Restaurant in Florence, Italy
Michelin star, balcony views, book early.
A Michelin-starred hotel restaurant on Florence's Arno riverbank, Borgo San Jacopo pairs Claudio Mengoni's creative modern Italian cooking with one of the city's most atmospheric settings. Two tasting menus, a handful of balcony tables above the river, and strong OAD credentials make this the most defensible €€€€ booking in Oltrarno for a special occasion dinner. Reserve early and request the balcony.
Borgo San Jacopo holds a Michelin star, ranks #249 in the Opinionated About Dining Classical Europe list for 2024 (up from a recommended listing in 2023, and moving to #336 in 2025), and sits on a terrace above the Arno with two of the most sought-after balcony tables in Florence. If you are planning a special occasion dinner in the city and want cooking that earns its price tag with verifiable credentials, this is a strong call. At €€€€ pricing, it competes directly with Santa Elisabetta, Il Palagio, and Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura — and the combination of Oltrarno location, river-facing setting, and Mengoni's tasting menus gives it a genuine edge for couples and celebratory dinners.
Borgo San Jacopo is the fine dining flagship inside Hotel Lungarno, positioned in the Oltrarno district just beyond the Ponte Vecchio on the south bank of the Arno. The address is one of the more atmospheric in Florentine dining — a neighbourhood of artisans, wine bars, and old palazzi that feels meaningfully different from the tourist-dense streets on the north side of the river. For a special occasion dinner, that context matters: arriving in Oltrarno on foot across the bridge at dusk adds something to the meal that you cannot replicate at a hotel restaurant in a more central, commercial location.
The dining room itself is compact, and the two balcony tables overlooking the river are the seats everyone wants. They are also the hardest to secure. Book well in advance and request a balcony table explicitly , if the setting is part of your reason for coming, don't leave this to chance. The restaurant opens Wednesday through Sunday, dinner service only from 7 PM to 10 PM, with Monday and Tuesday closed. That five-evening window, combined with limited covers, is a large part of why securing a reservation requires planning.
Chef Claudio Mengoni leads the kitchen, presenting the menu across two tasting menus and an à la carte. The cooking is described in OAD's citation as creative meat and fish dishes of high quality, with occasional Tuscan inflections , modern Italian in orientation rather than strictly regional. For diners debating format, the tasting menu is the right choice at this price point: it gives Mengoni's kitchen the leading frame to demonstrate range, and it is the format most aligned with a celebratory evening. À la carte is available for those who prefer flexibility, but the tasting format is where the Michelin star makes most sense.
Florence sits at the centre of one of Italy's most consequential wine regions, and a Michelin-starred hotel restaurant in the Oltrarno should be expected to carry a serious Tuscan list. Borgo San Jacopo's setting within Hotel Lungarno and its positioning in the €€€€ tier implies a list with genuine depth in Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino, and Super Tuscan producers , the backbone of any credible Florentine fine dining wine program. Tuscany's range across price points also means the list should offer options that justify the food pairing without requiring you to spend beyond the meal itself.
For a tasting menu occasion, wine pairing is worth considering seriously here. The creative, modern Italian cooking that defines Mengoni's approach is format that benefits from structured pairing , the kitchen's occasional Tuscan influences give a sommelier room to anchor the progression in regional bottles while moving into broader Italian territory for the more technically adventurous dishes. If the wine list is important to your decision, it is worth calling ahead to ask about pairing options and list depth. At €€€€ pricing, a full pairing will add materially to the final bill, so factor that into your budget planning. For context on how Florentine fine dining wine programs operate at this level, Enoteca Pinchiorri remains the benchmark , its cellar is among the most celebrated in Italy. Borgo San Jacopo does not compete on that scale, but it does not need to: the Lungarno setting and the tasting menu format offer a different proposition entirely.
If wine is your primary driver rather than the food experience, Florence's wine scene extends well beyond restaurants. See our full Florence wineries guide for producers and tastings worth building into your trip.
Securing a table here is genuinely difficult. The restaurant operates five evenings a week, covers are limited, and the balcony seats in particular require advance planning. Treat this as a hard booking , do not assume you can arrange it a few days out, particularly for Friday or Saturday evenings or for dates around public holidays and peak tourist season in Florence (April through October). Book as early as your plans allow, request a balcony table directly, and confirm your reservation closer to the date.
Hours: Wednesday–Sunday, 7 PM–10 PM. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Price range: €€€€ , budget for a tasting menu plus wine pairing and expect a bill in the upper range of Florence fine dining. Reservations: Essential; book well in advance, especially for balcony seats or weekend evenings. Location: Borgo San Jacopo 62r, Oltrarno, Florence , south bank of the Arno, walkable from the Ponte Vecchio. Google rating: 4.6 from 299 reviews. Dress: Smart dress is appropriate for a Michelin-starred hotel restaurant at this price point; formal attire is not required but casual dress would be out of place.
