Italian restaurants in Venice
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Bacaro Risorto
A shoebox of a corner bar just over a footbridge from Piazza San Marco offering quality wines and abundant cicheti, including crostini heaped with baccalà mantecato, soft cheeses or melon tightly swaddled in prosciutto, and even the occasional sushi.
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Met
Michelin stars don’t mean much in Venice given that the last French critic Venetians took seriously was Napoleon, and he had armies backing him up – but you’ll find locals who would not normally patronise a hotel restaurant concede that Met chef Corrado Fasolato certainly earns his starry reputation. Moonlit lagoon panoramas and mesmerising blown-glass constellations recede once the meals start arriving. Confident and playful takes on local game and seafood dishes include savoury pheasant canneloni and decadent eel-stuffed pasta that makes foie gras seem trifling; mains arrive with red wine and horseradish transformed into sorbet and gelato. Bring a hot date, a sens…
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Il Ridotto
From an open kitchen the size of a closet comes a parade of tasty small plates: a dollop of savoury Tuscan bread pudding, Venetian crudi composed into a glistening mosaic, a silky pistachio flan. Mains are comparatively anticlimactic and pricey, but antipasti like the lobster-nectarine salad and inventive primi such as gnocchi stuffed with wild herbs make an inspired meal. There are only five tables, set close together, which makes reservations essential and haphazard service puzzling – but ever-present chef/owner Gianni Bonaccorsi is warm and attentive, and the decor of exposed brick and gossamer veils sets the scene for modern Venetian romance.
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Trattoria da Pampo
Even though this restaurant is opposite a park in the quietest end of the city, this place boasts ‘dal pampo non c’é scampo’ (there’s no getting away from Pampo) with reason – the ombre and cicheti are irresistible happy-hour lures. During the Biennale, flocks of American performance artists and German gallerists descend on outdoor seating, attack plates of seafood risotto and polenta con seppie in umido (with squid in a tomato-onion stew), and fly off to openings in a cloud of gauzy black crêpe.
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All’Arco
Venice’s best cicheti daily aren’t on any menu: Maestro Francesco and his son Matteo invent them daily with Rialto market finds. If you ask nicely and wait patiently, they’ll whip up something special for you on the spot – baby artichoke topped with shavings of bottarga, perhaps, or tuna tartare with mint, strawberries and a balsamic reduction. Even with copious prosecco, hardly any meal here tops €20 or falls short of four stars – might as well book your return ticket to Venice now.
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Dai Zemei
The zemei (twins) who run this corner joint are a blur of motion by 10am, preparing for the onslaught of regulars and the odd well-informed foodie tourist by 11.45am for first crack at baccalámantecato (creamed cod) with green garlic shoots, crostini with silky cured lard and arugula panini, or gorgonzola with walnuts and a brandy reduction for adventurous vegetarians. Think past the usual prosecco, and wash it down with a rustic Raboso or sophisticated Refosco.
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Dalla Marisa
Go early or late to squeeze into that rare free spot between the elbows of dockworkers and university professors, and choose from a short daily menu of robust, no-nonsense meat-based cooking slapped down in front of you at bargain prices: €8 for a primo with house wine and coffee, or €14 with a secondo and vegetable side dish. Weekday fixed-price dinners run from €30 to €40 for seasonal specialities such as venison, duck, pheasant and lamb dishes, with the occasional fish and seafood option.
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Do Mori
Lurking surreptitiously behind the kiosk-strewn tourist thoroughfare to the Rialto is this backstreet bacaro that dates from 1462 but doesn’t look a day over five centuries old, with gleaming, gargantuan copper pots hanging rather ominously overhead and incongruously dinky, dainty sandwiches called francobolli (postage stamps). Make sure to arrive early for the best selection of cicheti (€3 to €4) and local gossip (free).
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La Rivetta
Cabernet Franc comes out of a hose and platters of hearty fare are passed around at the favourite bacaro (old-style bar) of salty sailors and neighbourhood eccentrics. Go for mixed plates with thick slabs of salami, translucent sheets of pancetta (bacon), and grilled veggies with crusty bread. Angle for a canalside spot, or duck inside to admire the decor of bicycle parts and dusty bottles of English gin drained before the war.
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Pronto Pesce Pronto
Even Tokyo sushi chefs would be duly impressed by the perfectly composed bites at this designer deli across from the Pescaria, specialising in well-dressed seafood salads and artful crudi drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil that make the most of today’s catch. Grab a stool and a glass of prosecco with your tangy folpetti (baby octopus) salad and plump prawn crudi, or enjoy it dockside on the Grand Canal.
