What's your favorite restaurant in Venice?

[kadey]

2nd on La Zucca, amazing food! A reservation is a MUST for dinner...

Thank you! Looks like a great place!!

[buggins0402]

2nd on La Zucca, amazing food! A reservation is a MUST for dinner...

 

Can't tell you about the food...but can confirm reservation is a must. We were in Venice in November and was hoping since it was a slow period we could get into La Zucca....no luck.

[CintiPam]

Can't tell you about the food...but can confirm reservation is a must. We were in Venice in November and was hoping since it was a slow period we could get into La Zucca....no luck.

 

It is very small and very highly ranked on sister website tripadvisor. You definitely should get a reservation. We had our Venice hotel book it for us a few weeks in advance. It was a return visit last September after last eating there in 2007. Still fabulous, although the restaurants in Venice do not compare to those in other Italian cities IMO.

Edited April 5, 2014 by CintiPam

[iancal]

After three visits we do not really have one.

 

We tend to go away from the crowded tourist areas and eat in one of the more residential areas. We have not been disappointed yet.

[margsipie]

How do you go about finding a Cicchetti bar? I think this sounds like a great way to spend the early evening, but I wouldn't even know where to begin!

[SeaCBear]

I love the look of La Zucca! Do you think we would need reservations for lunch?

 

 

2nd on La Zucca, amazing food! A reservation is a MUST for dinner...

[mickeysgal]

For all the times we have visited Venice we have never eaten Cicchetti at the bars! We just watched a Rick Steve's show where he talked about it. We have seen it in bars and it's now on out to do list this visit!

 

What kinds of foods would you expect to see at a Cicchetti bar?

[lisiamc]

What kinds of foods would you expect to see at a Cicchetti bar?

 

Little bits. A piece of fried zucchini in bread crumbs. A bit of bread with a pâté made of salt cod mashed with olive oil (sounds awful, but tastes wonderful.). A slice of prosciutto. A slice of cheese with a spoonful of sour cherry jam. A few rosemary potatoes from the oven.

 

A cicchetti crawl is fun. A glass of wine and two or three cicchetti, then on to the next bar for a different wine and different bits food.

 

The best way to find a good cicchetti bar is by walking around and looking for the really crowded bars, where everyone is standing up, eating, drinking and talking. If the queue goes out the door, you've found a winner.

[ms8654]

 

This restaurant was recommended to me by the chichetti tour guide I had last October. At dinner there were four of us. We had wine while waiting and with dinner. We shared three entrees, a large salad and dessert. Dinner was about 80€. We asked the server (I think she was the owner's wife) for recommendations and she brought a variety of plates. It was all really good and we were pleasantly surprised at the price. I'm looking forward to going there again.

 

 

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[ms8654]

All of the cichetti bars we went to were in the San Polo district. In fact, right around the corner from the above posted restaurant. There are organized tours that you can find doing an online search.

 

 

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[lisiamc]

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This restaurant was recommended to me by the chichetti tour guide I had last October. At dinner there were four of us. We had wine while waiting and with dinner. We shared three entrees, a large salad and dessert. Dinner was about 80€. We asked the server (I think she was the owner's wife) for recommendations and she brought a variety of plates. It was all really good and we were pleasantly surprised at the price. I'm looking forward to going there again.

 

 

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Thanks for that. It looks like someplace we should try on our next trip to Venice!

[Pet Nit Noy]

We will be in Venice for only one dinner! We would like to try something that is not commercial,maybe a place that the locals eat at and not crazy pricey. Do you have a favorite or a" go to" place ? Thanks-Kade

 

In which neighborhood (Sestiere) in Venice will you be staying? The more out of the way the neighborhood, the greater the chance that you'll find restaurants -- full service to cicchetti bars -- catering to locals.

 

Cannaregio is one of the few neighborhood where the majority of residents are still Venetians. San Marco is at the opposite extreme. Other neighborhoods have pockets of Venetian residents but the closer you come any major site within that region, the more touristy it becomes.

