Buca Mario

My wife and I came to Florence on our honeymoon and had the restaurant recommended by my uncle. He said it was a good steakhouse but coming from Texas I was a bit skeptical.
After eating here, it can safely say it was the best steak of my life. A fillet mignon perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned, and smothered in shaved truffle, all over a homemade sauce with a side of mash potatoes. I didn’t want it to end it was so good. The last few bites I cut into tiny pieces to make sure I could savor ever last bite.
If you’re note into steaks my wife had an amazingly simple and delicious homemade spaghetti with tomato basil sauce. Best we’ve tasted in Italy.
The staff was super attentive, it almost felt like our waiter was reading our minds at times. To top it all off, the owner gave us a parting gift of a Bucca Mario apron. Awesome way to remember our honeymoon.
You cannot miss having at least one dinner at this place!

Amazing! Was referred here by a local. Don’t be misguided by the outside appearance it is 5-​star dining. I split the Bistecca Della Fiorentina for 2 with my brother. Huge T-​bone steak, but by far the BEST STEAK I HAVE EVER EATEN IN MY LIFE. And I’ve frequented many a steakhouse. Definitely worth a try if you’re in Florence.

An awesome way to close out the trip to Florence. This restaurant made its way to the radar screen by way of suggestion from the concierge at Palazzo Vecchietti who assured this restaurant served rustic traditional fare and was solid.
We arrived a few minutes early and headed down the flight of stairs to the restaurant and checked in. They seated us shortly thereafter.
I ordered the lasagna upon recommendation from the server as well as the Florentine Steak, sparkling mineral water and a bottle of wine.
The lasagna came out piping hot, was fresh, and good. For lasagna comparisons for the trip it came in second to Da Giovanni’s in Rome which was phenomenal. Appetite piqued, I was anticipating the Florentine steak. And when it came it was massive. The Florentine steak for two could easily feed three. Perfect amount of seasoning, tender steak. It came medium rare, which under normal circumstances would be ok but the menu clearly stated that it would come rare. So in terms of expectations it was a let down. If it came as advertised or the waiter cutting the steak corrected it sua sponte — 1 more star would have been awarded. Especially when the other tables steak came rare. With the exception of one couple ordering it medium well (sigh, butchering the steak experience — too each their own).
No room was left for dessert. And I wasn’t particularly enthused of ordering the dessert from the trolley that was paraded to all the other diners.
Overall solid dining experience, a much better Florentine steak than the one I had a few years back at another restaurant in Florence.

We were suggested by a friend to come here and had our hotel make a reservation. Best suggestion ever! Pasta is homemade soft and creamy melts in your mouth. Mixed crostini were delicious with chicken liver pâté, tomato, mushrooms. Pâté was our favorite. Lasagna was amazing and what we’ve been waiting for since arriving to Italy. Not your typical red sauce but it was delicious. Gnocchi with Gorgonzola was heavy filling and delicious. This meal was a full 5 stars. Service was great. It was busy but waiter was still attentive and not pushy. Restaurant is down below but doesn’t feel like you’re in a basement or claustrophobic. You could get lost in the restaurant because it’s huge with various dining rooms. What a great experience.

This place is awesome. We had the Bisteca Florentina, it was the best we had in Florence. The service was impeccable. I highly recommend this place for Steaks. I suggest you make reservations ahead of time.

Would have given it a better rating if it weren’t for the apron they gave me on the way out. Specifically handed it to me — not my husband — «Madam, this is for you.» I cant be the only woman thats ever been offended by that! Haha cut the apron act, or start handing them to men too, and things would be in better shape.

Fully enjoyed ourselves here. The multilingual staff, with knowledgeable, friendly, gracious, and trustworthy waiters, really made the experience a pleasure.

My family and I followed the recommendations we saw on Unilocal for Buca Mario. What a warm and welcoming restaurant! Our waiter Aldo was friendly and very helpful. He recommended a wonderful Chianti Classico. My son had the Florentine steak; oh my was it fabulous! My tortellini was also delicious.
After a great day in Florence, Buca Mario was a terrific ending. I heartily recommend Buca Mario to visitors of Florence.

Came here in the recommendation of my traveling companions brother. It didn’t open until 7pm so we went from a walk to build our appetite.
The bruschetta was delicious, tomatoes perfectly ripe, with the right balance of basil and balsamic on toasty bread.
Our mains, steak and carpaccio were excellent. We are both people who enjoy steak and enjoyed this restaurant tremendously.
They have half bottles of wine, if that is of interest. And from what we could see, they were all fantastic.
I highly recommend this for a night of great food. It is family run and the love shows in the food and service.