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I Rusteghi
Outstanding wine selections and cicheti featuring exceptional meats – boar salami, pancetta and velvety cured lardo di Colonnata that will win you over to lard. Ask fourth-generation sommelier/owner Giovanni to choose your wine, and he’ll give you a long look to suss out your character before presenting a sensual Tocai or heady Refosco you won’t find elsewhere.
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Osteria La Pergola
As the name suggests, here you can sit under a pergola (or inside beneath a fine timber ceiling) and enjoy some of the best-value food in Mestre. For a first course consider the chunky, homemade spaghetti alla chitarra (thick spaghetti made with a tool known as the chitarra, or guitar). Venetians swear by this place, which, by the way, serves no seafood.
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Trattoria al Gatto Nero
Once you’ve tried the homemade tagliolini with spider crab, whole grilled fish, and perfect house-baked Burano biscuits, the ferry ride to Burano seems a minor inconvenience – a swim back here from Venice would be worth it for that decadent langoustine risotto alone. Call ahead of the steady stream of visiting dignitaries and star chefs, and plead for canalside seating.
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Pane Vino e San Daniele
Artists can’t claim they’re starving anymore after a visit to this wood-beamed trattoria that’s been a favourite of painters and performers since after the war. Settle into a seat in the campo for gnocchi first courses, Sardinian specialities such as rabbit with myrtle, and lavish appetisers featuring the namesake San Daniele cured ham.
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Al Cicheti
Train or plane food would be an anticlimactic way to end your culinary visit to Venice, so stop by this bàcaro near the station to toast your trip with a glass of prosecco and the €5 menu of primi of the day – warming pasta e ceci (pasta with chick peas) or aromatic asparagus risotto if you’re lucky.
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Casin dei Nobili
Like dining at the home of an indulgent, eccentric aunt, dinner here is served on a patio packed with wacky art and spoils you for choice. The wide range of options from pizza to steak is a boon for families and indecisive diners, but quality does vary – housemade gnocchi, seafood pastas and chocolate soufflés are the strong points. Book ahead.
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Aciugheta Enoteca
Never mind the pizza menu: why choose just one dish when you could go for a range of mini-pizzas, meatballs, crostini and other cicheti with a good glass of wine? You can stand at the marble bar with the locals, or if you come early or late enough, you might grab a designer seat in the exposed-brick back room amid the throngs of regulars.
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Al Portego
Beneath the portico that gives this bacaro its name, Al Portego is a walk-in closet that somehow manages to distribute cicheti and wine to overflowing crowds in approximate order of arrival. Reservations are necessary to secure a tiny table for sit-down meals of pasta with scampi or swordfish with a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar.
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Alla Maddalena
Just a footbridge away from the photo-snapping, lace-shopping crowds of Burano is a seafood oasis on the leafy island of Mazzorbo. Relax by the canal or in the garden out the back with pescatarian pastas or, during hunting season (autumn), enough wild game to satisfy Hemingway. Open for lunch and cicheti, and for prebooked group dinners.
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Vini da Arturo
Everyone in this corridor-sized restaurant comes for the same reason: the steak, studded with green peppercorn, soused in brandy and mustard, or rare on the bone. Your host will happily trot out irrefutable proof that Nicole Kidman actually eats and that director Joel Silver managed to escape The Matrix for steak here.
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Enoteca Il Volto
Join the bar crowd working their way through the vast selection of wine and cicheti, or show up early for a table in the snug wood-beamed back room for seaworthy bowls of pasta with clams with a DOC Soave, or thick steaks adrift in a puddle of juice with a sailor-size glass of Amarone (a robust dry red wine).
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Ristorante la Bitta
The daily menu is presented on a miniature artist’s easel, and the rustic fare looks like a still life and tastes like a dream: gnocchi is graced with pumpkin and herbs, and guinea fowl wades in mascarpone sauce. Wine isn’t offered by the glass, but they’ll cut you a deal on a half-bottle. This place takes cash only.
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Osteria la Zucca
Vegetable-centric, seasonal small plates bring spice-trade influences to local produce: zucchini with ginger zing, curried carrots with yoghurt, and a sensational pumpkin flan. Rabbit with prosecco and herb-roasted lamb are worthy choices too, but local produce is the breakout star here.
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Trattoria da Ignazio
Dapper waiters serve simply prepared grilled lagoon fish and pasta made in house (‘of course’) with a proud flourish, on tables bedecked with yellow linens and orchids. On sunny days and warm nights the neighbourhood converges beneath the garden grape arbour.
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Cavatappi
A sleek charmer strong on seasonal cicheti and artisanal cheeses, wines by the glass, and that rarest of San Marco finds: a tasty sit-down meal under €10. Get the pasta or risotto of the day, and the sheep’s cheese drizzled with honey for dessert.
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