The best butcher shops in Florence

Where to buy meat, sausages and other quality products in the city

In Florence, you don't joke with meat. For Florentines and tourists alike, it is a real institution as well as an important source of pride. The Central Market of San Lorenzo and the market of Sant'Ambrogio are among the favorite places of Florentines to buy quality meat, but there are also many historic stores to find the best steaks, but also lampredotto, arista, tripe, guinea fowl and much more.
To help you choose the best to bring to your table we have selected the reference butcher shops in the city.

Macelleria Caterini Giorgio
Via della Spada, 22/r
ph. +39 055 215995

A benchmark of Florentine quality and tradition and just a short walk from via de’ Tornabuoni, the family-run (since 1950) Azzarri butcher shop of Giorgio Caterini and Gianluca Pinelli is not to be missed. Their range of Italian meats includes Bistecca fiorentina (Florentine steak) from the Chianina and Limousine breeds, Cinta Senese salami, Dobbiaco smoked pork roast, stewed beef and hand-made cooked pork sausage, in addition to a large selection of wines and balsamic vinegar.

Bacci Manuele
Mercato Centrale
ph. +39 055 212275

If you happen to be in the Florentine Medina of taste, that is the market, don’t miss the Bacci Manuele’s poulterer’s. Present in the market since four generations, Manuele’s stand is a real jewel for those who love white meats, here the sole and real protagonists. The stand sells only chickens, rabbits and turkeys from local and open-space breedings, together with really delicious meats like the chickens from the local territory of San Gimignano and the ducks from Cortona.

Macelleria Comparini Fosca
Via Michele Mercati, 29
ph. +39 055 483602

Situated in the Poggetto neighborhood (just outside the center) and handed down the generations since 1949, this meat shop is a true temple of tradition and know-how. It stands out for the quality of its meats and for the cordiality and familiarity of its service. A member of the Florence Butchers’ Association, Comparini Fosca sells meat that come from the most highly esteemed areas, such as Emilia, in Italy, and France. It is famous for its steaks, of the Limousine breed, and also offers a vast assortment of ready to cook meats.

Antico Salumificio Anzuini - La Macelleria storica e Grill di Filiera
Via dei Neri 84r
ph. +39 055 294901

An ancient butcher shop, open since 1938 and carried on for three generations. Do not loos its Bistecche alla fiorentina (florentine style steaks), cold cuts and special vacuum-packed meats from self-production: beside producing sausages, the shop’s owners also have a meat laboratory -where people can even buy products- with a choice of dozens of typical products from Tuscany and Umbria, like sausage, soprassata (cold and processed meat of pork), ham, salami, finocchiona salami (Tuscan fennel salami) and more (in via Faentina 93r).

Macelleria Caselli
Via Romana 61
ph. +39 055 222339

Created in the 60s, this shop is an old-style butcher’s where sides of meat are hanging on the walls, so you can see them with your own eyes and choose the cuts you like most. All meats are of Italian origin, above all from breedings in Mantua. Some specialities you shouldn’t miss are: bistecche alla fiorentina (Florentine style steaks), roast-beef, the boned and filled chickens and rabbits from Montespertoli. Inside the shop you can even find a wide choice of biological wines from Sicily.

Macelleria Vignoli
Via Spinello Aretino, 7 (Soffiano) - ph. +39 055 710332
Piazza S. Pier Maggiore 1r (Arco San Pierino )– ph. +39 055 2480436
Via Romana 131r (Porta Romana) – ph. +39 055 222238
Via E. Gasperi, 19 (Campo di Marte)– ph. +39 055 573375
Via Pisana 359 (Legnaia) – ph. +39 055 707197
Via R. Paoli 7 (Scandicci)– ph. +39 055 250244

Created in 1946, there are today five Vignoli butcher shops in Florence and one in Scandicci. It was here that the name Fesa di Tacchino was used for the first time to speak of turkey breast: the San Pierino poulterer’s was indeed the first shop in Italy which cut turkeys, and Rolando Vignoli named the animal’s breast “fesa”, name that is being used today in the whole country of Italy. Today the Macelleria Vignoli is a poulterer and butcher shop, specialized in ready-to-cook products, which sells the classic Italian Chianti wine, too, as well as the oil produced in the farm of San Casciano.

