Da Renato - MONTEPULCIANO

This is a very simple Italian restaurant catering mostly for local workers and the occasional traveler (I understand it can be reached from within the motorway, too). It has few pasta first courses and few meat second courses, plus a surprisingly good oven baked vegetables buffet you can have as starter or side dish. We tried onions, peppers, potatoes and eggplants: good, well cooked and especially well seasoned and light in fats and salt. One of two pasta dishes, lasagne, was so so. A lighter, as simple as it gets spaghetti with tomato sauce was very, very good with a strong, long cooked sauce with a balanced taste, a masterpiece. Like my granny used to make, literally.

Really nice staff, a friendly place with good local food at affordable prices, ideal for a stopover with kids. Unfortunately service gets somewhat slow when busy.

Have eaten here with locals twice in the last week, typical Tuscan food in a homely atmosphere. Friendly staff. Excellent pastas, good steak, excellent soup, a gratis vegetable bar, very good value.

A lovely restuarant, with very welcoming staff. All the locals ear here as the food and the service are excellent. We have visited this restaurant several times over the years, when on holiday in the area. Very reasonably priced.

An Italian Shoney 's. With a vegetable bar that was buffet style and really bland food. Our first instincts were to run as soon as we entered but wanted to get it the benefit of the doubt. We should have ran. Although, some of the pizzas coming out of the oven looked tasty, we ordered several pasta dishes from the menu. All seemed to be from a box or frozen. Not everything can be a winner, mark this one up to experience and avoid in the future.