Birthday dinner at Il Latini

For a belated birthday celebration, my roommates, our friend Will and Nic all went out to the infamous Tuscan restaurant, Il Latini. We had heard from some friends of my roommates who studied in Florence and read online that it is THE restaurant to try in Firenze. We were all so excited to take a break from our grocery store, boxed pasta and eggs that we make nightly and treat ourselves to true Tuscan cooking and eating.
I thought it wouldn't be totally necessary since we went on a Tuesday night, but we made a reservation to be safe. That night, as we turned the corner of the street at the restaurant, we were shocked. There was a mob of at least 75 people waiting to get in. The man at the door was shockingly calm, and after about 20 minutes, we finally were called to come in. They led us to an adorable little patio courtyard outside that was perfect! And the experience began...
Il Latini doesn't have a set menu or entree list. All the food is served family-style, where you pay a fixed rate and get enormous portions of everything under the sun and unlimited wine to share with the table. The menu always changes based on what's in season and the freshest! First, they gave us a quinoa salad, bread and cheese platter to share. The cheese was alone was so good I felt like I could leave happy just having that! Next, they brought out antipasti of meats, fresh melon, crostini and sauteed veggies that melted in your mouth!
They timed everything well so that we weren't dying of exploding bellies and followed this with 4 different types of amazing gnocci, ravioli, linguini and penne. After, they brought a platter with limitless savory meats for all the meat-eaters which I heard was divine! To cleanse our palate, they followed this with more fruit. Then, my favorite part: the dessert! Fudge-soaked truffles, tirimasu, raspberry cheesecake, fruit tarts and Millefoglie (a creme and crust layered pastry sprinkled with confectioner's sugar that means "millions of layers," due to the fact that it looks like a lasagna of creme and flakiness.) Of course to end it, the gave us dessert wine, limoncello and biscotti. DIVINE! we left feeling like we had eaten enough to be full for three years! As I've discovered about many cultural things, Italy takes something as simple as "dinner" and makes it into an amazing experience and production that leaves you wondering why you usually do things so boring!

line to get in!

the group :)

inside of the restaurant