Help Needed For The Newly-Wed Couple first-time in Venice...
 

Dear all, all the tips and help will be more than welcome, for a newly-wed couple who will spend 3 nights in Venice. Any tips, choices of good, tasteful and "not too expensive" restaurants will be really apreciated. Looking forward for all of your replies. The accomodation is already arranged at a location between the St.Marks Square and Rialto Bridge.

Our favorite restaurant in Venice is al Paradiso on calle Paradiso. Their cuttle fish in black ink with polenta is amazing. Seabass in carrot cream is wonderful, great service and excellent wine selection.

Burano is better than Murano. The clock tower tour is worth doing.

Congratulation and have a wonderful time in Venice.

I <b>highly</b> recommend this place:

http://www.hostariadafranz.com/

Here's an extensive Venice restaurant thread from another Fodorite:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...estaurants.cfm

You may already know all this, but here are three pieces of infomation that might help you or at least encourage more information from others.

In my opinion:

1. Venetian food is different from other Italian food, and Italian food is different from Italian food in the US.

2. Venetians tend to eat rice or polenta when other Italians might eat pasta. Italian food in general is much more lightly sauced (and pizza more lightly cheesed) than dishes with the same name in the US. And, of course, portions are much smaller.

3. Venetian food, even when it is not different, may use different words for the same thing, i.e., Venetian dialect, so studying the menu and sorting it out in advance is helpful.

In my experience:

1. Meal hours are earlier in Venice than in Rome.

2. Lunch is less expensive than dinner.

4. Seafood is the glory of Venetian cooking.

Your mileage may vary.

For a lovely dinner, try Alla Madonna near the Rialto Bridge (fabulous seafood). With only 3 nights, if they have never visited Venice before they probably won't have time to visit the out islands, but if they do they should try to make it to Burano - we found it much more interesting than Murano for just walking around, with wonderful restaurants for a nice lunch. And make sure to order spaghetti alla vongole (spaghetti with clams) every chance you get - Venice is the best place in the world for it, with a million baby clams so small that the shells are no bigger than your thumbnail.

We also heartily recommend Al Paradiso. After dozens of meals there, we have never been disappointed. It is always where we have our first dinner in Venice and our last. The food is consistently fresh and delicious and the service is outstanding.

We think it is a good idea to always make reservations for any restaurant you might want to go to, even if you do it only a few hours ahead of time.

for a memorable dining experience try Aqua Pazza....had a birthday celebration for 4 there ...wait staff is very attentive and the food is great....make reservations...

I didn't care for Alla Madonna, but to each his own, especially when it comes to food.

If you click on my name, you can read my trip report on Venice.

Some other stuff:
As someone mentioned, you may want to think about the Burano trip. I like it, but it will kill almost a whole day, counting back and forth and walking around.

Gondola ride: Whether it's a 'must' is up to you. If you do decide to do it, I recommend visiting one of the tourist offices and booking the serenade tour for 40 euros each. It's better than just grabbing your own gondola, for about 100 euros.

Have a drink and a snack at the outdoor waterfront bar at the Danieli. That lets you take in the Grand Canal scene, weather permitting, elegantly and for a bargain price.

Take an evening walk on one of the promenades along the canal, have a gelato, watch the lit-up cruise ships and other watercraft, and enjoy.

Maybe alla Madonna was having a off night, but we thought the food was not good at all. My shrimp had an ammonia taste and my spagehetti vongole was so salty and dry. My husband's spaghetti with meat sauce was dry and just plain awful.
I hope it will be better next time.

I have eaten well at alla Madonna and badly. If you can handle menu Italian, don't allow yourself to be put in the English-speaking room with the English menu. I think that is what made the difference.

We were grossly cheated at Aqua Pazza about five years ago, and I wound up having a major argument with the headwaiter in front of the restaurant, resulting in the manager giving us a 50 euro refund. We deserved it, but I worried about getting my throat cut every time I passed a dark alley, of which there are many in Venice. But the food was good. :-)

In regards to "booking a gondola serenade tour for 40 euros", I believe those are group tours. While a private gondola ride may be considered expensive in terms of euros, for newly-weds it would be a priceless memory. Our gondola ride through the lovely and quiet side canals was another of those very unique experiences one can only enjoy in Venice.