Macellerie Soderi
Inside Mercato Centrale
ph. +39 055 2398496

On the historic bench of Paolo and Alessandro Soderi (father and son), an ancient race of Florentine butchers, we can find Limousine steaks and excellent crosses between Simmenthal and Charolaise breeds from farms in Croatia. Periodically Chianina steaks can be found, but only when they are dealing with animals of unquestionable quality. Anyway they are steaks of female animals because their meat has a more rounded flavour and an incomparable tenderness due to a better infiltration of fat in fiber Soderi Butcher’s is strong even in ready-to-cook.

Macelleria Menoni Luca
Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio
ph. +39 055 2480778

Open since 1921, the Macelleria Menoni butcher shop offers a wide variety of meet, resulted from a three gennerations professional experience in the sector, as well as from a careful selection of cattles and breeds. You will also find here a wide choice of ready-to- cook dishes, while many of the shop’s specialities will be given you with their recipes printed on the receipts. Among the most famous: guinea fowl with sausage and walnuts, pork fried liver, roast orange pork loin, rack of lamb in lemon sauce.

Nuova Tripperia Fiorentina
Mercato Centrale
ph. +39 055 2381765

If you happen to come to Florence and ask where to buy the best raw tripe, the Florentines will have only a name to tell you: Tiziano Trapani. He is one of the survivors of the noble 19th-century descendance of trippai (tripe vendors) of San Frediano in Florence. Among the products sold: tripe, lampredotto, leaf tripe, pork internal organs, tendons and casing…a stand that seems to be created and signed by Matthew Barney. All the major tripe vendors of Florence buy their raw products from Tiziano.

Valdarno Carni
Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio
ph. +39 055 2342283

It isn’t a traditional butcher’s: here you can find a huge number of ready-to-cook dishes that are semi-prepared meat- and vegetable-based specialities of the shop. Some examples of the shop’s must-have dishes? Rolled chicken breasts filled with sausage and truffle or porcini mushrooms, roast pork with orange and figs, guinea fowl with apples and green pepper, curry chicken or little beef tatters with vegetables. All the ingredients, of the highest quality, are Italian and, when possible, of local origin.

Piero Lanini
Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio
ph. +39 055 2480629

Opened 33 years ago, it boasts a great experience in the sector, with first choice meats wholly of Italian origin. The butcher/poulterer shop is specialized in game meat products and filled meat recipes: some dishes you should try are stuffed and roasted pork, chicken galantine (cold stuffed chicken), boiled and stuffed chicken necks with pistaches and cooked ham and the cold cuts from the Cosentino- the highlands above Arezzo. Not to mention classics like the bistecca alla fiorentina (florentine style steaks) and roast-beef, which are always some of the best Italian dishes.

Piero Soderi
Mercato Centrale
ph. +39 055 294349

A real institution in Florence, Piero Soderi is one of the major steak experts and sellers. For his steaks he prefers the scottona cows of Limousin race breeded in Italy. As far as meat of local origin is concerned, he trusts some serious producers from Garfagnana, the Casentino region and Empoli. Apart from steaks, try also the loin pork with apples, spinach hamburgers, the ham “in porchetta” (cooked and seasoned like roast pork), and deboned and stuffed lamb. These ready-to-cook dishes are among the most requested. If you need, there is even the possibility of home-delivery service.

Macelleria Saccardi
Via Giampaolo Orsini, 45
ph. +39 055 6812204

Roberto Merlini, owner of this oasis of delicious products, has inherited this butcher shop from his grandparents, who had made the Saccardi e Panichi a mith in front of the eyes of meat lovers. The shop sells only Italian meats, bred above all in Emilia Romagna. Although this butcher’s is one of the few in Florence to have entered the Chianina Register, it offers above all Limousine meat, perfect for tender and tasty steaks. Another delicious product you should try is the lamb meat from the area around Casentino.