For other high-end options across Florence, see our full Florence restaurants guide. For comparable modern Italian fine dining elsewhere in Italy, Osteria Francescana in Modena, Le Calandre in Rubano, and Piazza Duomo in Alba represent the wider reference set for this style of cooking. For Italian modern cuisine with a similarly strong sense of place, Dal Pescatore in Runate and Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico are worth knowing. If you are considering a city with similar fine dining ambition, Enrico Bartolini in Milan and La Terrazza in Rome offer useful comparisons. For hotel dining with an Arno or lakeside view in a similar register, Arté al Lago in Lugano and Atto di Vito Mollica in Florence round out the picture. See also our guides to Florence hotels, Florence bars, and Florence experiences for broader trip planning.
Yes , this is one of the stronger arguments for booking here. The Michelin star, the Arno-facing balcony, and the tasting menu format make it a considered choice for anniversaries, significant birthdays, or a serious date night. The combination of setting and cooking quality at €€€€ is hard to replicate elsewhere in the Oltrarno. If you want the full experience, request a balcony table when you reserve.
At this price point, yes. The tasting format is how Claudio Mengoni's kitchen shows range, and it aligns with what earned the Michelin star. The à la carte exists if you want flexibility, but if you are spending at €€€€ for a special occasion, the tasting menu delivers more coherence and value relative to the ticket. Add a wine pairing if your budget allows , the Tuscan wine context here is worth using.
The tasting menus are the right format , two options are available, covering creative meat and fish preparations with occasional Tuscan influences. Specific dishes are not confirmed in our current data, so ask the kitchen on the night or enquire when reserving. The cooking is described by OAD as creative and high quality; let the kitchen guide the order rather than arriving with a fixed agenda.
At the same €€€€ price tier: Enoteca Pinchiorri is the reference point for serious wine and classical French-Italian technique , heavier, more formal, a different kind of evening. Santa Elisabetta and Il Palagio offer comparable hotel fine dining in Florence. Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura is livelier and less formal. If you want to spend significantly less while staying in the neighbourhood, the broader Florence restaurant guide covers the full range.
The restaurant is small with limited covers, which makes it a difficult fit for large groups. It is better suited to two or four people for a special occasion dinner. If you are planning a group celebration, contact the restaurant directly to discuss options , but expect constraints given the intimate scale of the room and the five-evening-a-week schedule.
It is possible, but this is not the obvious choice for solo diners at €€€€. The tasting menu format and the occasion-focused setting are calibrated for couples and small groups. A solo visit works leading if you are a serious food traveller and the Michelin star and OAD ranking are your primary reasons for going. In that case, ask about counter or bar seating when reserving , though availability depends on the restaurant's current layout.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Borgo San Jacopo | €€€€ | Hard | — |
| Enoteca Pinchiorri | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Santa Elisabetta | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Il Palagio | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Cibrèo Trattoria | €€ | Unknown | — |
A quick look at how Borgo San Jacopo measures up.
Groups of more than four will face real constraints here. The restaurant operates within Hotel Lungarno with a small cover count, and the balcony — the most sought-after seats — holds just two tables. Parties of five or more should check the venue's official channels to confirm availability; a Michelin-starred room this size is not built for large bookings.
It works for solo diners willing to pay €€€€ for the experience, but this is not a counter-seat omakase format designed around single covers. The tasting menu is the natural fit for a solo visit, and the balcony tables seat two, so solo diners will be placed in the main room. If solo dining at the bar or counter matters to you, Borgo San Jacopo is not the right format.
The menu spans two tasting menus and an à la carte, with creative meat and fish dishes carrying occasional Tuscan influence under chef Claudio Mengoni. Specific dish names are not confirmed here, so treat the tasting menu as the default choice — it is how a Michelin-starred kitchen at this level is designed to be experienced, and the OAD #249 ranking (2024) suggests the kitchen earns that format.
Yes, and the balcony tables above the Arno are the strongest case for booking it over other Michelin-starred options in Florence. Securing one of those two balcony seats for a birthday or anniversary takes advance planning, but the combination of setting, a Michelin star, and chef Claudio Mengoni's creative cooking makes it a defensible choice at €€€€. Book the balcony specifically or the occasion logic weakens.
Enoteca Pinchiorri is the ceiling option in Florence — three Michelin stars, significantly higher prices, a longer track record. Santa Elisabetta (inside the Brunelleschi Hotel) holds two stars and suits diners who want more architectural drama with their meal. Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura offers one Michelin star with a more playful format and better walk-in odds. Il Palagio at the Four Seasons is the direct competitor for hotel fine dining at a similar price tier.
At €€€€ with a Michelin star and an OAD Classical Europe ranking that moved from Recommended (2023) to #249 (2024) to #336 (2025), the tasting menu is where the kitchen's creative fish and meat cooking is best showcased. Whether it justifies the price depends on how much the setting contributes to your read of value — the balcony seats over the Arno are part of what you are paying for. If you want the food without the hotel-dining premium, Cibrèo Trattoria is a sharper value play.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
