we are going to venice for a week in early oct. renting apt so will have breakfast and possibly some lunches in - therefore dinner out - would appreciate some restaurant recommendations- we are staying in san polo area, but expect to walk plus traghettos, etc, everywhere. we are particularly interested in local little places not tourist laden! grazie.

WG: YOu must be so excited about your trip to Venice. I traveled with my family to Venice this past June and cannot wait to return! We enjoyed several wonderful local restaurants and I would highly recommend them to you - great meals, great wine, local atmosphere and good service. Our time in Venice was the last few days of our trip.

Here is my trip report:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35019593

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My favorites from a recent trip were

a) Osterie alla Botte www.osteriaallabotte.it, San Marco, right near Rialto bridge. Small, very casual, local.

b) Al Covo, Castello, close to S. Zaccharia vaporetto stop. More upscale, English speaking owner. Excellent food & service.

There was just a huge thread about this with more restaurants than you can ever hope to visit. It's very helpful. Have fun!

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...ly06&fid=2

Sorry, here's the correct thread.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34791666

For a special lunch outing you may want to try Locanda Cipriani on the lagoon island of Torcello - it makes a great day trip. There is lovely al fresco dining and gardens to stroll thur - the food was possibly the best we had during our Venice stay - the service and atmosphere better than places in Venice proper and prices reasonable for what you get. The vaporetto ride back into Venice had great water views of the city. You can email the resturant for reservations.

Locanda Cipriani on Torcello is nice, but hugely expensive. If you go just down from that Locanda, on your way to and from the vaporetto, to Osteria Ponte al Diavolo, you can have an excellent meal for less than half of what you'd pay at the Locanda Cipriani, and it has lovely rooms, a patio and garden. That's assuming you want to make the trek to Torcello in the first place, which requires you to go to Murano first, and then wait for the vaporetto to take you to Torcello. It pretty much takes most of the day. The 9th century frescos in the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta are amazing, but that's all there is on the island-there are only 60 inhabitants or so. If you have a limited period of time, that wouldn't be my first option.

WG-I just suggested some places to DPerry on her thread, as she will be in your same area-San Polo-a great place to be-the authentic heart of Venice, where all the local enoteche are located. In addition to those I mentioned in the other thread, you might want to try these two, OSTERIA ALLA ZUCCA (Pumpkin) which is very popular with the locals, located just behind the San Stae vaporetto stop, and is a restaurant located near to where my Venetian friends live, and they do go there and recommend it as well. Another one located close by is AL NONNO RISORTO-good pizza, pastas, with a beautiful outdoor garden, which is why the locals like it. This last one takes no credit cards. Also by San Stae (you can easily walk from San Polo).

We really enjoyed Alle Testiere. Address is Calle del Mondo Novo, Castello, 5801. Very tiny place with
good service and wonderful fish and
pasta.

GST: where exactly is Al Nonno Risorto located? I don't think I've come across it in my wanders around that area. Details, please!

It's right there by San Stae vaporetto stop, Holly-I'm quite sure you've passed it, and maybe didn't notice it-you may have just seen the lovely garden, and there's an iron fence around the property, right there by the San Cassiano bridge, right off Campo San Cassan, specifically "sottoportico di Siora Bettina." (very close to Pierre Cardin's palazzo, btw).

It's known for their pizzas primarily, and pastas, but it is a very local place-a wonderful place in the warmer months because of that garden-but they also have chess tournaments inside in the cooler months from time to time. I highly recommend it.

P.S. "Al Nono Risorto" (one n, not two)

You can look it up on veniceexplorer.net-it shows it to be about equidistant between Rialto and San Stae vaporetto stop, on the San Polo side

Holly, I just found this review of the restaurant on the Guardian UK site (hate to resort to an English newspaper review, but here it is):

http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/3063

Have just returned and our top two were Vini de Gigio [which gets lots of good press] and also Da Romano's on Burano [which gets much less mention but which was really very good indeed if you are looking for a traditional fish restaurant]. Both had a number of locals in them but neither can be described as not touristy.....I suspect that virtualy every restaurant in venice has tourists in them. Both can be easily booked over the internet which was critical in summer but may be less busy in October.

Once again GirlSpy and I like the same places. I can also highly recommend Osteria Ponte al Diavolo on Torcello, and Alla Zucca in Santa Croce. Had wonderful meals at both on our last trip.

Hi Statia! How weird! I thought I was the only one to go to Ponte al Diavolo! You know what was really funny when I was there on Torcello this past March? My waiter (maybe you had the same one) and I were talking, and I was talking about a friend in Venice that I had met up with at La Cantina (which is a very popular late night spot and restaurant there on the Strada Nova in Cannaregio-you should go there some night-excellent food and terrific wine tastings, including a special prosecco, called "prosecco sur lie" that is bottled at Easter and is unfiltered or something, but it's very good). Anyway, he said "oh, I know her, and I said, and how about her boyfriend G---oh, yeah, I know him too!" That was funny to me, as this is an American/Venetian couple I was talking about, but it turns out that the waiter there at Al Diavolo goes there too to hang out, and so had gotten to know them, and this couple met there at La Cantina as well. Small world, huh?

thank you for all your recommendations -loved the trip report from KimiG and thread rec by italy 06 - grazie to all that wrote - i think i need more than a week to sample all the restaurants mentioned!

This was our second trip to Venice so we went further afield in our touring. Since we had already gotten off at Fondementa Nouve stop on the way from the airport to reach our hotel in Cannaregio, we were interested in walking along the lagoon on our way back from a visit to Zanpolo. We came across the most amazing restaurant, Trattoria da Alvise, http://tinyurl.com/2mx4hy just a few feet from the Fond. Nouve stop and right across from San Michele island. It has outside seating so the setting is amazing, but more importantly, contrary to popular belief, this Venice restaurant is putting out some delicious food! We stopped for a lunch of pizza and salad that were wonderful and were so smitten with the place we made reservations to return for dinner. I may have had the best clams and pasta ever, and my husband said his baked lasagne was better than mia nonna! (He didn't really say that, did he? Hers is the standard by which all others are judged.) The host/owner couldn't have been more gracious, and it was apparent that the guests were locals and regulars. I didn't taste them obviously but each dish that was brought out looked better than the next. We considered returning the next night but wanted to sample others. They were good but nothing else came close!

Depending on your location in San Polo, I can't imagine da Alvise is very far as the crow flies.