Samambaia
A brunch cafe near Porta al Prato with a menu that changes country every month, from Vietnamese bun cha to Florentine hash browns.
- Area
- Porta al Prato
- Address
- Via Montebello 86r
- Opens
- 9:00
- Menu
- Rotates monthly through a different cuisine
- Checked
- August 2026
- Price
- €€
- Go for
- Breakfast at nine, which almost nothing in Florence serves, cooked by someone who changes the menu every month.
- Skip if
- You want a quick espresso standing at a bar. This is a sit down meal and it takes its time.
What everybody agrees on
Read across public reviews on Google, TripAdvisor and aggregators in September 2026. Rated 4.8 on TripAdvisor across a small but consistent set of reviews.
- Nearly all
Pepe, the owner, is named personally in review after review. People come back on the same trip because of how he runs the room.
- Most
The monthly rotation is real cooking rather than a theme. Vietnamese bun cha, Spanish paella and gazpacho, Florentine hash browns.
- Often
Eggs are the benchmark and they are consistently right. Eggs Florentine and poached eggs come up most often.
- Often
The matcha latte gets praised on its own, which is rare enough in Italy to be worth saying.
- Some
There is more space here than in most Florence cafes, so a group of four can actually sit down.
What to order
Whatever the month is. That is the whole idea. If you want the constants, the hash browns and the orange and almond flour cake are what regulars order alongside.
Before you go
- Getting there
- Ten minutes on foot west of Santa Maria Novella station, towards Porta al Prato.
- Best time
- It opens at nine and the first hour is the calm one.
- Dietary
- Gluten free options are marked on the menu.
- Dogs
- Welcome, with water and a treat.
Run by Pepe, who rotates the menu monthly through a different cuisine and cooks it properly rather than as a theme. Alongside the rotation there are the regulars people come back for: eggs, avocado toast, hash browns, cakes, and a matcha latte that gets its own reviews.
The room is warm, informal and unusually welcoming, which is the reason visitors tend to return several times in one trip rather than once. Gluten free options are marked on the menu, and dogs get water and a treat.
Opens at nine, which makes it one of the few places in Florence serving a real breakfast before the bars fill up. Via Montebello, about ten minutes on foot west of Santa Maria Novella station.