Food: French classic
Address: Via Ghibellina, 87, Firenze (Florence), I-50122, Italy
Phone Number: +39 055 242 757
Website: enotecapinchiorri.it
Guide Michelin: 3 stars
What I paid: 500 € (tasting menu per person, including water and wine)
Visited: October 26, 2017

Enoteca Pinchiorri is located in a 18^th century former palace, that is now converted to a five stars Relais and Chateux Hotel. Its entrance is grand and allied with Florence’s artistic and intellectual past.

The restaurant is owned by Giorgio Pinchiorri and Annie Féolde, who is the formal executive chef. However, in reality the cooking nowadays is executed by the chefs Italo Bassi, Riccardo Monco and pastry chef Luca Lacalamita.

Our evening did not start good. This though they were not initially finding our reservation…

As the name of the restaurant suggests, this is an Enoteca. But not just any enoteca, though the wine cellar houses over 70000 bottles with an estimated value of about 100 million euro. If you have the means (and yes, you need it…), you can find some truly and unique wines here, which you cannot find elsewhere. However, they do not have any inexpensive wines though about all wines are of good quality. Add to this fact, some painful markups, make the wine experience here, a very expensive affair.

Apart from wines on the bottle, it is also possible to have wine pairing by the glass. This is, hardly unsurprisingly, neither an inexpensive option, with the cheapest alternative starting at 200 euro per person (for three glass of wines). At the other end of the spectrum, I saw for instance one wine pairing alternative, charged at 3000 euro (per person, of course…). Regardless of those steep prices and ridicules markups, this wine pairing (we went with the 200 €/person) was still the “deal” of the evening. This though we were offered some “bonus” wines from other person’s wine pairings (two glasses in total) and the highlight of the evening was a Raveneau (my favorite Chablis house) and this contributed a lot to our “total experience” this dinner.

We opted for the biggest tasting menu “Contemporary” ( a 275 €), referred to as “Homage to the Italian cuisine through ingredients, technique and taste”.

Amusement #1

Amusement #2

Cod fish pancake, mimosa potatoes and red onions slowly grilled on charcoal

Sea scallops “a la plancha”, with radicchio in “carpione” and tuna botargo

Roasted ravioli filled with cabbage and Mascarpone, caviar and smoked tea

Irpini fusilli with artichokes, Castelmagno fondue and fried tiny local snails

Glazed boneless veal, chicory and grapefruit

Mora Romagnola’s breed of baby pork cooked on the spit, parsley roots in tinfoil, green sauce and lemos

Pecorino cheese “bombolone”

Pre-dessert

Marinated pumpkin cylinders, white vanilla ice-cream and salted caramel toffee

Extra dessert serving

Chocolate for the coffee/tea

In summary:

I was very disappointed with the food served here and this was also, unfortunately, true for my company this evening. Even though we opted for their biggest menu, we could hardly find anything that tasted anything special. This, in combination with high mark-ups in regards to the wine (sometimes even painfully high), made this my worst (of about 50 different) 3-stars experiences (luckily; all other restaurants this trip, were really great). I can only recommend Enoteca Pinchiorri for a person with very deep pockets, that do not need to take any notice whatsoever about the cost, and then only in regards to the wine. This, though you can find very special and exclusive wines, not being able to find anywhere else in the world. On the topic of the food, I cannot recommend anyone this restaurant, regardless of her or his financial status. The bonus wines served, saved the evening!