Venice Restaurant Tips by Trekki Top 5 Page for this destination

General remarks about (Ital.) restaurants

Since I can think back (which is almost 45 years), restaurants in Italy charge for the “plate set” = the table cover, called coperto and service, called servizio, separately. The plate set is not only referring to the plate, but to bread and grissini, which are provided on the table and which are charged for, no matter if we eat them or not. This is Italian customs, it is written in every guidebook about Italy, and it is that way since ages. So there is zero need for the naïve or inexperienced traveller (= in the following referred to as the visitor of Venice Eurodisney) to cry out loud and scream spam ! Some restaurants, however, have adapted to outside-Italy customs and include this in the prices, but it means that the prices for meals will be slightly higher then. But, don’t worry; every restaurant clearly states if coperto is added to the bill or if it is already included.
(And remember – in other countries, tax is not included in the menu’s price list – does anyone scream scam there ?)

Italians eat menus, consisting of several plates/courses = piatti . Usually, an Italian menu consists of antipasti, pasta, soup or risotto (called primi piatti/primo piatto) and then the main dish (secondi piatti/secondo piatto), followed by delicious deserts.
A lot of restaurants, however, have adapted also here and offer menù turistico (tourist menu), which consist of salad, pasta and dessert, often a drink (softdrink or water) is included. Often it is also Wiener Schnitzel and French Fries – well, made for tourists. Prices vary of course; the closer you go to Piazza San Marco, the higher the prices. Average price for a menu turistico is 15-20 €.

Favorite Dish: Vegetarians have marvellous options, as already antipasti offer a big variety in all kinds of salads and vegetables, and then of course there are also pasta and pizza without meat. And if you eat fish, then you definitely won’t have any problem in choosing among the varieties.

Opening hours (roughly): lunch times are usually from 12 to 2:30 pm and dinner times from 7:30 – 10:30 p.m.; some restaurants might close later in the evening. Around 15 – 20 min before closing hours, you won’t get anything to eat, but maybe to drink. A lot of restaurants are closed on Sundays.

After having paid, you need to take the bill (called ricevueta fiscale and you ask for il conto, per favore)with you and keep it at least up to 300 m away from the restaurant. This is also Italian customs and is meant to control that any business does not earn money at the side. But it is expected that the customers are supposed to know this. Guardia financia can control you and you will be blamed (and fined) if you don’t have the bill when being checked.

Rating: 0

Theme: Other

Dishes and drinks – and Spritz in particular

Already the names (suffixes) of restaurants tell us what we can eat there. Ristorante is the most expensive one, where definitely all piatti are offered and where it is expected that guests are dressed nicely (as opposed to sloppy). Trattoria is often a family run business with huge portions and more typical Italian dishes. Osteria is a place to have some drink (wine, beer or drinks), and some small dishes are on the short menu. Enoteca is a wine bar, where selected wines are offered. Here you can also buy wine, if you like one of theirs. Bàcaro is the most popular one in Venezia, similar like an Osteria, but they only serve small appetisers, called cicchetti. This is the place, where most of the people stand (as opposed to sit) and take their choice. The most popular “consumtion good” is an ombra, a glass of wine (0,1 litre), which Venetianos do all the time. I have read somewhere that around 500.000 (!!) ombre are drank daily in Venezia.That’s also why there is a saying “andiamo per ombre”, which means let#s go for something to drink.
If you are in Venezia, you should not miss to try some of the local specialities ! Most popular of course is all kind of seafood. Dishes like Spaghetti alle vongole (with clams) are offered all over Venezia. Risotto alle seppie, or often called Risotto negro, is rice, coloured with squid. Brodo di pesche is a fish soup, spiced with saffron. Very much typical is also Fegato alla veneziana (calf liver on a bed of onions). I didn’t try this, I simply forgot… but I will do next time.
Polenta is very much delicious as well, in any kind of preparation. This is made of ground cornmeal, which is boiled and then grilled or roasted. I don’t know though, if any Venetian restaurant still prepares it as the mammas in Trentino, of which it is typical for.

