Venice Restaurants

  1. Osteria Ai Quatro Feri

    Seafood only is the deal here. Tuna is a house speciality, but you can also tuck into swordfish at your cosy (sometimes a little too cosy) oak table. Consider the antipasti instead of pasta primi ; there's also a good mixed grill of vegetables or seafood salad.

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  2. Osteria al Bacareto

    Take the simple option and go for a plateful of cicheti with a glass of wine. Some people will tell you that the fried sardines are the best in Venice. You can also sit down to a full meal.

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  3. Osteria Al Diavolo E L'acquasanta

    Punters line up at the bar for a tipple while waiting for a cramped table in front of the bar or out the back. The sometimes gruff owner runs a tight ship but has his stalwart local customers. The place is loaded with atmosphere, the walls covered in a slew of old photos and memorabilia. Beware that the kitchen closes at , although you can wander in as late as midnight for a quick tipple at the bar.

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  4. Osteria Ale Do Marie

    Hidden deep in the back alleys of Castello is this simple, welcoming eatery. You can grab a reasonable set lunch (around €20 ); otherwise, order from the menu - a range of pastas, and fish and meat mains.

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  5. Osteria Alla Botte

    Wander into this backstreet bacaro (old-style bar) near the Ponte di Rialto for an array of cicheti and a glass of prosecco (sparkling white wine). Racy music and brisk bar staff suit the crowds of young punters. Sit out the back for no-nonsense Venetian food washed down with some decent reds.

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  7. Osteria Alla Ciurma

    As is typical in this kind of cicheteria (snack bar), space is limited: drinkers and snackers inevitably pile out on to the street as well. Hemingway would have approved of this 'clean, well lighted place'.

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  8. Osteria Alla Patatina

    Pile in around the rough timber tables and benches for cicheti (including sarde in saor and other classics) or simple pasta dishes (such as the hearty pappardelle con scampi e porcini , a thick ribbon pasta with prawns and mushrooms), washed down with a robust Refosco red. The Potato Chip Inn (don't bother looking for chips!) makes no compromise with fickle trends and retains a traditional air.

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  9. Osteria Da Alberto

    Another hidden Venetian jewel, this osteria is run by Alberto, a well-known figure in the business of serving up traditional food. The dried cod, a house speciality prepared in various ways, is good. Dark-wood tables are spaced out nicely and surrounded by huge damigiane and other odds and ends on the walls.

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  10. Osteria Dalla Vedova

    The 'Widow's Inn', off Strada Nova, is also called Trattoria Ca' d'Oro and is one of the oldest osterie in Venice. It was once a cheese store and was taken over by a family from Puglia in the 19th century. The food is reasonable, whether you nibble on the cicheti or settle in for a full (mostly seafood) meal. The snacks are copious, including battered vegetables and all sorts of weird and wonderful sea creatures.

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  11. Osteria Di Santa Marina

    This osteria offers a pleasant dining area and tables on the square. The cuisine is largely a refined take on Venetian seafood dishes, and you could start with the acquario, a platter of mixed raw seafood of the day. The highlights are without doubt the exquisite desserts, such as the artfully presented chocolate mousse.

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  13. Osteria Giorgione

    Wine-lovers will enjoy combining one of the bottles of fine Veneto and Friuli drops that line the exposed brick walls with a carefully prepared fish dish. Don't hesitate to try the zuppa di cozze (a big bowl of mussels in a light onion and capsicum broth) as a starter. There is also a handful of meat dishes for landlubbers. It's a romantic spot with soft lighting and discreet service.

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  14. Osteria La Frasca

    Set aside in a quiet campiello (small square) and frequented above all by locals, the gruff Hemingway-esque owner will serve up various simple fish and seafood dishes. The octopus salad is fresh and briny, the sarde in saor reasonable. Perhaps the best thing to do is to take a seat outside, order some wine and snack a little.

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  15. 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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  16. Osteria La Zucca

    It seems like just another Venetian trattoria, but the menu (which changes daily) is an enticing mix of Mediterranean themes. The vegetable side orders (around around €5.50 ) alone are inspired, while the mains (around €12 to around €16 ) are substantial and always a little different (try the agnello arrosto con tzatziki , (roast lamb with tzatziki). Only the seriously famished will want pasta as well.

