
reviewed
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Osteria dei Cavalieri
The Slow Food recommendation for central Pisa, this osteria (wine bar) serves a high-speed, one-dish only - but what a dish - the lunchtime special alongside an enticing array of other tasty morsels, including carpaccio di pulpo (octopus carpaccio). Although the size of portions may mean a siesta afterwards, the set meals are worth it and the wine list is impressive.
reviewed
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Locanda di Bacco
It is strictly cucina lucchese e Toscana - albeit of a refreshingly creative nature - at this fine specimen of a restaurant, grandly situated in an old building, with marble-topped tables. Pappardelle with hare, gnocchi with gorgonzola, honey and nuts, or a side order of cabbage cooked in red pepper wine, garlic and oil are among the many dishes with an imaginative twist.
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Locanda Buatino
A Lucca legend, this age-old trattoria - it is reckoned to be Lucca's oldest - with a fun 'n' funky air of retro wafting through it, has the added advantage of being a short walk from the madding crowds, outside the city walls. Chef Angelo chalks up a different menu daily - cionca (veal's head) is a speciality. Live jazz sets the place jiving Monday, October to May.
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Machiavelli
A much-loved Lucca favourite alongside Leo, this funky old-fashioned osteria has a definite retro air to it. Walls are pea-green, the bar is painted lavender-blue and the clientele is staunchly loyal, local, fun and of all ages. There is live music some nights and the cuisine - salted cod with leeks, chickpea soup and grilled pork ribs etc - ooze natural flavour.
reviewed
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Osteria La Barrocciaia
The worst-kept dining secret in Livorno it may be, but locating Barrocciaia still takes a careful eye, what with it being the most inconspicuous facade and well-hidden sign in Piazza Cavallotti. Big sandwiches (€5) are sold out of the tiny front room, but with luck and timing you can score a table and enjoy the real reason every local speaks of this place with reverence.
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Trattoria della Faggiola
This popular trattoria recently changed hands, and its loyal clientele suffered a few sleepless nights before the new owners managed to convince them that standards wouldn’t slip. Breathing sighs of relief, they continue to choose from the three or four daily specials per course, eaten in the homely interior or at streetside tables. No credit cards.
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La Tana
With friendly service and affordable prices, La Tana is a popular venue for students and staff from the nearby university. Its fare is served up on rustic wooden tables and you can snuggle down in the booths. If you're in a rush to get back to some serious monument bashing, go for the pasta veloce - served with haste and lots of taste.
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La Libertaria
Seating capacity and backdrops are meagre, but the food here is divine. The linguine sarde e finocchietto (pasta with sardines and fennel) is an unlikely treat, and the cooked-to-perfection tonno in crosta di pistacchi (tuna fillet with pistachio crust) may actually keep you in Portoferraio an extra night for a second helping.
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Enoteca Osteria Il Colonnino
Located in the warren of medieval streets between Piazza San Francesco and the river, Il Colonnino is a great spot for lunch, aperitivo or dinner, with modern-accented Italian dishes providing perfect accompaniments to an impressive wine list. The weekday lunch deal of a daily plate, water and glass of ‘good wine’ (€10) is a steal.
reviewed
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Caffè di Simo
This atmospheric Art Nouveau cafe-bar-restaurant was once patronised by Puccini and his coterie (the maestro would tickle the ivories of the piano at the entrance to the dining area). These days, locals stand at the bar for coffee or aperitivo and sit at the tables to enjoy their selection from the daily €10 lunch buffet.
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Osteria Baralla
Dine beneath magnificent red-brick vaults at this busy osteria, inevitably packed to the rafters by noon. Rich in tradition (the place dates to 1860) and local specialities, its menu highlights include soup with new-season olive oil, salt cod and chickpeas, bollito misto on Thursday and roast pork on Saturday.
reviewed
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Gigi Trattoria
Buzzing by noon, this 1950s cantina on the old market square - revamped by three young Lucchesi in the new millennium - is another hot address among Lucchese. Recipes are plucked straight out of grandma's cookbook, local contemporary art to buy hangs on the walls and simplicity is the predominant philosophy driving the place.
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Taddeucci
This pasticceria (pastry shop) is where the traditional Lucchesi treat of buccellato was created in 1881. A ring-shaped loaf made with flour, sultanas, aniseed seeds and sugar, it’s the perfect accompaniment to a mid-morning or -afternoon espresso (coffee and slice of buccellato, €3.50).
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Bar Pasticceria Salza
Salza has been tempting patrons off Borgo Stretto and into sugar-induced wickedness ever since the 1920s. Claim one of the tables in the arcade, or save some money by standing at the bar – the excellent coffee and dangerously delicious cakes and chocolates will satisfy regardless of where they are sampled.
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Osteria del Porton Rosso
Two menus – one from the land and one from the sea – tempt at this old-fashioned but excellent osteria in a laneway behind the Royal Victoria Hotel. Here, Pisan specialities such as fresh ravioli with salted cod and chickpeas happily coexist with Tuscan classics such as grilled fillet steak.
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Buca di Sant’Antonio
This atmosphere-laden restaurant dates to 1782 and is an outstanding spot for tasting top-notch Italian wines. Its flattering lighting and banquette seating make it a favourite destination for romantic dinners, and its standards of service are unmatched in the city. Bookings essential.
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