A sign from Volto
Eating and Drinking in Venice
These are some notes of the places I like to go to for ombre and
cicheti, drinking and eating... The bible for eating and
drinking in Venice is Michela Scibilia's red book, "Venezia
Osterie e Dintorni" ("A Guide to the Eateries of Venice"). Some
people have emailed me to ask where you can get a copy of this;
basically you can get them in any bookshop in Venice or Amazon
UK seem to have copies. There are normally more
interesting editions available from abebooks.
This page is a complete mess now, because I keep adding things
when I think of them without checking the style, spelling, etc.
A lot of this is copy-and-pasted from emails to people. I'm
going to completely change the way this is structured when I
have enough time - it'd be good to have location information as
well, and it needs a blue jam bar
guide style legend as well...
If you know of innaccuracies here, please let me know. The
"research" involved in creating this page was hardly done under
the best of circumstances. It was a fun summer, though. :)
essential places
Café Noir
Genuinely fantastic. Friendly service and clientele, great
cocktails, good music (lots of latin dance / chilled out stuff)
and the drinks are a reasonable price. [FIXME: get a better
picture off broken computer] There are two rooms - at one stage
the back room had computers with free internet access, but they
aren't there now. [The fact that they seemed to use Windows
2000 CD player to play music, a good choice given the
lamentable
state of Windows music players, also appealed to me, of course.]
Il Caffè / Caffè Rosso
It's
the one in Campo Santa Margherita with just "CAFFÈ" on a red
background. I've always heard it referred to as Caffe Rosso,
however, possibly by induction from Café Noir and Caffè Blu.
Anyway, it has lots of outdoor seating, does a good and cheap
spritz and a few cicheti. Great in the summer... (Last time I
was there (July 2005) it was 1.80 euro per spritz aperol)
Cantine del Vino gia
Schiavi
excellent (FIXME: fill in...)
Margaret DuChamp
In the opposite corner of Campo Santa Margherita from ai Do
Draghi - another fun place to hang around and drink spritz in
the summer. [FIXME: find pictures]
recommendations from Tommasso
Anice Stellato
Very good, apparently...
il Refolo
Not the cheapest Pizza, but very nice.
ai Postali
A good place for a drink before going on to Refolo.
alla Zucca
(See below, FIXME.)
da Còdroma
Sometimes has jazz and live music.
Vitae
Used to be known as "al Mura" and is still referred to as that by
Venetians. (There's a particular bit of "mura" to look out for inside,
apparently...)
Fiaschetteria Toscana
Fairly expensive, but very nice food...
dalla Marisa
A classic place (run by Marisa) which lots of working Venetians go to...
Algiubagiò
A difficult to pronounce (and made-up) name.
al Fontego dei Pescaori
Where we went for a meal with the G--s and R-- and L--...
recommendations for Sarah
alla Mascareta
It's just off Campo Santa Maria Formosa (not to be confused with
Masceron, which is more of a restaurant.) Nearby, with lovely (and
quite cheap) wine and snacks.
ai Rusteghi
in a tiny campiello that's incredibly quiet given that it's so near to
the Rialto. They're friendly, there's nice wine - it's quite a bit more
expensive if you sit down, IIRC, but it's a nice place to sit and chat.
al Portego
Just to the east of Olandese Volante, it's pretty classic, and always
has a big bowl of baccala.
al Ponte
da Alberto
Both on the street that lead to the NW corner of the campo with hospital
and San Giovanni e Paolo (?). al Ponte is just wine and
snacks, I think, but da Alberto has an (apparently excellent)
sit-down restaurant as well.
al Bancogiro
Just over the Rialto, it's lovely because you can take your wine and sit
on the edge of the grand canal. As a restaurant, it's apparently very
nice as well, though I never managed to book in time to have a full meal
there.
ai Do Draghi
At the north end of Campo Santa Margherita, much better than the other
places there for a quick and unpretentious glass of wine. Amusing
clientele, as well...
al Patatina
Near C. San Polo. Fantastic place, both for quick (and pretty
reasonable) meals and cicheti. Much less formal than its twin, al
Pantalon. I went there for lunch a few times, and it was always just
right.
Vivaldi
Also near C. San Polo. The blonde woman there insisted on speaking
English to me every time I went there, but otherwise nice.
Volto
Just north of C. San Luca (I think - it's on the map
in the Red Book, anyway, on the road parallel and to
the west of the one with Vitae.)
Fiore
Just off Campo San Stefano, unpretentious and quite
localsy - just useful because of its location, really. (Not to be
confused with the very expesive da Fiore.)
