Restaurant in Florence, Italy
Chinese-Italian fusion at €€, Michelin-noted.

Il Gusto di Xinge holds Michelin Plate recognition for 2024 and 2025 at the €€ price tier — making it one of the most accessible Michelin-recognised meals in Florence. The Chinese chef blends French and Italian influence into a menu that includes dim sum and the inspector-recommended Dream of Red Chambers dish. Easy to book, and worth returning to.
If you have already eaten at Il Gusto di Xinge once, you already know the answer: go back. This is the kind of €€ restaurant that delivers a level of craft that feels out of step with its price point, and the Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025 confirms that this is not a local secret being oversold. For Florence specifically, where the competition at the leading end is almost entirely Italian-focused, Il Gusto di Xinge fills a gap that no other venue in the city fills in quite the same way. Asian contemporary cooking, Chinese-led technique, French and Italian influence, and a dining room that takes the experience seriously — all at a price that makes a return visit a low-stakes decision.
On a first visit, the room is the first surprise. The interior at Piazzale della Porta al Prato runs in warm brown tones that evoke the form of a teapot, interrupted by flashes of blue and modern leather chairs. It reads more considered than most mid-range restaurants in Florence allow themselves to be. On a return visit, that novelty fades, and what remains is the cooking itself — which is where this place justifies its reputation.
The kitchen operates with a Chinese chef whose reference points extend beyond a single tradition. The base is Chinese, including dim sum, but French and Italian influence filters through in ways that feel deliberate rather than opportunistic. The result is a cuisine that borrows from three strong traditions and does not feel confused by any of them. For a regular returning guest, the practical question is: what to order this time.
The Michelin inspector's specific recommendation is the Dream of Red Chambers dish , lychee-shaped balls filled with shrimp and melted cheese, named after the classical Chinese novel. This is the dish most worth anchoring your meal around if you have not had it yet. The combination of shrimp and melted cheese inside a lychee form reads like a culinary in-joke between three food cultures, and the fact that it works is the clearest signal of what the kitchen is capable of. If you had it on your first visit, order it again; it is the dish that leading explains why this restaurant holds Michelin recognition at the €€ tier.
On the subject of scent: the kitchen at this price range in Florence tends toward olive oil and garlic. What is different here is the aromatic register that comes with a Chinese-influenced kitchen , spice, fermented depth, and steam rather than the roasted and browned notes that dominate Florentine cooking. It is not dramatic, but it signals immediately that you are somewhere operating on a different set of flavours, which is part of the appeal in a city where dining options are heavily weighted toward one regional tradition.
The €€ price range is the single most important practical fact about Il Gusto di Xinge. Florence's Michelin-recognised restaurant list is heavily concentrated at €€€€: Enoteca Pinchiorri, Santa Elisabetta, Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura, Atto di Vito Mollica, and Borgo San Jacopo all sit in the top tier on price. Il Gusto di Xinge operates two tiers below that and still carries Michelin recognition. That gap matters. If you want Michelin-level cooking in Florence without committing to a €€€€ dinner, this is a short list of one.
The Google rating of 4.6 across 399 reviews supports consistent delivery rather than occasional brilliance. At this price point, consistency is the harder thing to sustain, and the dual Michelin Plate years suggest the kitchen is not coasting. For a regular visitor, that consistency is the thing most worth trusting , you are not gambling on whether the kitchen is having a good night.
For context on how Asian contemporary cooking performs at this level elsewhere, Willow in Singapore and Blackitch in Chiang Mai operate in the same genre. Il Gusto di Xinge is not in the same city as those benchmarks, but it is doing something structurally similar , bringing precision to an informal price point , in a European dining context where Asian contemporary cooking is far less common.
Florence is an exceptionally strong restaurant city for Italian cooking , Enoteca Pinchiorri alone holds three Michelin stars and sits among Italy's most serious wine destinations. For a broader view of where Il Gusto di Xinge fits within the full range of options, see our full Florence restaurants guide. If you are planning a longer stay, our Florence hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide cover the rest of the city's offering.
Elsewhere in Italy, if the combination of craft cooking at accessible prices interests you, Osteria Francescana in Modena, Dal Pescatore in Runate, Uliassi in Senigallia, Quattro Passi in Marina del Cantone, Reale in Castel di Sangro, and Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico each offer a different tier of ambition across the country.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Il Gusto di Xinge | Asian Contemporary | €€ | Easy |
| Enoteca Pinchiorri | Italian - French, Italian Contemporary | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Santa Elisabetta | Italian, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura | Modern Italian, Italian Contemporary | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Il Palagio | Italian Contemporary | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Borgo San Jacopo | Italian, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
Comparing your options in Florence for this tier.
The room at Piazzale della Porta al Prato leans modern rather than formal — warm browns, leather chairs, and a design sensibility drawn from Chinese aesthetics. Neat, put-together clothing fits the tone. You are not expected to dress for a white-tablecloth Italian institution, but this is a Michelin-noted address, so leave the shorts at the hotel.
No menu structure is confirmed in available data, so this cannot be answered directly. What is documented is the €€ price range and Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025 — which together suggest accessible pricing relative to the cooking ambition. If a tasting format is available, the inspector-recommended Dream of Red Chambers dish (lychee-shaped balls filled with shrimp and melted cheese) should appear on it.
No bar or counter seating details are confirmed in the venue data. check the venue's official channels to check. Given the compact, designed interior described by Michelin inspectors, walk-in or bar seating is not something to assume is available.
This is not an Italian restaurant — it is a Chinese chef cooking Chinese cuisine, including dim sum, with French and Italian influences. That distinction matters in Florence, where expectations default to Tuscan. The interior is designed around warm brown tones evoking a teapot, and the cooking has earned a Michelin Plate two consecutive years. Come expecting something genuinely different from the surrounding restaurant scene.
At €€, yes — this is one of the stronger value cases among Michelin-recognised restaurants in Florence. Most of the city's starred and noted restaurants sit at €€€ or above, so two consecutive Michelin Plates at this price point is a practical argument in its favour. For a comparable spend, few alternatives in Florence offer this level of culinary distinctiveness.
It depends on what the occasion calls for. For a couple wanting something intimate and genuinely different from standard Florentine dining, the designed room and Michelin-noted cooking make a reasonable case. For a group expecting classic Tuscan celebration dining, look at Enoteca Pinchiorri or Borgo San Jacopo instead. Il Gusto di Xinge is the better call when the occasion is about discovery rather than tradition.
If you want Michelin-starred Italian cooking and have a larger budget, Enoteca Pinchiorri (three stars) is Florence's reference point. Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura and Santa Elisabetta offer one-star creative cooking at higher prices. For something closer to the €€ range but in a different format, Borgo San Jacopo is worth comparing. None of these serve Chinese or Asian contemporary cuisine — Il Gusto di Xinge has no direct competitor in the city for that combination.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.