Buca dell'Orafo
A cellar dining room down a flight of steps under the arcade behind Ponte Vecchio, in the quarter where the city's goldsmiths worked.
- Area
- Centro
- Room
- A basement, reached down a flight of steps
- Booking
- Necessary
- Checked
- August 2026
- Price
- €€€
- Go for
- A cellar dining room a minute from Ponte Vecchio that has been serving Florentine classics since long before the street above it filled up.
- Skip if
- You are on a budget. The location and the reputation both show up on the bill.
What everybody agrees on
Read across public reviews on Google and TripAdvisor plus Italian and international restaurant guides in September 2026.
- Most
It is repeatedly listed among the serious old classics of the centre rather than among the tourist traps around it.
- Most
The room is small and underground, and the intimacy is a large part of why people book it.
- Often
Prices sit at the higher end, which guides state plainly as the trade for the location and the kitchen.
- Often
Dinner service starts earlier than at neighbourhood places, which catches people out.
- Some
The rooms are tight. This is not a place for a large group.
What to order
The Florentine standards rather than anything inventive. This kitchen is judged on how it handles the classics, and that is what to order.
Before you go
- Getting there
- Volta dei Girolami, a minute from Ponte Vecchio on the north bank.
- Booking
- Essential.
- Expect
- Central prices.
Buca means hole, and Florence has a whole class of restaurants built into the basements of old palaces. This is one of the last obvious ones, twenty paces from the most photographed bridge in Italy and still easy to walk past. Small, cool in August because it is underground, and known for artichoke tortino, ribollita and fried artichokes in season. There is a bricked-up wine window on the wall outside, which most people walk under without looking up.