Ca d'Oro
I think it's often regarded as the classic osteria - it's the one on the
front of the book. Nice, though the old guy who serves you can be a bit
brusque, particuarly when I asked him for a particular type of white
wine, rather than just "the wine." It's off Strada Nuova to the north -
we would pop in there before going to Fiddler's Elbow (in the next campo
along) for watching football in the campo.
la Cantina
Futher along Strada Nuova to the west, it has lots of nice wine, and the
people behind the bar were friendly...
do Mori
Near to the west side of the Rialto, really pretty -
a tiny place with lots of saucepans hanging from the
ceiling. Another classic, apparently.
?
The TimeOut guide has a section where they suggest some osteria;
they mention one good place that isn't in the Red Book of All
Food - it's on Strada Nuova, by a bridge quite near to the
church you can walk all the way around, I think. ISTR it has
"carbon" in the name, but that might be my imagination...
da Baffo
Lively place with Belgian beer - lots of twenty-something people there
in the evenings, and there's nothing else in the campo, so it all feels
like the bar. Also, people park their sandolas there, hop out, have a
few drinks and then go off again... :)
Paradiso Perduto
An amazing place, not quite like anywhere else in Venice (or here) ...
There's often live and impromptu music, spoken word poetry, etc. and
everyone there is friendly...
Vitae
A kind of brushed aluminium place, with some diner style booths inside.
I don't remember seeing tourists there - the book describes the
clientele as "young professionals", which seems pretty plausible.
Excellent spritz - you can sit there all evening having lovely drinks
and not be charged anything by London standards...
Alla Zucca
I really wanted to go to Alla Zucca, which is supposed to be really
nice, and one of the few places to do good vegetarian food. (You need
to book, normally, so I was never organised enough.)
other places
Cavatappi
Something I was reading suggested that Cavatappi has the best
spritz in Venice, along with Vitae. It was, indeed, nice, but I
was a bit irritated that they charged us 7 EUR for two of
them. (We sat down at a table, but still...) Otherwise it
seemed like a good place, with quite a nice clean design.
Antica Sacrestia
A very nice restaurant near to the flat - the owner is friendly
and the food is excellent.
da Fiore
I always wanted to go to da Fiore, which is incredibly
expensive, but apparently justifiably so. Unfortunately,
I could never persuade anyone else to fork out for it
so I ended up not going. sigh
Harry's Bar
I seem to remember that you pay 13 EUR for a Bellini here, but
they did invent it, so I suppose they can charge what they like.
Gins and tonic are 13 EUR each as well, IIRC. As a bar, you're
paying for the iconic status and the "Hemingway might have sat
in this seat!" effect, which has made the last couple of
occasions I've been there worthwhile for me. YMMV though. The
restaurant upstairs is meant to be fantastic, but seriously
pricy...
?
Just north of Harry's Bar, on Expensive Clothes Street there's a
new glass and aluminium style bar. Perhaps unsurprisingly given
the location and style, it's very expensive - I haven't been in,
so I'd appreciate any more reports...
Profetta (?)
Another "under new management" place that I didn't get a chance
to check out. It's on of the ones near Campo San Barnaba. The
portions of food are very generous, I'm told. Will try it next time...
Caffè Blu
Caffè Blu is just west of Café Noir. People seem to mention
them in the same breath, although really they're very different
- typically, the music in Café Blu is much cheesier, and
the atmosphere is a bit more basic. It's still a fun
place to drink, though - they have live music sometimes and on a
number of occasions I've found it open when everywhere else is
shut...
Inishark
I went there a few times because it was the nearest convenient
place that was showing football that I wanted to see. When you
can sit outside, Fiddler's Elbow is much more fun for watching
football, though, I think. I probably wouldn't go there.
Fiddler's Elbow
Just off Strada Nuova to the North, in a small campo with a
kebab shop on one side. It's another mock Irish pub, but a
great place for football - for big games, they put a screen
outside in the campo, and you can exchange your receipt from the
bar for a plastic chair. [FIXME: resurrect pictures]
Olandese Volante
A good pub, with occasionally eccentric service... It has an
area of chairs out in Campo San Lio in the evening.
Basolos (?)
I'm not sure if that's the right name, in fact. I wrote that
down at some point, though. It's the little caffè just around
the corner from Margaret DuChamp opposite the stairs that lead
up to l'Istituto Venezia (possibly the only Italian language
school for foreigners in Venice now, unless I've missed one.)
It's a nice café with the usual café things, and they were
always good to us.
Imagina
A bit further down towards Ponte dei Pugni is Imagina. It's a
smart bar with a small gallery. There are normally interesting
pictures on the wall. It's friendly and good.
