In Florence: a wonderful cozy restaurant filled with locals

In Florence, Tim and I happened upon a lovely little restaurant tucked away from the tourist traps and filled with local Florentines.

The chef/owner Nicola is originally from Puglia, and moved to Florence 25 years ago, so the cuisine is a blend of southern Italian and Florentine. The food was fantastic.

The restaurant's name is Sed Lex. (See also Tripadvisor and Yelp.)

Nicola helped us pick out what dishes to order, explained how to enjoy each dish, and recounted a bit of his life story. It was a wonderful experience; we felt like we were guests in his home. Nicola is extremely passionate about good food and wine!

Chef/owner Nicola

The dining room is intimate -- it seats maybe 20 people -- and cozy. The decor is off-beat and entertaining.

Wall art

We started off with the appetizer sampler platter, on Nicola's recommendation. (Looking around, all of the Italians at nearby tables also ordered the sampler platter.)

The appetizer sampler included salami:

Delicious salami

It also included some assemble-it-yourself crostinis, which were fabulous. Nicola explained how to assemble the crostinis. Here is how it's done:

Start off with some homemade bread slices, then spread Nicola's homemade hot sauce on top:

Fresh hot sauce made from southern Italian peppers

Then add fresh sauteed mixed vegetables:

Addictingly good sauteed veggies

Then top with fresh burrata cheese spread!

Burrata cheese

Here is the result:

Assembled crostini

The crostinis were fantastic.

The next dish in the appetizer sampler was a bread-meat-tomatoes dish that was fluffy and light as air. Delicious!

Yummy bread dish

It also included focaccia:

Fresh focaccia

Next, we enjoyed tagliatelle with mussels:

Tagliatelle with mussels

And a very flavorful dish with beef and cheese, well-charred and a perfect medium rare:

Delicious beef and cheese dish

We also had a nice side of fresh pomodori with olive oil and balsamic vinegar:

Fresh cherry tomatoes

The food was fantastic -- definitely the best we had in Florence -- and possibly the best we had in all of Italy.

Florence - Blueberry steak at Acqua Al 2

Acqua Al 2 is a famous enough restaurant in Florence that they have locations in the US in San Diego and Washington DC.  I had read about their balsamic steak and blueberry steak as well as hearing about it from friends.

I emailed a couple days before my Florence arrival to make a dinner reservation without any problems.  The problem was which steak to try or both.  We decided to get the blueberry steak.   I wanted a bigger cut of meat than I saw being served up in the steak sampler platter to ensure the steak wasn't overcooked and we were a bit overloaded with balsamic vinegar flavoring given it found some way to appear at every meal in Spain and Italy.  (I guess I will need to try the balsamic steak as well as have another blueberry steak next time I visit San Diego.)

My favorite steak sauces are quite simple: soy sauce, ponzu, salt, pepper, or A1.  I would rather have a steak with just some salt than a fancy French sauce.  The blueberry glaze was a complex and fruity sauce that I will try to reproduce at home.  It had some natural sweetness and did not seem to have extra sugar added.  Think of it as a blueberry A1 sauce!  I mean that as the highest complement!  The picture below doesn't do this dish justice.  

Acqua Al 2 gets some negative reviews from others due to their sampler platters, food not being authentic, and being too touristy.  The menu was in Italian. Service in English and Italian was friendly, quick, and purposeful.  I think the few negative reviews I read were unfairly harsh at best and potentially just BS.

Their sampler platters for steak, salad, pasta, and dessert come with a generous portion size and are very reasonably priced.  I would go as far to say they are value priced.

The salad sampler had 3 different dishes which were all good.

It was quite dark in the restaurant and I couldn't get good pictures of the additional courses.  The pasta sampler included at least 5 different simple pastas for around 10 euros.  None of the pastas were great, but the variety was worth it.  The dessert sampler included 4 items which were all good.

On my next trip to Florence, DC, or San Diego, I will be visiting Acqua Al 2.

Acqua Al 2
Via della Vigna Vecchia 40/R, 50122 Florence, Italy