One of my favorite residents in Florence. Great food and a great place to take the family. We reserved their private room one night, great service and food!

Went twice in a week, ate a plenty, left satisfied.
Loved the florentine T-​bone steak and all the other dishes.
Had an entire bottle of red wine and washed it down with some dessert wines.
I will let the pictures do the talking.

Restorante Buca Mario is really on of the more in and better restaurants of Florence. Hence, it’s not the place to just casually stop by because you most likely won’t get in. Also, if you are a tourist, your best in order to assure a good table is to have your hotel make your reservations for you.
It’s a little dressier and more formal than most of the area restaurants. You’ll be greeted at the door, ushered to you to your seat and served by properly attired white shirt and vested servers who are professional and helpful in every way. And though it has a good number of tourists, there is nothing about Buca Mario that spells out «tourist trap» in its atmosphere. Indeed, the place exudes with a certain warmth and charm.
Their menu is really vast and everything done true Italian and as such, truly delicious. Though there is room for disagreement on this point, I’ve found foods in Florence more meat oriented than seafood oriented, and though Buca Mario does a great grilled whole fish, it’s with their meats that they excel, particularly with their cut of the short loin Tagliata di bistecca con rucola e funghi porcini freschi,

My girlfriend and I visited Buca Mario 12 years ago on our first trip to Florence.
Over the ensuing decade-​plus, on multiple trips back to Tuscany, we somehow never found the time to return.
We made it back there tonight and have been wondering… what took so long?!
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 5+
Food:5
Two complimentary glasses (each) of limoncello and an apron from the maître d: unexpected and very gracious.
Happy we came back; wait ’til next year!

First off, MAKE RESERVATIONS or swing by early to get late night reservations.
On my last night in Florence, me and my traveling buddies decided to hit up Buca Mario based on our hotel recommendation. Arrived around 7pm and was told that they were booked till 9pm! Wanting to try this place out anyway, we decided to take the 9pm reservations and had «1^st» dinner at a nearby gelato place. Coming back at 9, the service was very professional, however, I felt very underdressed.
This place is FANCY! At our table, we ordered:
Risotto ai funghi porcini (rice with fresh mushrooms)
Spaghettini tuscan ragu
Cinghiale (wild-​boar with grilled polenta)
Filetto alla griglia (grilled beef fillet with roast potatoes)
Mixed fried of artichokes, zucchini, egg-​plant and cauliflower
Everything was wonderful! Due to my lack of veggies in the last few weeks, the fried veggies were actually my favorite … hahaha
The homemade pasta was DELICIOUS!
Wild boar was tender and perfect
Grilled beef fillet was the best beef dish I had all trip!
The risotto was cooked to the perfect consistency the and earthly flavor of the mushrooms were spot on!
Definitely worth a visit, but warning. it’s pricey and fancy! Dress accordingly!

Wow, just wow! Buca Mario is Florentine dining at its finest. My parents absolutely love this phenomenal dining establishment, so they took me here as a celebration on one of our final nights in the city.
For an appetizer I got the apples with cheese and honey. So simple, but so delicious with all of the fresh ingredients. My main course was the lasagna, my all-​time favorite Italian dish. Buca Mario puts a unique spin on their lasagna, using green noodles as part of the tasty layers. It was so perfectly cooked that I’m positive a fork placed on top would fall into the pasta with just the help of gravity. Each bite literally melted in my mouth.
Apart from the remarkable cuisine, the service here is by far the best I have ever witnessed! All of the servers are incredibly friendly and prompt with whatever task they are asked to perform.
The cherry on top of the wonderful experience was receiving a Buca Mario apron as a souvenir. I choose to wear it every time I cook and doing so always brings a smile to my face :)

