Restaurants in the province of Prato

The province of Prato is a small one — seven towns, from the city up the Bisenzio valley — and its food is explained by two things: countryside climbing towards the Apennines, and a city of textile mills where for a century people ate quickly and well.

What you only eat here

• Mortadella di Prato IGP — pink, spiced, and flavoured with alchermes, the liqueur that gives it its colour. It is served sliced thick, and traditionally paired with dried figs from Carmignano.
• Prato celery — the city's signature dish is stuffed celery: the ribs are boiled, filled, breaded, fried and served in meat sauce. It is a feast dish, not a side.
• Biscotti di Prato IGP — the almond cantuccini, which here go by their own name, dipped in vin santo at the end of almost every meal.
• Prato peaches and bozza pratese, the saltless Tuscan bread eaten with cured meats.

The wine: Carmignano, and it goes back a long way

Carmignano DOCG is one of the oldest denominations in Europe: the area was already mapped out by a grand-ducal decree in 1716, and Cabernet — the "French grape" — has grown alongside Sangiovese here for centuries, which is unusual in Tuscany. The same hills produce Barco Reale and a vin santo worth the trip.

And Chinese food that is not "ethnic" food

Prato is home to the largest Chinese community in Italy relative to its population, settled for over thirty years and largely from Wenzhou, in Zhejiang. At the table that means Chinese food cooked the way it is cooked in China — rice noodles, steamed dumplings, soups — in places that cook for people who grew up with it. You will not find that anywhere else in Tuscany.

Opening hours change. The ones on the listings come from public sources and may be out of date. Where a restaurant confirms tables with us, the availability you see is the real one.