Florentine Pastry Shop

Great place for pastries, no doubt about that. Love the puff pastries, rum napoleons and cannoli. However you may ask yourself why the two stars? The espresso is a ridiculous disappointment. I decided to give it a second chance but I guess they don’t have any idea on how to use the machine. Overall the place could be a nicer spot for coffee and some treats. They just need to see the potential they have. For everything else I would give a four BUT THE ESPRESSO A big 0. (Sorry I take my coffee really serious)

These are the pastries that I grew up on.
Any special event warranted pastries from the Florentine. Two of my sisters even worked here during high school. It’s as old school Italian as you can get.
So proud it’s been part of my upbringing.
I have yet to find better tasting Italian pastries– even in my current home in SF.
Little Italy (Utica style) wins every time.
My grandparents went from Ellis Island to Utica like so many other people in this wonderfully diverse little city.
Just picked up a cannoli/​rum cake for my mom’s b’day tonight.

Florentine’s pastries are unbelievable. As my dad said «they’ll knock you back to the old country, or at least knock you flat!»
5 stars: Italian soft white cookies, hazelnut crescents, and any of the almond paste cookies. I’m loyal to my neighborhood Italian bakery in New York City, but these may be the best I’ve ever had. Great coffee and pasticciotti too (check for seasonal flavors).
Excellent service, lots of people sitting with a pastry and an espresso chatting on a Sunday. Girls at the counter are helpful and speedy.
I would drive hours out of the way to hit up Florentines again. If you’re lucky enough to live close, go and laugh at the scale in the front of the shop ;)

I am a fan. They special ordered a carrot cake for me which was amazing. Service is amazing. Street parking and a good variety.

This is an excellent place to go to. The pastries are absolutely out of this world. Ever since a kid my mum has taken me here and I could tell you that everything was like it was 10 years ago. Incredible place… Stop in and try it out

Yum true Italian pastries. These authentic beauties arent just available anywhere! The cannoli, raspberry pusties, and Sfogliatella are to die for. Beware, selection can get picked over the later in the day it gets. There is a small café area for eating in or you can just get them to go. Truly old school bakery, no frills, just worth the drive down there. There is a dedicated parking lot across the street.

Cannolis are my new vice.
This is a no nonsense pasticceria (Italian pastry shop). My father has been coming here for a long time – who knows really how long. I think it’s been here for a long time. It looks like it’s been here for a long time. That means they’ve been making pastries for a long time and they know what they’re doing!
I probably drove the clerk crazy because I wanted everything. I wasn’t sure what everything was though. Not everything is signed so you have to ask. Of course we started with Cannolis. No good Italian-​American family doesn’t eat cannolis! However, I don’t eat cannolis because I have never found any good ones in California where I live. So we got a lot of the plain ones and the chocolate covered ones. THEY WERE SO GOOD (I am jonesing for them just writing this)! We also got Pasticiotti (tart), which my family pronounces the Sicilian way, «pastachoke.» They came in a variety of flavors like coconut, apple, lemon and custard. The pastry was perfect, but the apple filling wasn’t that good, like it wasn’t fresh, but that just might be me. We also got Sfogliatelle (pastry with ricotta or custard filling). I really liked this one and would much prefer to have it for breakfast as it was light in sweetness and dense like it would get you to lunchtime. All pastries went well with coffee – hello.
There is a café attached to the bakery. The coffee is good. The train station is just a little ways down the street so I recommend you stop here before or after your trip.

I regret that I didn’t stuff my face with more things while I was in town.
The rum cake passed me by.
The eclairs didn’t make it out of the case.
The tiramisu wept bitter espresso tears in the cooler.
Seriously, there was too much great stuff. All I got to sample were the:
Almond Paste Cookie
Chocolat Pusty
Lemon ice
Cannoli
First let me say that «pusty» has to be the worst nickname ever for a little pie filled with a chocolate custard that borders on the richness of brownie batter. That was great, and the lemon ice was refreshingly tart.
But the lightness of the cannoli was really amazing. So many bakeries have them pre-​filled on their shelves. That’s a guarantee for a mediocre cannoli at best. Not seeing any cannoli’s out, I asked if they still had them at 4p on a Sunday (when they closed at 5p). Thankfully they did. My son gobbled down two of them. And he’s even pickier than I am.
Service was friendly and we felt like family. I loved that there was plenty of space to sit down and enjoy our treats on the premisses.
Hopefully, I’ll get another chance to come here and try more of their offerings. I can see a fifth star in their future. The bakery has been around for almost 100 years. But I’m going to need to see a little more from this shop before I’m willing to give it my highest rating.
Utica is one delicious city.

Best Italian pastries anywhere. I love coming here whenever I am in town. Everything is amazing. Chocolate pusties and almond paste cookies are delicious. Great coffee too. Wish I could transplant this place to where I now live.

Stopped in my childhood home town on our way back to Boston to buy the best Italian pastries anywhere (IMHO). Hazelnut cookies, eclairs, ½ moons, and (of course) pusties (chocolate, vanilla, & lemon). Same taste and quality for nearly a decade! Worth a visit to east Utica if you’re ever in upstate NY.

It’s a trip back in time. Love the hazelnut biscotti, and sfgiotelli. The cannoli is very good as well and definitely made fully in house.
The staff is very friendly and helpful!

I moved away and miss Florentine. Its a must stop place for me when I go home to visit. EVERYTHING is amazing!!! Old school is best!

Went here for the first time after brunch with my roommate
Pros:
–Extremely cute décor — beautiful molding on the ceilings
–Cashew almond paste — a sugar cookie — yum! — price for one piece of cookie ($ 0.81)
–Tea cookie — nutty on the inside
–Lemon frosted
–Friendly staff
Cons:
–Slow service

The Pasticciotti and Cannoli were superb (especially the coconut filling — yumm) Nice old-​school charm and good prices. I will visit again, and again, and again.

If you haven’t been to florentine, hurry up and go.
A long time staple of east Utica, still has that great old school charm.
Everything is always delicious.
Although as I have noted in my short review of Carusos bakery down the street, florentine loses the pusty contest.

I didn’t *love* this bakery, but I did love the prices and the variety. My mom and I ended up splitting some sort of rum cake, which to be honest wasn’t particularly fresh tasting — perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising considering it was literally the only piece left! Anyway, I love that this place has seemingly been around forever, and I love that it isn’t full of bells and whistles. It’s just… an Italian bakery, and that’s all it needs to be.

Probably the best Italian Pastries in Central NY. They have something called a Florentine Kiss, which is a really good cookie that is a great crumbly consistency topped with a hazelnut cream (mousse like) and then covered in chocolate.
The best item there!
The only reason that I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because the last 2 times that I stopped, I was overcharged. I ordered some of the italian cookies that were by the pound. She placed them on the scale, I saw the price and then ordered the Florentine Kiss. My total should have been $ 4.18 and she charged me $ 5. Not a big deal, less then a buck, but it was just the point… Based on that, I have not gone back in a while. Though the Florentine kiss has been tempting me when I am in the area!

There’s a kitchen in the corner that looks like grandma’s! Old world pastries in an old world environment. Same pasties as in the New Hartford Café Florentine, so probably related.

Yum, Yum, Yum! This place is, hands down, the best Italian pastry shop in CNY. There is no other. If you are even remotely near Utica, NY and you like Italian pastries, you must stop here.
The chocolate pusties are a must have!

Everything we’ve tried from them is excellent! Of course, you have to get some pusties, but the other pastries are also really very good. It’s a no-​frills atmosphere, with slow but friendly service. Definitely an excellent reason to make a field trip into Utica! :)