The two times I ate at Buca Mario were the two best meals I’ve ever had, and as someone who tends to base travel plans on local cuisine, this is an extremely high compliment. This place is absolutely fantastic. The Bistecca alla Florentine was incredible, it was mind boggling… I honestly can’t adequately describe how good it was. It was the single best thing I’ve ever eaten. It was so good I had my picture taken with it, not a picture of the steak, a picture of me with the steak like it was a person. I have dreams about this steak– literally, that’s not an exaggeration. It was better than any steak I’ve had in famous steak regions– steaks in Texas, Montana, and the Dakotas don’t have anything on their Bistecca alla Florentine. How they got a piece of meat that large cooked so perfectly and kept it so tender, I’ll never understand.
The potatoes were also the best potatoes I’ve ever had, small potatoes that were crispy on the outside and super tender on the inside. The tiramisu was also incredible– my wife had never been a fan of tiramisu until she had it here. I was perfectly happy with the prices here. They were not any more than you would pay for a steak at a really nice steakhouse in the States, and since there’s no tax on the food in Italy it was really probably cheaper.
The waitstaff were all incredible– they were friendly, they were funny, them and the kitchen staff made it the best dining experience of my life. The person with the dessert trolley was hilarious. He was trying to talk to the person next to us into getting dessert. She told him she was to full from the osso buco to eat dessert, to which he quickly responded «Osso bucco, it’s mostly bone– that’s no excuse to skip dessert.»
If you’re in Florence, you have to go here. Let’s be honest, if you’re anywhere in Italy, you have to go here. I talked about Buca Mario for the rest of the trip like it was a person. I’m going to go ahead & call this for what it is– I have a man-​crush on Buca Mario.
It’s truly an incredible dining experience, one that you will never forget– you owe it to yourself to eat here.

To the friendly cab driver in Florence who recommended this place — grazie mille!
After this recommendation, we cross-​checked Unilocal and agreed to try to eat dinner at Buca Mario without a reservation. Luckily, they had a table for us because it turned out to be one of my most memorable dinners!
Upon entering the rustic Tuscan restaurant, you are greeted by at least 10 «Buona sera“s (good evening).
In addition to the welcoming staff and charming atmosphere, the food is amazing!
We ordered:
— a basic salad
— some sort of ravioli-​like stuffed pasta (I forgot the name in Italian) with sage and butter
— veal ossobucco
— steak fiorentina for one
Of course we also ordered wine and dessert as recommended by our server and while everything was great, the highlight was definitely the pasta dish. I wish I remember the exact name, but your waiter will know what you mean if you ask for some pasta filled with cheese with sage (or you can show the server the photo I posted of it). Anyways, the pasta was the best pasta I have ever had hands down.
In fact, we loved it so much, on our way out, we made a reservation for the following night for dinner (we only stayed 2 nights in Florence total, both dinners were here)!
The second time, we focused on pasta, and ordered simple spaghetti, lasagne, and that same sage pasta dish from the day before. Of course, it was all good, but the best was the sage pasta dish and the lasagne!
Oh and they give you a little gift when you leave their restaurant, which is definitely the icing on the cake!

Best restaurant in Florence, nobody beats their Fiorentina!
Incredible service and very charming.

«As good as it gets» in Italy, goddamn that Florentine steak is tasty.
Like many others, Buca Mario was recommended by the hotel when we asked for Florentine steak. Can’t get over it, I’m still impressed. How could such a big fat massive piece of steak be so full of flavour mmmmmmmm
And when I say massive, it’s bloody massive. Depending on how many people the steak is for, it only gets bigger, they’re not separate cuts! So we ordered a steak for 2 and that’s what you see in the picture that I’ve uploaded. Yes, sure, there’s also a massive T-​Bone but even then, it’s what? 6 cm thick and at least 800g of meat? Sheesh. I also have to mention that it is very red and rare, so since we were a bit of a wuss we asked if it could be a little more cooked and it still appeared more rare than medium-​rare. Nonetheless it was JUICY-​AS ahhh~
Then came the dessert which they wheeled around on a cart to showcase what’s special for the day. Tiramisu with cream and strawberries. I was addicted from then and I still look for that same tiramisu cake. I miss you Florentine steak and tiramisu.
Service was excellent, our waiter was just super friendly and not once did I not see a big smile on his face. :)
And as others have mentioned, you get a Buca Mario apron as souvenir. Loved it.

While it has been almost a year, I still haven’t forgotten the sensation of that amazing steak melting in my mouth. I came to this restaurant with my bosses as we were here for an international conference. They booked this restaurant 3 nights in a week — wow, talk about loyal customers! Needless to say I was extremely curious about the place and I had high expectations.
The restaurant is cozy and known for fine Italian dining. The prices are not cheap but they are a reflection of the high quality service and cuisine.
I ordered the Bistecca alla Fiorentina and when it was brought out the waiter poured green olive oil all over the top of my steak and roasted potatoes — this was something new to me but MAN it was amazing! My boss ordered the steak with green peppercorn cream sauce (Filetto al pepe verde) and I think that was the absolute best.
They gave us free aprons to take home as souvenirs. While you are in Florence, treat yourself to this restaurant and you will not be disappointed. Be sure to book ahead!