Venice Destination Guide

  Places to See in Venice

  Events & Nightlife in Venice

  Eating out in Venice

  Shopping in Venice

  4 Perfect Days in Venice
 
  Public Transport in Venice - Getting there and about

Home | Hotels | Flights | Car Hire | Attraction & Sightseeing Tickets

Click Here to Check Availability for Hotels in Venice

Eating Out in Venice
Guide to Drinking and Dining in Venice

Venetians enjoy the best of everything, and that includes food. There are hundreds of restaurants in the city serving Italian cuisine, and seafood features heavily on most menus. Prices vary greatly with tourist specials and lunchtime menus being vastly cheaper than evening meals, but quality tends to be poorer in the restaurants that solely cater to the tourist trade.

To get the best quality and value you have to escape the tourist money pit that is St Mark's Square and venture out into the city proper, but, like anything in Venice, restaurants can be hard to find. Pasta is always filling and cheap whereas for Venetian specialities such as octopus you can pay anything up to astronomical prices.

PRICE GUIDE: (average cost of a main course):
= less than EUR12, = EUR12 - EUR18, = EUR18+

Traditional

Antico Pignolo
Calle dei Specchieri 451
Tel: +39 041-522-8123

This elegant restaurant occupies a building that once served as the blacksmith's shop for the Doge's Palace. Renowned for having one of the best wine cellars in the city, and one of the most decadent menus - try the risotto with black truffles for a truly memorable meal.

Da Fiore
Calle del Scaleter 2002
Tel: +39 041-721-308

Venice's top restaurant? Many would say so including numerous celebrities, but this is no cheap chance to steal a glance at the famous faces who eat here. The menu is extremely expensive and Venetian, which means fabulously prepared fish. Booking is heavily advisable.

Le Bistrot de Venise
Calle dei Fabbri
Tel: +39 041-523-6651

Not too far from St Mark's Square the Bistrot de Venise offers some fabulous traditionally Venetian fare. The usual fish options are on offer, scallops, squid and sardines, but the most intriguing aspect is the menu of dishes from the 14th century onwards. You can find such anachronistic combinations as baked quail risotto (17th century) followed by sea bass with pomegranate (15th century).

Osteria Al Bacco
Cannaregio 3054
Tel: +39 041-721-415

Off the tourist track but well worth seeking out for the excellent and very fishy menu. Not regarded as the height of fashion but good food at reasonable prices means tables aren't always easy to come by.

Antico Martini
Campo San Fantin
Tel: +39 041-523-7027

Not far from La Fenice the Antico Martini is another of Venice's top-quality restaurants. Set in a peaceful square not far from St Mark's Square it makes a nice change from the main tourist magnets. The al fresco terrace is a fantastic place to tuck into the Venetian style food.

Il Sole Sulla Vecia Cavana
Rio Tera' SS Apostoli 4624
Tel: +39 041-528-7106

Il Sole Vecia Cavana offers a contemporary menu that stays close to its Venetian roots, with favourites such as salt cod and cuttlefish featuring highly. The setting is perfect, elegant and modern, in a square near to the Rialto Bridge.

Ai Gondolieri
Dorsoduro 366
Tel: +39 041-528-6396

So upmarket it has its own bridge and famously serving no fish, Gondolieri is definitely not a place for the thin walleted. The food has some international influence although Italian fare is in the majority.

Taverna la Fenice
Campiello de la Fenice
Tel: +39 041-522-3856

A rare thing - a reasonably priced restaurant in shouting distance of St Mark's Square. Fish, fish and more fish still wet from the sea is served up in this elegant restaurant. Prices range across the menu from pasta to lovingly prepared seafood specialities.

Trattoria Alla Madonna
Calle de la Maddona
Tel: +39 041-522-3824

Popular family run restaurant that caters to Venetians as well as tourists who happen upon it. You can eat very reasonably here with grilled fish, fresh from the slabs at the Rialto market being a speciality.

