5 e Cinque
A 20-minute walk from Florence's centre, this organic vegetarian trattoria sources basil from its own garden and pine nuts from Italy's oldest producer.
Florence has a talent for hiding its best restaurants in places that require a minor commitment to find. 5 e Cinque, a 20-minute walk from the city centre, rewards the effort generously.
The kitchen runs on an organic ethos that extends to provenance: basil comes from the restaurant’s own kitchen garden; pine nuts from the oldest pine nut producer in Italy; parmesan from an artisan family cheesemaking in the mountains of Bardi. These happen to be the three cornerstone ingredients of pesto, which 5 e Cinque produces with the authority you would expect of a kitchen that takes its sourcing this seriously.
The menu is largely organic and skews vegetarian, with focaccia, crispy insalata, and a rotation of pasta dishes that draw on the seasons and the garden. The setting is chic, understated, and quintessentially Italian: a room that lets the food make the argument rather than dressing itself up to compensate.
The walk back to central Florence after a meal here is best attempted slowly. The portions are generous and the variety tempting; the combination of homemade pasta and sourced-from-the-producer ingredients is exactly what good Florentine cooking should be.
This is a restaurant that treats every ingredient as a relationship rather than a line item, and it shows in every dish. Arrive without a booking if you must, but the wise visitor reserves in advance.