Favorite Dish: If it comes to ordering coffee, please remember that Caffè Macchiato has nothing to do with Latte Macchiato ! Wikipedia describes these nicely. The word “macchia” means flecked, and that’s why Caffè Macchiato is coffee with a fleck of milk and Latte Macchiato is milk with a fleck of coffee. I was once told that Italians despise anyone who drinks Capucchino after 9 a.m. in the morning, but it seems that with all us tourists, the Venezianos have developed a kind of silent endurance for this now. No one will give you a strange look when you order anything else than Espresso after 9 a.m.
Oh and remember that latte is milk - no one will bring you a Latte Macchiato if you simply order a latte :-)

And now for the most famous “drink” in Venezia, the Spritz. Ah, that’s something, I could not get enough of (and it seems my travel companion as well). It is white wine plus water and a tiny bit of bitter alcohol, like Campari, Cynar, Aperol or Select. This all with an olive and a slice of lemon or orange. It tastes wonderful, is a nice diversification while walking your feet off in Venezia, but careful – you might get addicted.

Rating: 0

Theme: Other

Best ice cream on the planet

Well, this is not necessarily for Venezia only, but generally for Italy – the best ice cream on the planet is made in Italy. I am already a lucky girl, as many Italian ice cream shops are located in Germany, but …. I can’t help, Italian ice cream is best eaten in Italy – this is a treat for all senses :-)
But…. as for so much, the visitors of Venice Eurodisney will have to pay around 2 Euro per ball, while the ones that dare to leave the neuralgic busy spots around Piazza San Marco, will only pay 1 Euro for one ball, 1,50 Euro for two balls and 1,80 Euro for 3 balls. I even had a very nice experience when I treated myself with gelato near Fondamenta Nuove. I didn’t notice the price for 2 balls, only saw that one is 1 Euro. I ordered two and put 2 Euro on the counter and wanted to leave. The guy called me back and gave me my change – 50 cents ! So much for the honesty of Ventianos to tourists !

The ice cream is available in all kinds of flavours, also ones you could never imagine before. As I like chocolate and lemon, I was in heaven when tasting their preparations ! Oh yum ! You can really taste that these ice creams do not contain any plastic food or artificial material, it is all natural and “home made”. They also had Tiramisu, ice cream homage to the best Italian desert, and nut, nougat, all kinds of berries – well, check and see, and taste of course.

Address: All over in Venezia

Comparison: least expensive

Directions: Walk away from Piazza San Marco and Rialto and you'll find cheaper ice cream .-)

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Ice Cream

Heavenly sweets and cakes

Italy is well known for very much delicious sweets and cakes (small cakes, not big like in Germany). Pasticcerias (bakery, well, it is more than a bakery, more like a sweet shop) are around every corner, and each of these delicious sweets are around 0,70 – 0,90 Euro.
The ones on my photo were red fruit cake (red currant, raspberry, strawberry, and yes, sweet Simone, while I ate this I was thinking of you), the left one cookie with vanilla cream and chocolate dip, and the other one a kind of layer cake with chocolate, cream and biscuit.

The best shop for sweets and also ice cream is Rosa Salva, by the way. It is located on Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo, at the Ospedale (in western Castello). Haha, do I need to mention that I was there quite often, as my apartment was just around the corner ? Any caffè tastes delicious, the ice cream as well, and once, when I walked through the small calle just next to, the whole air was filled with such a marvellous fresh ground coffee aroma that I could have stood there forever and just sniff.

Address: anywhere in Venezia

Comparison: least expensive

Directions: Look for the signs Pasticceria.

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Bakery

Nice and reasonable options at Zattere

Once you walk off the neuralgic spots, where mostly Eurodisney tourists gather (around Piazza San Marco and Rialto), prices get reasonable and you’ll find yourself among Venezianos. During my walks in the city, I found that the most charming places to drop by and have caffè, Spritz or ombra are along Zattere (southern Dorsoduro), in Via Giuseppe Garibaldi (eastern Castello), Campo Santa Maria Formosa (southwest Castello, bordering with San Marco), Fondamenta della Misericordia (in the heart of Canaregio), Campo SS Giovani e Paolo (western Castello, where it borders with Canaregio), Campo Santa Maria Nova (Canaregio, north of Chiesa S. Maria dei Miracoli and the tiny campos in San Polo. Also, it seems that the little campo north of Ponte Rialto’s west (between Ponte Rialto and Fabriche Nuove) is quite reasonable. A lot of the small former shops of the merchants are transformed into nice and elegant bars and enotecas with seating outside.

Favorite Dish: Campos where you will be not alone as a tourist (thus Eurodisney prices) are from my experience anything south of Ponte Rialto (San Polo side), Campo San Bartolomeo (San Marco side of Ponte Rialto), anything along Riva degli Schiavoni, and maybe also Campo San Polo.

