Where to eat in Venice: bacari, cicchetti and restaurants
If you have come to Venice and ordered a pizza, you have missed. Not because the pizza is bad, but because Venice is not about it. This is a city of fish, of spices, and of a social ritual called andar a cicheti.
Venice was a trading centre for centuries: salt, pepper and silk came through here. The local cooking is a fusion five hundred years old.
Three words worth knowing
- Bacaro
- A small room, often without chairs, smelling of wood and wine. You come in for fifteen minutes: a glass, something to eat, a word with the owner.
- Cicchetti
- One-bite dishes set out on the counter. The Venetian answer to tapas.
- Ombra
- Literally, shade — a small glass of wine. Wine sellers on San Marco moved their stalls to follow the shadow of the campanile so the wine would not warm, and "into the shade" came to mean "for a drink".
What to order first
- Baccalà mantecato
- Salt cod whipped with olive oil. Start here.
- Sarde in saor
- Sardines in onion, vinegar, raisins and pine nuts. Sweet and salt at once — a medieval taste, because that is how fish was kept at sea.
- Fiori di zucca
- Courgette flowers, fried.
- Nero di seppia
- Black pasta with cuttlefish ink. Alarming to look at, mild to eat.
How to recognise a real bacaro
The rule is simple: look not for a sign but for people standing outside with glasses. The genuine places need no advertising and often look as though they have not been cleaned since the last century. That is not neglect but age.
The reliable mark of a trap is a menu in four languages with photographs of the dishes, and someone at the door inviting you in. Around San Marco most places are like that; in Cannaregio and San Polo, almost none.
What it costs
| Format | Per person |
|---|---|
| Cicchetti with wine in a bacaro | €15 to €25 |
| Trattoria: pasta and a glass | €40 to €60 |
| Fine dining | From €120 |
Coperto is added to the bill — a cover charge for the setting and the bread, usually €2 to €5 a head. It is neither a tip nor a swindle but a lawful line. Servizio of ten to twelve per cent is sometimes added on top; if it is already there, nothing further is expected.
Frequently asked
How much does dinner cost in Venice?
Cicchetti with wine in a bacaro, €15 to €25 a head. A trattoria with pasta and a glass, €40 to €60. Fine dining from €120.
What is coperto?
A cover charge for the setting and the bread, €2 to €5 a head. A lawful line on the bill throughout Italy, and not a tip.
Do I need to book?
In season, always. The good tables go weeks ahead and some of them months.
Is it true that the food in Venice is poor?
It is poor where the menu runs to four languages beside the main squares. Ten minutes’ walk away is some of the best fish cooking in Italy.
Can one eat cheaply?
Yes. Three cicchetti and a glass of wine comes to about fifteen euros, and by local reckoning that is a meal.
