"Maurizio Eremita's candlelit fiorentina theatre in Palazzo Bardi, dry-aged four weeks and carved tableside. Book it for a first date."
About La Buchetta Food & Wine
The steak is weighed at the table before it goes near the grill: 1.2 kilos minimum, dry-aged at least four weeks, billed at €7 per hundred grams. La Buchetta Food & Wine has run on that piece of theatre since 2013 from the ground floor of Palazzo Bardi at Via de' Benci 3, between Santa Croce and the Arno, where a renovation uncovered the 16th-century wine hatch, a buchetta, that named the house. Tripadvisor currently holds it at 4.7, inside the top twenty of more than 2,600 Florence restaurants. The Florence dining guide ranks the full field.
The Kitchen
Maurizio Eremita owns the room and the recipes, and his menu splits its loyalty between the grill and the pasta bench. The bistecca alla fiorentina, served a lume di candela, is the centrepiece; a 700-gram rib eye at €44 and a brandy-and-blue-cheese Filetto La Buchetta at €38 back it up. The pasta side answers with Gnocchi Angeli e Demoni at €22, house gnocchi in stracciatella with a swipe of spicy red sauce and crisp pork cheek, the angel and the devil on one plate, and the €33 Pici Special under Pienza pecorino, black pepper and truffle.
The kitchen's habits are old-school Tuscan: wild-boar tagliatelle at €18, ossobuco at €26, fava-and-pecorino salad in spring. What separates it from the Santa Croce tourist row is execution and nerve, liquid-nitrogen gelato finished beside the table included. Eremita has since added a second room, La Buchetta Borgo, at Borgo Santa Croce 11R. Judge the steak against the best steakhouses worldwide and the pasta against the Italian canon; the fiorentina holds its own in both conversations.
The Room
Stone, wood and candlelight inside Palazzo Bardi, with tables set close enough that the fiorentina carving beside you becomes part of your evening. The light is dim and warm, the noise builds to a full-room buzz by 20:30, and the service style is front-footed: steaks presented raw, weighed, then carved at the table. Dress is smart-casual by intention, anything by practice. Open every day from noon to 23:00, which makes it one of Santa Croce's few serious rooms that can absorb a Sunday-night booking.
Best for a First Date
Book it for a first date because the room does the work: candlelight that flatters, a shared 1.2-kilo steak that forces collaboration, and a gnocchi dish literally named for angels and devils to hand you the opening line. Tables sit close, so ask for one of the wall tables when booking. Florence rewards an after-dinner walk and the Arno is ninety seconds away. Trattoria Dall'Oste is the louder steak alternative; our first date tables hub ranks the city's candlelit field.
Not for
Skip it if you want quiet minimalism or space between tables. The room runs full, close and loud by 20:30, and the steak is the show.
Frequently Asked
Is La Buchetta worth it?
Yes, if a dry-aged fiorentina carved at your table is the evening you want. The steak is priced honestly at €7 per hundred grams, the pasta bench holds its end up, and Tripadvisor's 4.7 across thousands of reviews tracks our reading of the cooking. Against the seven-signs test it clears the ones that matter most: named sourcing, a confident signature, a room with a point of view.
How hard is it to book La Buchetta?
Evenings fill several days out in high season, and the close-set dining room cannot absorb walk-in pairs after 19:30. Book through the form on labuchetta.com or by phone on +39 055 217833; lunch from noon is the soft entry. If De' Benci is full, the second room at Borgo Santa Croce 11R runs the same kitchen thinking with marginally easier tables.
What should I order at La Buchetta?
The bistecca alla fiorentina, minimum 1.2 kilos and dry-aged four weeks plus, split between two. Start with the Gnocchi Angeli e Demoni, €22 of stracciatella and spicy sauce with crisp pork cheek, or the €33 Pici Special with Pienza pecorino and truffle. The liquid-nitrogen gelato, made beside the table for €22, is the only dessert that matches the steak for theatre.
What is the dress code at La Buchetta?
Smart-casual in spirit, unenforced in practice. The candlelit room photographs dressier than it polices: jeans with a decent shirt are standard, jackets never look out of place, and dinner bookings skew more put-together than lunch. Comfortable is fine; this is Santa Croce, not a hotel dining room, and the staff care what you order, not what you wear.
Is La Buchetta good for a first date?
Yes, it is one of the strongest first-date rooms in central Florence: low light, shared-plate theatre, and a menu that hands you conversation. The close tables cut both ways, intimate at 19:00, loud by 21:00, so book early. For the full candlelit shortlist, our Florence first-date ranking sets it against the field.
