SimBIOsi
Review by Brodie Smith
For my next stop as a food critic in Florence, I decided to visit SimBIOsi, a pizzeria located very close to the Duomo. I assumed it was just a pizza place, but they actually have one side of the restaurant for pasta and the other side is for pizza. When we entered, we were greeted kindly and offered a place to sit right away. The server spoke English well and brought us menus. The restaurant itself had a classic Italian atmosphere. The tables were a little crammed together, the pizza oven was out for everyone to see, and all the people seemed to be having a great time. In front of the pizza of were all the ingredients so you exactly what you were getting. Some of the art/décor was a little more modern which seemed to appeal to a younger audience since the other customers were closer to my age for the most part. The atmosphere was overall inviting and the noise level was not too loud. They used a lot of wood throughout surrounded by the sharp white walls and old brick.
The menu was simple and not overwhelming. Aside from pizza, they also offer a first and second course options, along with salads, appetizers, pizza and drinks. After looking through the menu thoroughly, I began to realize the quality of the ingredients were very high and of organic quality. Everything seemed to be fresh and local. We first ordered the bruschetta to share. I am not a huge lover of tomatoes, but I wanted to try it anyways. The tomatoes seemed to be very fresh, and the bread was cooked nice and crispy. It was under salted, so I decided to add more salt myself to bring out the flavors even more which made it taste even better. As usual, the simplicity of the bread worked very well with the savory and sweet taste of the tomato. After we finished the antipasto, my pizza arrived right away. I ordered the broccoli and Italian sausage pizza. This was the first time I have every ordered broccoli on pizza so I was both excited and nervous to try it. It came fresh out of the oven; it was so hot I could not eat it at first. It looked very beautiful and fresh. The middle was not very crispy, but it tasted phenomenal with a great balance of flavors. The closer I got to the crust, the crispier the pizza was. It must have been cooked at a very high heat, as there were black char marks along the crust, which provided a great smoky flavor to the pie. The broccoli had a good bite to it and was not over cooked, and balanced very well with the saltiness of the sausage. The mozzarella cheese was spread across the pie perfectly, and was nice and melted. The combination with that and the tomato sauce great as other pizzerias tend to add too much of it for my taste. The thickness of the crust was also great. It was thick enough to hold together well as I ate more, and thin enough to not feel as if I was eating too much bread. It was some of the best pizza I have had I Florence due to the use of quality and fresh ingredients.
Overall I had a great experience visiting this organic pizzeria and trying something new and delicious. The broccoli was strange at first, but ended up being very tasty. The service was fast paced and they answered all questions that we had throughout the dining experience. We also ordered the house wine and enjoyed it very much, and there was a great variety of wines at a reasonable cost. When we left, the pizza maker said goodbye to us with a nice wave even though he was very busy. I truly enjoyed my experience there and I left very satisfied. I will be back very soon to SimBIOsi to try this pizza again.
SimBIOsi
Via de Ginori, 56/r
Tel.: 055 064 0115
Hours: Daily from 12:00-11:00pm