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Venice


DanM

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We are planning a family trip to Venice during the kid's fall break. I am looking for dining ideas that will put up with two kids who, if their life depended on it,  cannot behave in public. A vegetarian friendly restaurant would be a plus.

 

Thanks!

 

Dan

 

ETA: I can also use suggestions for gelato in case they surprise me with decent behavior.

Edited by DanM (log)
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"Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea." --Pythagoras.

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Restaurants in Italy tend to be family/child friendly. Family eating is a big part of the culture.

 

I wouldn't presume to make any recommendations though. It's been 25 years since I was there. Just stay away from the tourist hotspots.

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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I live 25 km from Venice but I'm ashamed I can't be a great help. Everything is overpriced in Venice, so when I go there I tend to avoid going to restaurants.

As @liuzhou wrote, first rule is to keep far from the tourist roads, 99.9% of restaurants placed on the turist roads are going to screw you.

 

If you have kids, then the best suggestion is to look for "bacari". Bacari are the equivalent of the tapas bars in Spain: informal pubs/restaurants where you can eat a series (how many as you want, of course) of small plates, most of them have vegetarian options. No problem with kids there.

Can't give you direct suggestions, sorry. Bacari have a strange story. Up to to the advent of Tripadvisor and similars, they were the best kept secret in Venice. All of them were placed far from the tourist roads, so only people living here knew them. When you visited almost all customers were speaking Venetian dialect, they were local restaurants for the locals. You could find the authentic Venetian cuisine for cheap prices. There was the tradition of "giro dei bacari": you spent the evening/night going to a bacaro, eating a small plate with a glass of wine, then going to another, until you were able to stand on your feet, and without spending a fortune. After the advent of the reviewing sites bacari became known outside of the locals, so a lot of tourists started to flood them. Almost all of the historical names went to hell (raised prices and became hip spots). This phenomenon caught the attention of people who open new places in Venice, so there are a good amount of new bacari that open each year. The usual story goes this way: first few months you find good quality for correct prices. As the restaurant starts to get customers, then prices rise and quality lowers. I'm not up to date on current names, my best suggestion is to search "best bacari Venice" with google and read only the comments that were written in 2018.

 

As far as gelato, I stopped trying. Every time someone said to me "this gelateria in Venice is top notch!" I always ended up being disappointed. I would suggest you to try Grom, it's a chain with a lot of stores in Italy and abroad. They have 4 stores in Venice. Their stuff is not the best but it's good. Their sorbets are made from real fruit and not from industrial powders, a rarity for Venice.

 

The only good name for pastry shops is Vizio Virtù in my opinion, they are focused mainly on chocolate. All the other good places closed or have been bought out. Well, you can find some top places in San Marco, but their prices are much more over the top.

 

 

 

Teo

 

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Teo

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On 8/7/2018 at 5:55 PM, teonzo said:

I live 25 km from Venice but I'm ashamed I can't be a great help. Everything is overpriced in Venice, so when I go there I tend to avoid going to restaurants.

As @liuzhou wrote, first rule is to keep far from the tourist roads, 99.9% of restaurants placed on the turist roads are going to screw you.

  

If you have kids, then the best suggestion is to look for "bacari". Bacari are the equivalent of the tapas bars in Spain: informal pubs/restaurants where you can eat a series (how many as you want, of course) of small plates, most of them have vegetarian options. No problem with kids there.

Can't give you direct suggestions, sorry. Bacari have a strange story. Up to to the advent of Tripadvisor and similars, they were the best kept secret in Venice. All of them were placed far from the tourist roads, so only people living here knew them. When you visited almost all customers were speaking Venetian dialect, they were local restaurants for the locals. You could find the authentic Venetian cuisine for cheap prices. There was the tradition of "giro dei bacari": you spent the evening/night going to a bacaro, eating a small plate with a glass of wine, then going to another, until you were able to stand on your feet, and without spending a fortune. After the advent of the reviewing sites bacari became known outside of the locals, so a lot of tourists started to flood them. Almost all of the historical names went to hell (raised prices and became hip spots). This phenomenon caught the attention of people who open new places in Venice, so there are a good amount of new bacari that open each year. The usual story goes this way: first few months you find good quality for correct prices. As the restaurant starts to get customers, then prices rise and quality lowers. I'm not up to date on current names, my best suggestion is to search "best bacari Venice" with google and read only the comments that were written in 2018.

 

As far as gelato, I stopped trying. Every time someone said to me "this gelateria in Venice is top notch!" I always ended up being disappointed. I would suggest you to try Grom, it's a chain with a lot of stores in Italy and abroad. They have 4 stores in Venice. Their stuff is not the best but it's good. Their sorbets are made from real fruit and not from industrial powders, a rarity for Venice.

 

The only good name for pastry shops is Vizio Virtù in my opinion, they are focused mainly on chocolate. All the other good places closed or have been bought out. Well, you can find some top places in San Marco, but their prices are much more over the top.

 

 

 

Teo

 

 

Thanks Teo. It will be a bit touristy, but we are going to try and keep away from it as much as possible. What about on the mainland? Do you have any suggestions that would make it worth the trip for an evening adventure?

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"Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea." --Pythagoras.

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I would need more specifications... Do you have access to a car, or are you relying on public transportation? There is a great pizzeria in a small village near Mestre, but you need a car to get there.

 

The easiest place to get with public trasportation is Mestre (tram, bus or train). It's a place for stores and offices, so there is not much going on after the working hours (for example a couple of years ago a good cocktail bar opened and it's already closed).

Within walking distance from the main tram stop (called Piazzale Cialdini) I can suggest these ones:

Pizzeria da Pino (Piazzale Candiani 17/19) - surprisingly good for being a chain

Gelateria Chocolat (Via Gino Allegri 27) - this is the best ice-cream shop in Mestre, they have 2 locations, this is the one near the tram stop

 

On the other side Mestre can offer some really good pastry shops, but they close before dinner:

Pasticceria Bido (Piazza Erminio Ferretto 3) - overall this is my favourite of them

Pasticceria Pettenò (Via Mestrina 25) - they have 2 locations, this is the one near the tram stop

Hora Biasetto (Riviera XX Settembre 14) - this is owned by Hora, they sell pastries made by Luigi Biasetto (a pastry chef who won the Coupe du Monde in 1997 and has the main shop in Padua), but they have a small choice and service is subpar

 

 

 

Teo

 

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Teo

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