Is there such a thing as a "locals" restaurant in Venice?

We very much enjoyed our first trip to Venice, but found that all the
restaurants we visited targetted the tourist trade. Our wanderings outside
of the usual tourist areas were fun and interesting, but we never found any
restaurants.

Are there such things as "locals" restaurants in Venice, i.e. places which
cater to local residents, rather than tourists?

We tend to enjoy this kind of restaurant far more than the touristy,
price-fixed variety.

"PTRAVEL" wrote:

Are there such things as "locals" restaurants in Venice, i.e. places which
cater to local residents, rather than tourists?

We tend to enjoy this kind of restaurant far more than the touristy,
price-fixed variety.

http://www.chowhound.com/boards/intl...ges/17064.html

K

"PTRAVEL" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
..

Are there such things as "locals" restaurants in Venice, i.e. places which
cater to local residents, rather than tourists?


Preliminary remark:
In a number of trips to venice, we have not encountered a real high fligh
gastronomical place such were a meal could decently be priced above 50
euros. There is one place, next to the Rialto Bridge, calle Grape de Uva,
that has one of the best classified restaurants in Venice, but the food is
not worth the price.

On the other side, if you are going for simple food, you cannot avoid the
cicheti in a bacaro or an osteria. Try for example the francobilli
(literally "little stamps", effectively mini-canapes) at the Cantina Do Mori
(Calle dei do Mori 429 - San Polo), and not too far from there, the Cantina
Do Spade, even if there are more and more tourist coming in. For excellent
cicheti and a choice of wine, in Cannaregio, I would go for Osteria al
Ponte - Calle Larga G. Gallina 6378.

Enjoy Venice !

Dominique

--
* /^\ Dominique Foucart
* /\ / \ * Photos et randos en Haute-Savoie
| V /\ \ Pictures and trails in Haute-Savoie
/ / \ V°o www.samoens.int.ms

I've just returned from a trip to Venice and have to confess it was
impossible
to find a good quality restaurant.

I left very disappointed. On several occassions we paid over £35 ahead
for a very poor quality meal.

Only on Burno did we find a reasoable restaurant.

Not going back!

Stephen - London

Are there such things as "locals" restaurants in Venice, i.e. places which
cater to local residents, rather than tourists?


I have written this before, but . . .
Venetians rarely go to restaurants --partly because of all the tourists (
and there is no place in town that is free of them -- small town, millions
of tourists), and partly because, cultural tradition, they usually eat at
home. The town is small enough that even most business men go home for
lunch. You will see some business men and women ( esp the young) grabbing a
quick standup lunch in places around the Rialto and the market, and few (
more and more very few) older ones who still eat at lunch at places like
Madonna ( near the Rialto), where they are vastly outnumbered by tourists,
but where they know the elderly waiters.
But generally, there are few local hangouts that are restaurants. Some of
the cafes attract young people for a drink or two in the pre-dinner
evening -- Campo S. Maria Formosa, a beer joint on Campo S. Lio that keeps
changing its name , and others -- several such places in the increasingly
rowdy Campo S. Margherita. I live over a very successful restuarant ( Da
Bruno), which is usally crowded. They see a Venetian rarely. The same for a
well-known restaraunt down the street, and others in the neighborhood. In
fact, unless they are connected to a hotel, few places see the same people
twice.
This is not to say that are never Venetians in restaurants -- anniversaries,
birthdays etc. attract them just as anywhere. But "hangouts" there are not.
The bulk of day-tourists are Italian, and it is easy to get the impression,
when you hear them in restaurants, that they are locals. But Venetians speak
Venetian, not Italian ( although to the foreigner it may seem similar) -- a
language that few Italians understand ( it is a dialect, but Venetians
insist it is a language).
The Venetians, by the way, resent it all. If they go forth in their own town
they see and are bumped by mobs of tourists. It would be nice if they could
go to a pleasant place in the evening to escape it all, but they can't.
Much of their high taxes goes toward cleaning up the mess and other
tourist-created expense, they find it difficult to get around thru the mobs,
and they feel that they don't really have a home town that is theirs.
Business men -- many who are from out of town -- feed off the tourists, and
then skitter back to Mestre and Padua and such for the nite. Ironically, for
every Venetian who works in town, there are several who commute from
estre -- and, increasingly, Venetians commute to Mestre to work.
It is the most beautiful city in the world, and if you can afford it and are
willing to put up with hassle, always thrilling to live in. But at nite,
it's home and Telly.
rjf

In ,
Stephen typed:

I've just returned from a trip to Venice and have to confess it
was
impossible
to find a good quality restaurant.

I left very disappointed. On several occassions we paid over
£35
ahead for a very poor quality meal.

Only on Burno did we find a reasoable restaurant.

Not going back!


Not going back is of course your choice. However it is certainly
not true that it is "impossible to find a good quality
restaurant."

It is, in my opinion, *harder* to find a decent restaurant in
Venice than in most other parts of Italy. Poor-to-medium quality
restaurants abound, and separating the wheat from the chaff isn't
easy if you don't know in advance what the better places are. But
there are definitely very good restaurants in Venice.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

Thanks for your excellent post, Bob. I guess it will be dining with fellow
tourists when we go again next month.

Having just moved to San Francisco, I can empathize with the Venetians about
the tourists. I agree, though, that Venice is a spectacularly beautiful
city, and I'm looking forward to our return visit.


"Bob Fusillo" wrote in message
news:69Xhb.538413$Oz4.437900@rwcrnsc54...

