J K Place Firenze

Eating

A buffet breakfast is served in the ground-floor dining room; or a selection can be brought to your room on a silver tray. You choose from fresh fruit, cereals, yoghurts, croissants, juices and a wide array of teas and coffees.

The hotel’s restaurant, J K Lounge, is open for lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch. It’s a monochrome space decked out rather like a modern members’ club, with white armchairs, chrome angle-poise lamps and a small terrace for alfresco meals and aperitifs. The menu has changed since our last visit, but the selection of classic international dishes and seasonal Italian fare - club sandwiches, Caprese salad, swordfish carpaccio, sirloin steak - looks appealing.

Afternoon tea with homemade cake is also on offer at J K Place, best enjoyed fireside. For cocktails head up to the bijou roof terrace overlooking Santa Maria Novella Church, or to the Pink Room with its low sofas and funky coloured lighting.

Elsewhere in the city there's a wide choice of excellent restaurants, serving everything from authentic Tuscan fare (try the legendary I Latini, which is very near the hotel) through new-generation ‘cucina Toscana rivisitata’ (try the popular Osteria dei Cento Poveri) to stylish nouvelle cuisine (at Boca Negra). But there are also some horrible tourist dives with Japanese menus, dry pizzas and limp chips, so beware!

For a full list of recommended restaurants in Florence, see our city guide.