265939 Wed Apr 27 08:48:19 -0700 2005 6 26 International 0 1403304 Wow. I travel just to eat and I had received mixed reviews on the restaurant in Florence. The total experience of food, service and hanging hams and trestle tables with great food was really a big surprise. The reservations are at either 7:30 or 9:30 and service begins the minute you are seated. The big hit here is the Florentine beef as the entree. It was a wonderful experience. Pat Wed Apr 27 08:48:19 -0700 2005 0 pat lafaye 1 1403308 I second your opinion. My girlfriend and I were there on April 13 and loved it. We got their about 8pm and waited outside until 9pm. The owner comes out with wine and cheese to make the wait a little easier. You also get to talk with the other folks waiting and compare what activites they have done on their trip. We were seated with a couple from Sardinia. We had a bunch of laughs even with the language barrier. When it came time to ordrering we left it up to our waiter. As with all tables they brought out bread, a giant plate of proscuitto and chicken liver and chopped tomato crostini. The house wine is also flowing. Then three plates of pasta came. Ravioli with tomato sauce, rigatoni with meat sauce and penne with meat sauce. Delicious. I also recommend you don't eat earlier in the day. Then came our main courses of roast pork and beans with sausage. Excellent. After we had our magical burps we ordered dessert. We had flan cake. Excellent. Then they brought out cantucci cookies and vin santo, a Tuscan tradition. I kept telling my girlfriend as I was reeled over in pain from overeating, " I'm still getting gelato on the way back to the hotel." I'm glad I thought better. The bill was 80 Euros and the owner gave my girlfriend a bottle of Il Latini house wine and took some pictures with us. Great experience. Wed Apr 27 10:14:01 -0700 2005 1403304 0 sg 2 1403313 The best rabbit I ever had was at Il Latini. I'll never forget it. Wed Apr 27 11:38:20 -0700 2005 1403308 0 georgeb 1 1403315 So glad you had a good experience. I ate there two years ago and while I thought the food was decent the place was filled with tourists; I don't think there was one Italian diner in the place. Was that true when you were there? It was nice for me since I was alone and it was my first night in the city but after that meal I preferred places with at least a few locals. (I recall liking Cambi and Vecchia Bettoia both on the other side of river). Wed Apr 27 11:50:34 -0700 2005 1403304 0 erica 2 1403317 Yes, there were plenty of tourists but it didn't taint our experience at all. With the popularity of cooking shows, books and websites like this, it is tough to keep a local place a secret. I'm sure at one point in it's historty Il Latini was a local place. If you read a posting about a great local place and you go, you are a TOURIST eating in a local place. If fifty other people get the same information and they go to eat there, then you are eating in a TOURISTY place. I guess the challenge is to get in on the ground floor or travel so far off the beaten path that most tourists would not make the effort to go to. That is what makes it fun. VIVA CHOWHOUND!!! Wed Apr 27 12:50:26 -0700 2005 1403315 0 sg 3 1403320 We visited Il Latini in 1978. At that time, and probably for a long time before that it was a main eating stop for users of Frommer's Europe on $5 a Day. Food was copious but very average and plain tuscan cooking (which is already a plain cuisine), and the place was full of foreign tourists, probably the only place we went to in Florence where everybody was speaking english around us. Based on some later reviews from people I trust, I think its possible to get a good meal from that kitchen but I cant believe the fixed price meal is the way to get them to do their best. Wed Apr 27 14:57:43 -0700 2005 1403317 0 jen kalb 3 1403321 We visited Il Latini in 1978. At that time, and probably for a long time before that it was a main eating stop for users of Frommer's Europe on $5 a Day. Food was copious but very average and plain tuscan cooking (which is already a plain cuisine), and the place was full of foreign tourists, probably the only place we went to in Florence where everybody was speaking english around us. Based on some later reviews from people I trust, I think its possible to get a good meal from that kitchen but I cant believe the fixed price meal is the way to get them to do their best. Wed Apr 27 14:57:51 -0700 2005 1403317 0 jen kalb