All'Antico
Ristorante Cambi

The Oltrarno — the neighbourhood south of the Arno that the Medici correctly identified as where Florence's most interesting people lived — has sustained All'Antico Ristorante Cambi since 1950. Three-quarters of a century during which the city has absorbed mass tourism, suffered floods, survived pandemics, and watched its restaurant landscape transform from a collection of family-owned trattorias into something considerably more complicated. Cambi remains. It remains because it does something very simple very well: it feeds large groups of Florentines and their guests with honest Tuscan cooking at prices that don't require pre-approval.

The restaurant announces itself before you sit down. The case of cured meats and salumi near the entrance — prosciutto crudo from the Casentino, finocchiona from San Miniato, lardo di Colonnata from the Apuan Alps, cured pancetta that smells of its provenance — is an immediate declaration of intent. This is a restaurant that takes its raw materials seriously. The antipasto of cold cuts with pickles and house bread is where many tables begin, and it is the correct choice: it sets the pace, occupies the hands, and opens the stomach for what follows.

The pasta programme is anchored by pappardelle with wild boar ragù — one of the canonical Tuscan pasta dishes, and at Cambi one of the finest versions in Florence. The boar is sourced from the Maremma, slow-cooked with the red wine and aromatics that the recipe demands, and served over broad egg pasta that has the elasticity and richness of something handmade that morning. The ribollita, when it appears as a seasonal special, is thick enough to stand a spoon in. The tagliatelle with wild boar, the penne with courgette flowers, and the broad pasta with game meat ragu are all executed with the confidence of a kitchen that has been making these dishes for longer than most of its diners have been alive.

The bistecca fiorentina is the main event. Chianina beef, the breed that Florence has been raising in the Val di Chiana since the Romans first identified its qualities, arrives on the bone and is cooked on the restaurant's grill over the high heat the cut requires. The instruction is to eat it rare to medium-rare; the Cambi kitchen will not cook it further than this, and they are correct not to. A baked onion with parmigiano fondue and braised artichokes with meat sauce complete a meal that is undeniably Florentine in every respect.

The cavernous dining room — the stone-vaulted space that once served as an Oltrarno neighbourhood institution and now seats groups of thirty without effort — is the operational argument for Cambi as a team dinner destination. Long communal tables that feel natural rather than forced, service that can handle multiple courses arriving simultaneously for large numbers, and a menu broad enough that the vegetarian, the steak enthusiast, and the person with the delicate appetite are all accommodated without drama. The cured meats to share as an arrival, the pasta in whatever combination the table chooses, the bistecca carved and distributed, the Chianti by the litre: this is the team dinner that requires no corporate event planning. Just a phone call, a reservation, and the good sense to arrive hungry.

"Brought a group of ten here after a Pitti trade show. The pappardelle with wild boar arrived simultaneously for the entire table. The bistecca was carved properly — the correct rare, the right resting. We drank a litre and a half of Chianti Classico and paid €38 a head including wine. The Oltrarno institution the guide books still haven't fully discovered." — Join to read full reviews