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  17. Osteria Mocenigo

    A young and enthusiastic team serves you in this smallish but welcoming Venetian eatery. Exposed timber beams and burnt brown floor tiles give the place a sense of warmth, but it is unmistakeably fresh and modern - no attempt at recreating ye olde Venice here. Try the insalata di piovra (octopus salad, around €12 ).

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  19. Osteria Penzo

    Once, all you would get here was wine and basic snacks but nowadays staff prepare good local dishes based entirely on the fleet's catch. The setting remains homy and simple, a little osteria with photos of Chioggia as it once was. You can start with some cicheti and proceed with gnocchetti con vongole veraci, cipolla bianca e radicchio rosso (little gnocchi with clams, white onion and red chicory) before trying the fish of the day.

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  20. Osteria Vivaldi

    You could easily rush past here in the crush of the San Polo shopping district, but if it's a food time of day, drop in to this traditional eatery, with its low timber-beam ceiling and cosy dark-wood tables. Accompany your ombra with a few cicheti . Alternatively, sit down to a full meal and try the grigliata di pesce (mixed fish grill).

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  21. Pane Vino E San Daniele

    A revived version of a legendary old-time trattoria, haunt of postwar artists and other bohemians, Bread Wine and San Daniele (ham) offers a little more than that: a limited range of starters and gnocchi first courses, followed by various meat-based dishes.

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  22. Ribò

    In a part of town where good dining options are scarce, this is one to watch for. In the extensive rear-garden dining area you will be served meticulously prepared Venetian dishes. Pasta and desserts are made on the premises.

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  23. Ristorante Al Trono Di Attila

    The cheapest and most cheerful of the four restaurants strung out here along the canal between the vaporetto stop and the cathedral. The atmosphere is suitably bucolic - dine in the charming garden with pergola. Try the risotto di pesce (fish risotto, around €20 for two). The restaurant generally opens for lunch only, unless you book groups ahead for dinner. Much the same goes for the three other restaurants on the island.

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  25. Ristorante La Bitta

    The short and regularly changing menu is dominated by a few primi and meat dishes (what about coniglio in casseruola ai peperoni - casserole of rabbit with capsicum?), and not a fin of fish. The bottle-lined dining room leads out to an attractive internal courtyard. Leave room for dessert! Credit cards are politely declined.

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  26. Ristoteca Oniga

    Having gone through several unhappy reincarnations, this nicely located corner eatery has it right now. A balance of seafood and meat (Angus steak and duck), preceded by imaginative pasta primi (eg tagliollini done with spring onion, artichoke and fish) at around €10 , and cheerful service make this a popular bet. These guys won a catering contract with the Teatro La Fenice.

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  27. Taverna Del Campiello Remer

    Skip down a narrow lane and discover this vaulted cavern of brick, stone and timber beams (locally known as Da Emilio) opening onto a delightful tiny square on the Grand Canal. Expect buffet-style lunch with lots of affettati (sausages and cold meats), freshly made pasta and the like (lunch will cost around €20 ). Throw in grilled catch of the day and meats at night and you have dinner. Tourists in search of set menus stay away:there ain't any!

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  28. Trattoria Alla Madonna

    This is one of those time warps. A long, rowdy series of dining areas, swarms of busy but affable waiters in white jacket and black tie, and a menu that hasn't changed in decades (the place opened as Italy struggled its way out of the postwar doldrums in 1954). Expect lashings of simple food. Try the pasta e fagioli (pasta and bean soup) to start and move on to fish or, say, veal done in a butter sauce. All sorts wind up in here, from local market workers on a night out to American tourists in search of an experience.

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  29. Trattoria Corte Sconta

    A cosy eatery with a vine-shaded rear courtyard, the Corte Sconta is hidden well off even the unbeaten tourist track, although good publicity has locals and foresti wearing a track to its door. The chefs prepare almost exclusively seafood classics, such as their delicious risotto di scampi . The owners claim to use only the catch of the day. Who can carp at such a policy?

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