Restaurant in Empoli, Italy
Twenty seats, two Michelin Plates, strong value.
A Michelin Plate–recognised contemporary Italian restaurant in Empoli with just twenty seats, 20 Posti delivers considered cooking at €€€ pricing across two consecutive years of guide recognition. With a 4.5 Google rating from more than 300 guests and an easy booking window, it is the most credentialed option in Empoli for a special dinner without the ceremony or cost of a starred Tuscan room.
20 Posti is worth booking if you want a contemporary Italian dinner in Empoli that punches above its price tier. Two consecutive Michelin Plate recognitions (2024 and 2025) confirm it is cooking at a level that the guides consider plate-worthy, and a Google rating of 4.5 across more than 300 reviews suggests that verdict holds in practice, not just on paper. At €€€ pricing, it sits in a range where you are paying for craft without the full ceremony of a starred room — which makes it a sensible choice for a return visit when you want something more considered than a neighbourhood trattoria but do not want to commit to the full formal experience that €€€€ Italian destinations demand.
The name tells you something before you even sit down: 20 Posti means twenty seats. In Empoli, a Tuscan town better known as a gateway to Florence than as a dining destination in its own right, that restraint signals intent. Small-room contemporary Italian cooking in this format is typically built around close attention — the kind of place where what lands on the table has been thought about, and where the gap between kitchen and guest is narrow enough that service either amplifies or undermines everything the food tries to do.
At the €€€ price point, service philosophy matters acutely. You are not paying for the choreography of a starred Florentine dining room like Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, but you are paying enough to expect that the team understands what they are serving and why. Twenty covers is small enough that attentive, informed service is achievable without a large brigade , and when it works in rooms of this size, it creates the kind of dinner that a regular comes back to specifically because the experience feels personal rather than performed. If service falls short in a room this small, however, there is nowhere to hide, and the price point starts to feel harder to justify.
The cuisine is listed as contemporary, which in Tuscany typically means a kitchen that takes regional ingredients and seasonal produce seriously while applying modern technique. This is a well-established mode in Italian fine dining and done well it gives the diner the anchoring familiarity of the region with the precision of a kitchen thinking carefully about each plate. It is a format that rewards repeat visitors: a second or third visit in a different season will likely show a different menu, and knowing what the kitchen can do means you arrive with better questions to ask.
For context on where 20 Posti sits in the broader Italian contemporary space, it is useful to look at what Michelin Plate recognition actually means. A Plate indicates that the guide's inspectors found cooking of good quality , it is not a star, but it is a deliberate acknowledgement that the restaurant is worth including. Holding that recognition across two consecutive years (2024 and 2025) suggests consistency rather than a single impressive meal caught at the right moment. For a small restaurant in a secondary Tuscan city, that kind of sustained recognition is a meaningful signal.
If you have been once and are considering a return, the case for coming back rests on whether the kitchen rotates its menu with the seasons and whether the service team has deepened its knowledge of the food. A contemporary room at this price tier earns loyalty when the team can talk about what they are serving with confidence , explaining a preparation, suggesting a pairing, or steering you toward what the kitchen is most focused on right now. That conversational service is what separates a good €€€ contemporary restaurant from a great one at this price point.
For visitors coming from Florence , roughly 30 kilometres east along the Arno valley , 20 Posti offers a reason to stop in Empoli rather than defaulting to another city-centre booking. It is not the kind of destination dinner you would plan an international trip around, but if you are travelling through Tuscany and want a meal that reflects current Italian cooking at an accessible price tier, it is a well-credentialed option. Check our full Empoli restaurants guide for context on how it sits alongside other options in the town, and our Empoli hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide if you are planning a longer stay in the area.
20 Posti is at Via delle Murina, 6, Empoli. The price range is €€€. Michelin Plate recognition for both 2024 and 2025. Google rating: 4.5 from 306 reviews. Booking difficulty: Easy , this is not a hard reservation to secure, which is one of the practical advantages over starred rooms in Tuscany that require weeks of lead time. Specific hours, phone, and website are not available in our current data; check directly or via booking platforms for current availability.
Quick reference: €€€ contemporary Italian, Empoli, Michelin Plate 2024–2025, easy to book, 4.5/5 on Google (306 reviews).
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Posti | Contemporary | Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | Easy | — |
| Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler | Italian, Creative | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Dal Pescatore | Italian, Italian Contemporary | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Osteria Francescana | Progressive Italian, Creative | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Quattro Passi | Italian, Mediterranean Cuisine | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Reale | Progressive Italian, Modern Cuisine | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
With only 20 covers total, solo dining here is a genuine option rather than an afterthought. The intimate scale means solo diners are visible but not isolated, and the contemporary Italian format suits a single diner focused on the food. Book in advance regardless — at 20 seats, the room fills whether you're a party of one or four.
Book at least two to three weeks out, and further if you're planning around a weekend or a specific date. Twenty seats is an unusually tight cap for a Michelin Plate restaurant, and two consecutive years of recognition (2024 and 2025) will have sharpened demand. Don't treat this like a casual walk-in option.
At €€€ with back-to-back Michelin Plate recognition in 2024 and 2025, 20 Posti delivers solid value for Tuscany's contemporary dining tier. You're paying for a tightly edited experience in a genuinely small room, which tends to mean focused cooking rather than volume-driven output. For the price in Empoli specifically, the credential-to-cost ratio is favourable.
Bar seating is not confirmed in the available venue data, and with only 20 covers, the room likely doesn't have a separate bar counter in the conventional sense. check the venue's official channels to ask about seating configurations before assuming walk-in bar access is possible.
Yes, and the format suits it well. A 20-seat contemporary Italian restaurant with Michelin Plate recognition for two consecutive years has the credentials and the intimacy a special occasion needs. It works better for parties of two than larger groups given the room's physical limits — attempting to seat six-plus here would take up nearly a third of the restaurant.
The contemporary cuisine format and the Michelin Plate standing suggest the kitchen operates with a structured, chef-led menu rather than a broad à la carte. If that format suits you, the 20-seat scale means the cooking is unlikely to be stretched thin. Specific menu structure and pricing aren't confirmed in available data, so verify directly when booking.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