 

For more specifics, here's a link to a web site my husband and I have used:

http://www.walksofitaly.com/blog/venice/where-to-stay-in-venice-sestieri

 

In particular, read the responses. When some posters complained that the article didn't provide specific restaurant recommendations, the author followed up and named names. The article and responses are only one year old. In general, the quality of restaurants in Italy don't change too much over time. Chefs and even wait staff tends to remain. (For example, we were worried when our sentimental favorite in Rome changed hands, only to discover that the long-time chef had become the chef-owner.) The biggest exception is when a place becomes known to the public at large and gets overwhelmed with customers.

 

Good luck!

[mickeysgal]

Little bits. A piece of fried zucchini in bread crumbs. A bit of bread with a pâté made of salt cod mashed with olive oil (sounds awful, but tastes wonderful.). A slice of prosciutto. A slice of cheese with a spoonful of sour cherry jam. A few rosemary potatoes from the oven.

 

A cicchetti crawl is fun. A glass of wine and two or three cicchetti, then on to the next bar for a different wine and different bits food.

 

The best way to find a good cicchetti bar is by walking around and looking for the really crowded bars, where everyone is standing up, eating, drinking and talking. If the queue goes out the door, you've found a winner.

 

Sounds wonderful; thank you. Putting this on the must do list.

[2pbears]

Hands down, the best meal we had in all of Italy was at Anima Bella in Venice. We arrived at our hotel (Locando Orseolo) after a long day of traveling, dog tired and told the front desk that we wanted a restaurant that was nearby, easy to find with good food. Anima Bella was awesome!! Very small restaurant (maybe 5 or 6 tables) run by a mother and daughter. The menu was limited to maybe three entrees (ravioli, spaghetti and lasagna) but everything was home made and absolutely delicious. I still dream of their French onion soup. When we return to Venice we will definitely go back there for dinner at least once.

[Clay Clayton]

We really enjoyed our lunch at Trattoria 40 Ladro in Cannaregio. It is on Fondamenta de la Sensa, which is one canal closer to the grand canal than the one in front of the Madonna dell’Orto church. We had a gondolier-ing lesson from Row Venice (the highlight of our time in Venice-everyone should do it-half the price of riding in one and so much more fun!) and our instructor Jane recommended it when we rowed by.

 

We had a seafood sampler appetizer with incredible calamari, then we each had gnocchi in a crab sauce...omg, so good! DDP said he now understood why I always said gnocchi in the US weren't quite right, "these are like pillows of air" he said. For dessert we had my new favorite Italian (Venetian?) dessert Schopine de Limone - lemon gelato, vodka, and prosecco whisked together onto a light cold delicious froth....yummy. Here is link to a picture of the gnocchi:

 

http://cruisinwithclay.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/20130421-182216.jpg

[critterchick]

[quote name='kadey']Tenuta Torciano- I can't say enough wonderful complements about this place. I would go back in a heartbeat! It's a true Tuscany winery minutes outside the medieval walls of San Gimignano (which is a fabulous town!).I thought we would be eating in the winery's restaurant,but we actually ate in their wine cellar. It was set up just for Dh and our kids (both above 21) with the owner giving us the most informative and amusing wine lesson. Then can the homemade food..OMG!!!! We were getting scared that this was going to be really expensive and it turned out to be more than reasonably priced. We had a few bottle of wine shipped home. There was not any pressure to do so or minimum amount for shipping.This family run winery sits in a beautiful setting and I would jump at a chance to go back! I think they have a website and a Facebook page.Please let me know if I can give you anymore help.-Kade[/QUOTE]

We ended up having lunch there in 2009 after our planned tour went awry. We had a cabbie who took us to Siena and San Gimingnano and suggested this winery for lunch. It was a fabulous meal and we are still on Perluigi's email list. He has a distribution warehouse in Chicago, so his prices are not too steep.:)