Are there such things as "locals" restaurants in Venice, i.e. places
which
cater to local residents, rather than tourists?


I have written this before, but . . .
Venetians rarely go to restaurants --partly because of all the tourists (
and there is no place in town that is free of them -- small town, millions
of tourists), and partly because, cultural tradition, they usually eat at
home. The town is small enough that even most business men go home for
lunch. You will see some business men and women ( esp the young) grabbing
a
quick standup lunch in places around the Rialto and the market, and few (
more and more very few) older ones who still eat at lunch at places like
Madonna ( near the Rialto), where they are vastly outnumbered by tourists,
but where they know the elderly waiters.
But generally, there are few local hangouts that are restaurants. Some of
the cafes attract young people for a drink or two in the pre-dinner
evening -- Campo S. Maria Formosa, a beer joint on Campo S. Lio that keeps
changing its name , and others -- several such places in the increasingly
rowdy Campo S. Margherita. I live over a very successful restuarant ( Da
Bruno), which is usally crowded. They see a Venetian rarely. The same for
a
well-known restaraunt down the street, and others in the neighborhood. In
fact, unless they are connected to a hotel, few places see the same people
twice.
This is not to say that are never Venetians in restaurants --
anniversaries,
birthdays etc. attract them just as anywhere. But "hangouts" there are
not.
The bulk of day-tourists are Italian, and it is easy to get the
impression,
when you hear them in restaurants, that they are locals. But Venetians
speak
Venetian, not Italian ( although to the foreigner it may seem similar) --
a
language that few Italians understand ( it is a dialect, but Venetians
insist it is a language).
The Venetians, by the way, resent it all. If they go forth in their own
town
they see and are bumped by mobs of tourists. It would be nice if they
could
go to a pleasant place in the evening to escape it all, but they can't.
Much of their high taxes goes toward cleaning up the mess and other
tourist-created expense, they find it difficult to get around thru the
mobs,
and they feel that they don't really have a home town that is theirs.
Business men -- many who are from out of town -- feed off the tourists,
and
then skitter back to Mestre and Padua and such for the nite. Ironically,
for
every Venetian who works in town, there are several who commute from
estre -- and, increasingly, Venetians commute to Mestre to work.
It is the most beautiful city in the world, and if you can afford it and
are
willing to put up with hassle, always thrilling to live in. But at nite,
it's home and Telly.
rjf

Thanks for your excellent post, Bob. I guess it will be dining with fellow
tourists when we go again next month.

Having just moved to San Francisco, I can empathize with the Venetians about
the tourists. I agree, though, that Venice is a spectacularly beautiful city,
and I'm looking forward to our return visit.


Been there four times - and have enjoyed every visit. You'll have a wonderful
time....again.

We don't go there for wonderful restaurant meals. There are other areas of
italy where this is easier.
The last time we found a rather inexpensive restaurant - satisfactory food -
some tourists and some others. It was fine. We didn't spend time searching out
"great" places to eat.

We go to Venice to look at canals, buildings, and houses. We go there to stroll
the back streets.

We travel to different places for different things.

"Steltzjr" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your excellent post, Bob. I guess it will be dining with
fellow
tourists when we go again next month.

Having just moved to San Francisco, I can empathize with the Venetians
about
the tourists. I agree, though, that Venice is a spectacularly beautiful
city,
and I'm looking forward to our return visit.


Been there four times - and have enjoyed every visit. You'll have a
wonderful
time....again.

We don't go there for wonderful restaurant meals. There are other areas of
italy where this is easier.
The last time we found a rather inexpensive restaurant - satisfactory
food -
some tourists and some others. It was fine. We didn't spend time searching
out
"great" places to eat.

We go to Venice to look at canals, buildings, and houses. We go there to
stroll
the back streets.

We travel to different places for different things.

I agree, though one of the great pleasures for me of going to Italy is the
restaurants.

For what it's worth, we found quite a nice restaurant the last time we were
in Venice. It's right off the square at C'a D'oro, on the street which
leads to the Hotel Giorgione. I can't recall the name for the life of me,
but the food was the best we had in Venice.

I think the restaurants in the Northern half of Castello see very few
tourists. Those on Via Garibaldi and to the East were very local,
however, we come in contact with more and more tourists on Via
Garibaldi.

The upper third of Cannaregio, above Fond. Ormesini/Merisicordia/etc.
is also short on tourists, and the restaurants seem to have only
locals in them.

We have only been in Venice in Feb., so the tourist pressure is not
like summer.

This site seems to list most of the restaurants:

http://ristoranti.ombra.net/

There are almost 100 in Cannaregio alone.

Anyone been to

Osteria alla Frasca

I cannot believe it to be a tourist trap. 1large table inside, 4
plastic picnic tables outside (even in Feb) with heaters. The
building is not the size of a 2 car garage, and looks like a shed.

Does anyone know where or how to get a hard copy of

http://ristoranti.ombra.net/ and maps? If you play with the site, an
immense number of places to stay are also marked on the maps.


On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 09:15:53 -0700, "PTRAVEL"
wrote:

We very much enjoyed our first trip to Venice, but found that all the
restaurants we visited targetted the tourist trade. Our wanderings outside
of the usual tourist areas were fun and interesting, but we never found any
restaurants.

Are there such things as "locals" restaurants in Venice, i.e. places which
cater to local residents, rather than tourists?

We tend to enjoy this kind of restaurant far more than the touristy,
price-fixed variety.