Rating: 0

Theme: Local

Homemade pasta - yumm (Supermarkets, markets) Review

Same as for the salads – if you stay in an apartment, you can also prepare your own pasta at home. And the best of all is the pasta variety you’ll get in the supermarkets. The best brand is (well, my opinion) Barilla, and I stood with open mouth in front of the shelves (see photo 3) – all different kind of pasta, I will never ever get at home (were I live, we only have 4-5 different shapes of Barilla). So I got loads of different pasta and made my own dinner at home. It is even an Italian recipe, quite simple but oh so good. You only need olive oil, throw in the chopped garlic, have it roast until the garlic is glassy, throw in tomato paste, dilute with water – and ready we are. The spicy food lovers (like me), throw in some peperoncino (photo 2) and… yummmm.

500 g of Barilla pasta is around 0,70 Euro.

Comparison: least expensive

Directions: Anywhere in the supermarkets in Venezia.

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Italian

Salad heaven – pick your choice (Supermarkets, markets) Review

If you stay in Venezia for some days, and are travelling not alone, I suggest rent an apartment, as this also provides you with good opportunity to prepare your own meals. This will save you money but you can also take advantage of the heavenly selection of fresh goods. Now I live in a city where the farmers’ market is one of the poorest in selection and quality, let alone the non-existence of good rucola salad. So I was in fresh food inebriation anyhow and got my load of fresh rucola salad every evening at my famers’ store around the corner.
Of course you’ll get the freshest and best garlic here as well, Aceto Balsamico of course, and olive oil – so what is better than make your own salad in the evening.

The prices are reasonable anyhow. 300 g of rucola and of tomatoes was 1,60 Euro, and a thick bulb of garlic 0,50 Euro.

Comparison: least expensive

Directions: Fresh food markets are everywhere in Venezia, look at the smaller campos. Mine I got close to Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo.

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Vegan/Vegetarian

Ristorante Pasqualigo: Mussels (cozze) heaven in Strada Nuova

I love mussels (cozze in Italian and mejillones in Spanish), and I give a +++ if the month has an “r” or not – if they are available, I’ll eat them. Haha, I remember to have eaten nearly 80% of the mussels at business lunch once in Barcelona – we were 60 people…., but oops, this is off path. So even if it was May, I craved for mussels in the very beginning of my days in Venezia. As “vongole” (clams) are the shell seafood mostly sold and used in Venezia, I was very pleased to see the sign “cozze” at this restaurant – and was very much pleased again. They were done in marinara style, in a marinade with a slight amount of tomatoes, cilantro and spices and did taste heavenly (oh, when again will I return to Venezia?).

Together with my Cozze Marinara, I had two latte macchiato and water (0,5 litre), all together came to 18 Euro (mussels were 12 Euro, which is average for Venezia).

Ristorante Pasqualigo is located in Canaregio, Strada Nuova, just opposite of Billa supermarket.

Address: Venezia, Canaregio, Strada Nuova

Comparison: less expensive than average

Directions: (see above)

Price: US$11-20

Rating: 4

Theme: Italian

Bar Trattoria Da Paolo: Spaghetti alla vongole – oh yum

I passed this lovely restaurant with outdoor seating already during my walks through Castello and along Arsenale, but was too late to have lunch there (the smell was marvellous!). So some days later, after my visit at Museo Storico Navale, I decided to drop by again. Ah, good decision.
After studying the extensive menu with nearly 15 different pasta and 20 different pizza variations, I finally decided to stay “Veneziano” and have Spaghetti al vongole (clam in English; almeja in Spanish; photo 2). As a starter I chose anchovies in lemon-oil marinade in a salad bed (photo 1).
The dishes were excellent, and again I’d like to know the secrets of Italian cooks for this delicious pasta, which, without any sauce, just a bit oil, coriander and the mussels was just about perfect. The anchovies as well – and look at their size ! These have surely been swimming happily in the morning, no single idea that they end up in my stomach that midday…. Needless to say that I didn’t leave any thing on the plates, except for the shells.

Favorite Dish: I had two cafè macchiato as well, and a bottle (0,5 litres) of still water (acqua naturale), and bread and crostini as well.

Prices: Anchovies: 9 Euro, Spaghetti: 11 Euro; cafè macchiato: 1,50 Euro and water 2 Euro. As for the “coperto” – this restaurant clearly stated on the menu that coperto e servicio were included in the prices.

Address: Trattoria Da Paolo, Castello 2389 (Cpo Arsenale)

Comparison: less expensive than average

Directions: The restaurant is at the Arsenale, the one with white and blue parasols (as of May 2007; the one next door had green parasols).
Coordinates on GoogleEarth: 45°,26’,04,62’’N; 12°,20’,59,39’’E

Price: US$11-20

Rating: 5

Theme: Italian