Restaurants in Venice
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Ai Assassini
This backstreet joint offers a glimpse into a fairly typical Venetian eating scene. Head through the Gothic doorway into a lowlit, cluttered (all those pots and pans hanging from the ceiling) and bustling ambience and pull up a pew at one of the long timber tables for simple Venetian fare. The food is not spectacular but the prices are reasonably under control and, wonder of wonders, even locals eat here.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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Pasticceria Da Bonifacio
Down a narrow alley just around the corner from the Palazzo Ducale, this little bakery attracts hard-bitten gondoliers as well as hunger-dazed tourists with its selection of pizzette (mini-pizzas), petits fours, and traditional Venetian biscuits including zaletti (cornmeal biscuits with sultanas). As afternoon wanes, the bakery turns into a makeshift bar as locals pop in for the signature Americano cocktail (sweet vermouth, bitters and soda).
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Gelateria Paolin
Not a bad place at all for gelato (ice-cream), it is even better for a relaxing breakfast in the morning sunshine. A limited range of toasted sandwiches is on offer, the orange juice is good, and instead of a straightforward coffee you could opt for the more gluttonous bicerin, a marvellous Turin speciality: coffee and chocolate combo topped off with thick cream.
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Ristorante Cantinone Storico
Tagliatelle with seasonal asparagus, prawns and artichokes in busura (prawn sauce) may sound simple, but try telling your tastebuds that. Classic Venetian dishes here cost a bit more than in other places, but you get what you pay for with superior ingredients, professional service, and canalside seating handy to the Gallerie dell’Accademia and Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
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Da Mario
Squeeze in among the motley collection of fisherman’s lamps, ceramic pitchers, watercolours, and the locals who made them, and make yourself at home with a generous plate of seafood pasta and wine by the litre. This classic osteria (wine bar) seems miles from tourist attractions and the 21st century, yet the Gallerie dell’Accademia and Palazzo Grassi are minutes away.
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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 al Diavolo e L’acquasanta
Mementos climb the walls, recalling a time when the Rialto regulars were slightly less grizzled and the bigoli (wheat pasta) and seppia in nero (squid in its own ink) here were at the beginnings of their fame. There’s always a wait for the cramped tables – meanwhile, blend in at the bar with an order of nervetti, or calf’s tendon.
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La Palanca
Lunchtime competition for canalside tables is stiff, but the views of the Zattere make tagliolini ai calamaretti (narrow ribbon pasta with tiny calamari) and tuna steak with sesame and balsamic vinegar taste even better. At €7 to €9 for full plates of pasta, you’ll be forking over half what diners pay along the waterfront in San Marco, while enjoying what are arguably even better views. Dinner is not served, but you can get cicheti at the bar right up to closing time.
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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.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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Pane Vino e San Daniele
Artists can’t claim they’re starving any more after a visit to this wood-beamed trattoria that’s a favourite of art students and professors alike. Settle in to generous plates of gnocchi laced with truffle cheese, Veneto game such as roast rabbit and duck, lavish appetisers featuring the namesake San Daniele cured ham, and Friulian house wines made by the Fantinel family owners.
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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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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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Muro
Mellow at lunch, trendy at happy hour, and chic at dinner: this versatile restaurant/bar/pizzeria aims to please with inventive pizzas, seasonal salads that could serve as mains and an above-average selection of beer and wine. Grab a chair in the piazza, or duck into the snug, exposed-brick interior to canoodle in white-leather and striped-silk banquettes.
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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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Trattoria Andri
While others tan the middle of the day away, foodies head for a leisurely lunch at this canalside restaurant. The menu focuses on simply prepared seafood: shrimp salad, grilled fish and a Lido-light fritto misto (fried seafood). Wash it down with well-priced wines and housemade sorbets, and see if you can make it back to that beach chair.
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Bea Vita
The back-room eatery in this local bar is quite a find, with adventurous specials like risotto with anatra (lagoon duck) drizzled with balsamic reduction and wild blueberries. Ask your host for wine pairing suggestions, and you’ll be presented with several bottles at a range of prices from €11 to €40, all solid value.
reviewed
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Alla Maddalena
Just a footbridge away from Burano’s frantic, photo-snapping crowds are lazy seafood lunches on the island of Mazzorbo. Relax by the canal or in the garden out the back with fresh fish dishes and, during autumn hunting season, the signature pasta with wild duck ragú.
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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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Osteria Da Alberto
All the makings of a true Venetian osteria – hidden location, casks of wine, chandeliers that look like medieval torture devices – plus fair prices on spaghetti alla busara (with shrimp sauce), seasonal cicheti, crispy Venetian seafood fry, and silky panna cotta with strawberries. Call ahead, because the kitchen closes early when the joint’s not jumping.
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Trattoria San Basilio
Stefano loves a chat so come in a social mood and sea what he can offer in terms of catch of the day. You might want to have mixed seafood antipasto with prawns, squid, baccalà mantecato and sarde in saor followed by lightly grilled bream. Finish with a glass of fragolino (strawberry-flavoured wine).
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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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