Restaurants in Venice

Restaurants in Venice celebrate the café culture, and the many traditional Venetian bacari and osterie (small eateries) are immensely trendy and popular, mainly for their regional cuisine and specialty cicchetti (bite-sized snacks or small plates of appetizers). Much like Spanish tapas, cicchetti are a staple of the Venetian diet and almost always a part of the evening aperitivo buffet.

Restaurant options range from very fun and casual to MAMA MIA THAT’S A PRICEY MEAT-AH-BALL, but the popular menu turistico (tourist menu) usually makes it easy to get some simple – albeit hardly authentic – nosh on a budget.

Restaurants in Venice tend to be small, and there’s certainly no shortage of overpriced tourist traps, so those looking to eat and get back to sightseeing should grab the daily operai (workers) specials served at the cool cafés and trattorias that are specifically designed for those who need to eat and run.

Pizza is plentiful, but Venice is hardly a pizza town, and locals will point out that the traditional Tramezzini sandwich – available everywhere – is way better than a pie anyway...read less