restaurants in venice where locals eat
 

hi,

Hi bacci,

There are no locals in Venice. :)

Actually, there are 65,000 to 80,000 locals in Venice--they just avoid the tourist crowds along the Grand Canal.

Hi

It is always hard to find the authentic resturants when you travel. The best meal that my wife and I had in Venice was at a place called Trattoria Antica Bessetta in San Polo. I have posted a "review" of the food we had there on my homepage gardkarlsen.com. I have also posted a trip report there and some pictures. Maybe you can find some useful information there :-)

Regards
Gard
Stavanger, Norway

After I had been to Venice, I read a book called "A Thousand Days in Venice" by Maria de Blasi, an autobiographical account of her meeting and marrying a Venetian man and living on the Lido. She mentions many places in the bed they frequented (I wished I'd read it before the trip). One place I recall her mentioning is Ai Do Mori near the Rialto market.

=-O many places in the BOOK (freudian slip maybe):-]

What a hoot, Mclaurie =D>

It's OK McLaurie; you are among friends.

Thanks guys :-d :)>-

venice is largely a tourist city all for and about tourists....that being said there are few "local" restuarants remaining...that doesn't mean that there are not still some local places which charge a smaller price...

on lunch place we really grew to like and returned to several times is bar da gino....it is on the main path between accademia bridge and the peggy guggeiheim museum...its about 1/2 way and on the right when you are coming from accademia...loaded with workmen, students and shoppers as well as a few tourists....

buy the book 'cheap eats venice'...quite good, but not necessarily cheap...

TRATTORIA MADONNA : white table cloth, great food & service in alley just a block away from the Rialto bridge. It's buzzing with locals both times I ate there. The waiters are friendly & genuine.

We were in a pharmacy, and asked the pharmacist where SHE would go to eat. She directed us to the Madonna. We went back twice, and enjoyed it both times.

Mclaurie, I just finished the book and can see how you easily made that mistake...

A place they mention in the book for great fish is Conte Pescaor "a shack behind Campo San Zulian"...but I sure can't vouch for it personally.

If you go, please let us know!

Bacci,

BISTRO DE VENICE (I know it doesn't sound Italian) but it is an excellent seafood restaurant where I encountered many locals. In fact, we had to ask a local where to find it since it is not on the usual tourist path. When we asked a local guy if it was good, he said "Ottimo!" -- which we took as a good sign. (By the way, my husband is from the Veneto region so he's pretty picky about restaurants.) Buon appetito!

I can't find the name of the places, but there are few eateries in the area, so you can probably find the...

We ate in a wine bar/rest. just off of the main square in the Jewish ghetto. It was excellent and was all locals except for us. They spoke no English and we ended up in the kitchen with the chef pointing the food we wanted. It was great.

There is also a kosher Italian restr. in the same area which was great. We found them both by accident while looking for a gift for my grandmother.

Our general rule in Italy was that you had to walk at least 15 minutes from your hotel before selecting a place to eat. Also, any place that had a menu in English was out of the question.

From the other current thread on this topic I can tell that not everyone will believe this, but. . .

I think this basic question really should read: "Restaurants in Venice with good food". I am convinced that any restuarant with good food will attract locals -- why not? And any restaurant in Venice with good food will attract tourists. Venice has been around for quite a few years, and thousands of tourists have been asking locals and looking for "off the beaten track" good restaurants for years.
Do people really think that they are the first to think it is worth it to walk a mile off the "beaten track" to find a place where "only locals go"? Sorry, folks, it just doesn't work that way. On any given night in any GOOD restaurant in Venice there may be any mix of locals and tourists. What one night may seem like all locals at a place hidden away from tourists, is just as likely to be filled the next night with a handful of the thousands of tourists who have sought it out from the various guidebooks which deliberately point out these "local" restaurants or sent by the hairdresser, store owner, hotel clerk, gondola driver, or anyone else who is asked day in and day out where the locals eat.

Now don't get me wrong. Of course there are mediocre or even pretty bad restaurants in the heart of the tourists areas which you will not find locals at, but otherwise, I think it is really naive to think that there are that many "undiscovered" gems in Venice reserved for locals. Of course, we all like to believe that we and we alone have discovered such a spot, and it is nice to dream, isn't it.

Incidentally, I remember years ago in AnaCapri, walking off a hidden side street and seeing a tiny handpainted sign for a trattoria, we walked back a sort of alley and found hidden a little house with a small dining room and a larger screened porch. The menu was only in Italian. It was too early for lunch, but we returned about an hour later just after noon to eat. We were so proud that we had "discovered" what clearly had to be a locals only place. No one spoke a work of English, but they were friendly. Meanwhile the place started filling up quickly and soon it was bursting at the seams, both with locals and other tourists. I said to my partner "I wonder how all these other tourists found this place?" The woman next to us overheard me, leaned over and said, "I don't know about everybody else, but I read about it in Fodors". I laugh about it to this day.

To follow up on Patrick's post, Alla Madonna, recommended above, is good and locals eat there, but it's also in a jillion guidebooks.

I have a friend who lives in Mestre (her parents moved there from Venice proper, as did so many others) and works in Venice. There are a lot more locals living in Mestre than in Venice and guess what -- there are loads of restaurants there frequented by locals. But, of course, tourists don't want to go to banal old Mestre. You can't have it both ways.

bettyo,
Do you have an address for Bistro de Venice?

Bistrot de Venise has a website -

http://www.bistrotdevenise.com

Whoa! I've been wondering about eating in Mestre since that's where we'll be staying. It seems possible we'll want an evening meal there one night. Can you give me some specifics?
Thanks!