Ristorante Pizzeria Malibran
Cannaregio 5864
Tel: +39 041-296-0768

Tucked away just round the corner from the Rialto Bridge, the Malibran is a friendly spot offering a good choice of home-style cuisine ranging from seafood and meat dishes to pizza and pasta. Slightly off the beaten track, the restaurant isn't as obviously touristy as some establishments, reflected in the thoughtful service and traditional décor.

Indian

Shri Ganesh
Rio Marin, Ponte del Cristo
Tel: +39 041-719-804

The only Indian restaurant in Venice and, as such, an ever present in any guide. The result is that Shri Ganesh is often full of tourists who have seemingly come to Italy just to try the curries. Quite a wise move as it happens, the food is excellent and inexpensive.

Jewish

Gam-Gam
Cannaregio 1122, Sottoportego del Ghetto Vechio
Tel: +39 041-715-2284

A popular kosher restaurant at the entrance to Venice's old Jewish ghetto. Gam-Gam's menu mixes up Italian, Jewish and Israeli influences with delicious results. Closed on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Bars

Like the rest of Italy Venice has an extremely healthy café-bar culture. The city was one of the earliest gateways to the West for the coffee trade and Venetians have been addicted to the drink since the first boats arrived with the precious commodity in the harbours. If you can't see a café-bar believe us, there will be one round the next corner.

It doesn't come cheap however. Everyone wants to have a coffee on St Mark's Square and the prices reflect this high demand. Off the main tourist drags the bars and cafés are a lot more reasonably priced but, even if coming from costly cities such as Paris and London, prepare to be flabbergasted when the check arrives. Below is a mixture of the bastions of Venice café culture and some alternative bars you might like to check out.

Harry's Bar
Calle Vallaresso, San Marco
Tel: +39 041-528-5777

Perhaps not top dog among Venice bars anymore but Harry's is definitely the best known of Venice's celebrity haunts. Hemingway and Gore Vidal are just two former patrons of the bar. Cocktails and expensive food, plus a packed booking list draw an exclusive clientele.

Caffé Florian
Piazza San Marco, 56
Tel: +39 041-520-5641

You can't miss the Caffé Florian, Venice's top pavement café. Sitting in Saint Mark's Square, Florian offers overpriced drinks, snacks and pastries to tourists and well to the locals. Well worth paying the extra for the experience, especially if you can grab an outdoor table on the square.

Al Volto
Calle Cavalli (near Campo S. Luca), San Marco
Tel: +39 041-522-8945

If wine's your bag then you can do a lot worse than head for Al Volto and its cosy wood-panelled, wine-label wallpapered interior. The ambience is lively, the wine list hits over a thousand different varieties and you can even get a bottle that won't leave you gasping when you see the bill - a true rarity in Venice.

Gran Caffé Quadri
Piazza San Marco 120
Tel: +39 041-522-2105

Whereas everyone knows the name of the Florian, few visitors know the Caffé Quadri, St Mark's Square's other grand café, before they arrive. In fact the two rivals are just as good as each other, it's the location you're paying for after all. Again grab yourself an outside table and enjoy coffee, beers, wines and snacks in the stylish ambience of the piazza and think of Proust who used to drink here.

Fiddler's Elbow
Corte dei Pali, Canareggio 3847
Tel: +39 041-523-9930

In the canareggio this Irish bar is a surprising hit with locals as well as with the tourists who chance upon it. Although you may think that the last thing you might want to do on a trip to Venice is dive into a mock Irish bar the "Elbow" is a great place to come in summer, when music and dancing fill the square outside.

Martini Scala
San Marco 1980
Tel: +39 041-522-4121

This piano bar adjoining a restaurant is an upmarket haunt of the opera loving set (La Fenice Opera House was just round the corner). A stylishly expensive place to play the suave and sophisticated Venetian, and continue the spending trend into the night.

 

Click on an area for more Information and Hotels


 

Destination Guides | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Contact Us