Caffè Pasticceria Serafini
Review by Charlotte Filardi, Haley Frasca, Lauren Fromin, Kelly Hauck, Julia Ripperton
We went to Caffè Pasticceria Serafini for aperitvo on a Saturday night and then enjoyed one of their fresh pastries later on. It was outside of the City Center but it was worth the walk for the experience. There was a large selection of small bites to eat at apertivo. It was interesting that the foods didn’t represent “Italian food” but was an assortment of foods that ranged from mini sandwiches, meats, cheeses, vegetables, and other unique dishes that we hadn’t tried before. The apertivo was 8 euros for a drink and unlimited appetizers. We loved that the cafe was full of local people who live in Florence. It was a great experience to go to a place and have most of the people there be locals. This shows that the place serves real authentic food, and that Italian people enjoy the food there. This cafe is not a “tourist trap”. They served paninis, sandwiches and pizza for lunchtime. There was a huge selection of pastries and deserts, as well as savory items. As for the house-made pastries, they are some of the best we have experienced in the center of Florence. The pasta di mela (apple pastry). Underneath the supple apple slices was a layer of pastry cream that cut into each bite and provided a soft blanket of creaminess as the apple crunch made way to that of the pastry underneath. We also tasted occhi di bue, which was a very rich tasting cookie, as well as the cannoli which was great!
Our favorite part about the café was how authentic it was. The food was not only absolutely wonderful and tasted very fresh, all of the staff members were very friendly and kind and well. When one of the workers did not speak English, she happily directed us to her colleague who did. They were all very kind and welcoming to us. Bartenders and servers were all very nice and they made food and drinks in a timely manner. This wouldn’t be a cafe you go to in order to study or for a formal meal, but one you expect to find familiar faces, delicious treats and your morning caffeine fix, for an aperitivo, or to have an easy lunch. The cafe is a grab your own food and sit at a table type of place but one of the workers came over and gave us place mats with silver wear which was an extremely nice touch to our experience at this establishment. Our experience at Caffè Pasticceria Serafini was marvelous. We are very happy that we learned about this place because it is very authentic and without this class we would never have known about it. Overall, we would absolutely recommend this cafe to others. It was a great experience with amazing food and phenomenal customer service!
Caffè Pasticceria Serafini
Via Gioberti 168/r
Tel. 055 247 6214
Hours: Monday-Saturday 7:00am-8:30pm