Good food, we enjoyed our lunch, it was very good. Service was OK, it was not that busy but we went…read moreduring an off hour.

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.

We came here onto mother-in-laws recommendation. She said they had the best gnocchi she has ever…read morehad. This being my wife's favorite, decided to make a special trip to San Gimignano just to try them out! We made reservations and I am glad we did because by 8pm, every table was full. The place is very small and dark, but they add a small LED light at each table giving just the right amount of light to read the menu. We reviewed the menu only to find that they no longer have gnocchi. She was disappointed at first, but absolutely loved her entree. We weren't vey hungry so no starters tonight, but they brought bread and some sort of potato fritter that had bits of octopus in it. I loved it, my wife stopped eating it when she found out about the octopus! She was fine before I told her. We order a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio and I went for the wild boar ragu while the wife tried I Fagottini Del Contadino, pasta stuffed with pears & pecorino cheese in a saffron and pecorino sauce. Spectacular! The pear had a little sweet and the pecorino a little salt and the sauce was velvety smooth and delicious! My ragu was very hearty with lots of pork. Simply delicious. They had crème brûlée, which is my wife favorite. We still had a little wine left, so she ordered that and I got the double chocolate cake with orange marmalade. We both enjoyed our deserts very much. While they didn't have gnocchi, we both thoroughly enjoyed our meal and will definitely come back the next time we are in town.

Food was delicious! Wine recommendation from the waiter was excellent! Ambiance was typical…read morefamiliar run Italian restaurant and just love that! Would definitely go back and might before we leave San G!

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!

This was an amazing meal. The best lunch we had on vacation (we only went out for lunch)!! This is…read morea beautiful restaurant in an old building. They do have outdoor seating but we loved eating indoors with the cooling effect of the stone building. The service was outstanding!! They had a pre fixed meal but we opted for a la carte. We loved the sparkling wine we started with. It was a brut nature. There were 4 of us so we just shared everything. We started with the prawn carpaccio, it was amazing!! Everything we ordered was delicious but our hands down favorite was the black truffle ravioli. The rabbit tortellini had a lovely red sauce and I don't even like red sauce! It was so good!! That was our second favorite. The pappardella was the last to come out and it was also amazing. The gnocchi was tender and delicious as well. The seafood in it was tender and perfectly cooked. While we may have had favorites it did not decrease the deliciousness of every single thing we ate!! We only ordered one main, and it was the best duck breast we've ever had anywhere!! We also ordered two desserts, which were great. One was a deconstructed tiramisu and the other a pistachio semifreddo. Highly recommend this restaurant for service and food!!

Amazing food! We had the spaghetti with seafood and the octopus. Thus far, this is the best…read morerestaurant we've had in La Spezia.

While in Florence, we took a day trip across Tuscany and stopped at this beautiful winery for…read morelunch. They served us multiple courses, give us several bottles of 4 different wines, and let us explore the beautiful Tuscan hills. The food was good, but the stand outs were the wine and olive oil. They were delicious. The only thing that I wish would have been different is that we were supposed to have lunch outside. It was overcast, but not raining, and they set us up inside instead.

This place was hands down the best part of my ef tour that was optional for a price to eat…read moreauthentic Italian food, see the vineyard and olives that that they are producing. The service was world class and the ambiance was amazing.

We had just gotten to San Gimignano after a few wine tastings and were looking for a nice place for…read moredinner. The agriturismo called here and asked if they could seat two people to which they responded they were completely booked, so we decided to walk in and see if we could get a table and when we arrived they told us a 25 minute wait which we we're fine with. We ordered the minestrone soup, a salad, a side of the white tuscan beans in olive oil, and the spinach with butter. We also got a 1.2 kilogram Bistecca alla Florentina. I had this steak two separate times in Italy before trying it here and it was good, but here it was just too chewy. I know they cook these rare but the texture of the meat was just a no go. The minestrone soup actually tasted exactly like a can of Progresso soup -- nothing special, but the texture of the ingredients was good and the veggies looked fresh. The spinach and beans were good, but I actually wish I ordered pasta instead of the steak because watching them bring pasta over to the other tables, I could tell it looked good. It's hit or miss with the steak sometimes and I guess I just got unlucky this night.

It's been an hour and half at our table since our order. No food and no one has been by to ask if…read morewe want more drinks etc.... Extremely disappointing. Mark

Food, ambience, and service were all outstanding. The pasta was excellent, but the dessert (piatto…read moreforte Lucchese) was especially exceptional which combined different textures and flavors flawlessly. Ambience was beautiful and elegant without being boring or pretentious. Staff were all kind and responded very professionally to requests and questions. Price was unbelievably low considering the quality and the experience.

Food was fabulous. We each had a different pasta dish and…read moreboth were really memorable. The ambiance is very nice as well.

In our week visiting hill towns in Umbria and Tuscany, this restaurant stood out and served what we…read moreconsider in retrospect to be our favorite dinners in the province. Originally we came at the recommendation by the people at our villa, Il Borghese. But it became a consensus winner when it came to our choice for a repeat restaurant. Just off the main street in San Gimignano on a quiet side road, it tends to be a destination restaurant which draws its customers from recommendations and repeats. It didn't show up in the several published guides we were using, but it is clearly an important omission. Among our favorites were the braised wild boar, the chicken with porcini, wild boar with pici (a thick spaghetti pasta) and, most significantly, the gorgonzola souffle. They also had one of the nicest inexpensive red wines from the local area that we came across: the Il Priore was Euro 16 at the restaurant. We liked it so much we found it at the nearby wine store and took two bottles home with us (Euro 10 per bottle at the store). Certainly in San Gimignano, I would make as my first choice, this lovely restaurant.

It is hard to choose the right place to eat sometimes, but don't be put of by the non-descript…read moreentry as once you get inside there is definitely a wow factor. We ate in lots of restaurants in our 2 week visit to Italy and this was by far my favourite. Intimate dining area, magnificent food and staff that go out of their way to make you feel welcome. The place had an eclectic crowd, couples on romantic dates, local families just enjoying a meal together and friends just hanging out. Well worth a visit, it won't disappoint.

This was our first meal of our trip and the rest of the restaurants will have a lot to live up to…read more Excellent food and service. The Owner was very pleasant and gave us some needed advice on our trip to Florence the next day. They were featuring local crease porcini mushrooms. I had the Porcini Mushroom Risotto as the first course and the Veal Lombetini for the second. Both were excellent! My partner had the Porcini Tagliatelle and the Amberjack. They were perfect. Stop by here if you are in town. Allen

Really great meal - found restaurant on Yelp. Food, owner & staff were all top notch. Well work a…read morevisit, you won't be disappointed.

The food was wonderful. An absolute treat. Not your typical menu. The service was very pleasant…read more The atmosphere was lovely

This is the cutest place, the garden is a beautiful eating area, and the food is delicious. I had a…read morepork terrine as a starter that was bursting with flavor, followed by pasta as the primo piatto. This was probably the best pasta I have ever had, perfectly cooked al dente and with an incredibly well seasoned mushroom truffle sauce. The service is very friendly and attentive, and they made a great recommendation for wine. This was the best food we had in our week in Tuscany, and we will definitely come back next time we are in town. I just wish we had Italian restaurants of this quality in the States.