The 15 most brilliant restaurants in Venice

The island of Burano, famed for exquisite lace-making and colourful houses, is also home to one of Venice’s finest restaurants – and it’s deliciously laidback to boot. Husband and wife Ruggero and Lucia Bovo set a jovial tone for ‘The Black Cat’, while super-charming son Massimiliano is front and centre as the maitre d’. The family is fanatical about local food, and supporting the ever-dwindling number of fishermen on Burano. Pretty much everything on the menu is netted or caught by hand in the lagoon. Feast on hyper-local specialities like homemade tagliolini with spider crab or traditional Burano risotto with goby fish. This is one of the only upmarket restaurants in Venice where there’s a real mix of clientele, thanks to the Bovo family’s focus on locals. Your neighbour on one side might be Tom Cruise; on the other it might be Andrea Rossi, the fourth-generation fisherman who caught the fish on your plate. This is Venice at its absolute best.

Note: This restaurant is strictly reservation only, no walk-ins. 

‘Vero’ means ‘true’ – but under chef Luigi Lionetti’s vision, it also stands for ‘Venetian roots.’ At the swish Ca’ di Dio hotel on the Riva degli Schiavoni, with views towards San Giorgio Maggiore, this isn’t your average hotel ristorante. Lionetti – who won a Michelin star for his last restaurant, on his native Capri – uses products from the lagoon and wider Italy to create his tasting menus. Lagoon fish and vegetables and herbs from the island of Sant’Erasmo sit alongside famously sweet Sicilian prawns, aged parmesan from special red cows in Emilia Romagna, and olive oil from Campania. The clashing textures and tastes in each dish, and multiple sauces and reductions, make the food feel almost more French than Italian, making it an all-round celebration of the Mediterranean. 

The small, canal-side dining room of La Zucca (meaning ‘the pumpkin’) offers a romantic setting and one of Venice’s most unique menus. Vegetables play the starring role – the signature pumpkin and ricotta flan are not to be missed – yet the rotating menu, which changes every day, also includes succulent specialities like roasted rabbit with chestnuts. Reservations are essential for one of two nightly seatings, and service can be rushed – but one taste of the house-made pear cake with ginger and those quirks will hardly linger.

Owner Hamed Ahmadi arrived in Venice as a refugee in 2006, and his restaurants – the original in Cannaregio is so popular that he opened another in Dorsoduro – draw on his experience, and that of his staff, who arrived by the same route from all over the world. The menu at Orient Express is a glorious mix of dishes from their home countries, as well as those they passed through en route to Italy – so there are choices like Afghan ravioli with spicy chickpea sauce, Pakistani cream chicken with apple. and Greek-style veggies with yoghurt. The huge platters – you can choose up to five dishes – are eye-poppingly good value, and the service is super fast, since it’s all prepped in advance, and served canteen-style.

Gran Caffè Quadri has been an icon of St. Mark’s Square since 1775, with this restaurant above the café opening in 1830. Today, run by the local Michelin-starred Alajmo brothers, it’s had a facelift at the hands of designer and architect Philippe Starck. Murano glass chandeliers illuminate walls upholstered in highly original and playful fabrics designed by local textile artisans. To see these opulent dining rooms overlooking St. Mark’s Square would be reason enough to visit, but seasonally inspired five or eight-course tasting menus are the true attraction – with every bite of vegetables from the lagoon island of Sant’Erasmo or tarragon risotto with pepper and mango sauce, you will taste a little bit of spring. Generous amuse-bouches are also playful and delicious. This is one of the rare Venice menus that includes gluten-free options.

The Bortoluzzi family behind this beloved restaurant hidden within the labyrinth of San Polo proudly shares culinary traditions passed through generations – owner Piera’s father sold fish at the Rialto market. Passion for fine, fresh ingredients shines in specials like carpaccio di pesce crudo – the catch of the day from the Rialto, just caught, exquisitely sliced and served raw, baccalà mantecato (creamed salt cod), and generous seafood platters, lightly battered and fried to perfection. Don’t expect pizza or lasagne, this is classic Venetian fare offered at the highest level (often to visiting celebrities like Bill Murray and Yoko Ono). Reservations are essential.

To say Venice isn’t known for its pizza is to put it charitably, but Oke breaks the mould – and adds some of the best views in town. There’s regular seating inside, but for a small premium you can eat outside, plum on the famous Zattere waterfront, the water of the Giudecca canal lapping at your feet, boats sliding past as you slice your crust. The pizza is superior – you can choose wholewheat, khorasan wheat, spelt or gluten-free bases as well as regular ones, and toppings include prized Italian ingredients, from caramelised Tropea onions and aged Asiago cheese, to homemade sopressa salami. All the vegetables are organic, as are some of the flours. Their oversized salads are brilliant in the heat of summer, and to top it all off, it’s all excellent value.

It feels very un-Venetian, a restaurant specialising in meat in this fish-focused city. Yet Taverna La Fenice is one of the most atmospheric places in the city, tucked behind the Fenice opera house, with its swirled glass windows tipping you back a century in time into art nouveau-style surroundings. Opera greats including Maria Callas have always come here after performances; today it’s a quiet, refined retreat from the increasingly crowded streets. Don’t miss the risotto secoe, its signature dish, with dainty strips of meat melting into the rice.

Half of the experience at Venissa is the journey to Mazzorbo Island in the north lagoon. This is where Venice began, and this Michelin-starred restaurant goes back to the lagoon’s roots, with fish caught from neighbouring Burano, and many vegetables grown in the garden out the back. Smoked eel, beetroot, kombucha and sorrel or turbot with potatoes, porcini mushrooms, black summer truffle and bay leaves are just a few of the items you’ll enjoy when ordering the seven- or ten-course tasting menus. While sitting outside, gaze at the restaurant’s vineyards and vegetable gardens. On a budget? The same kitchen prepares the food for the more casual Osteria Venissa, also onsite.

Al Covo is one of those tried and tested standbys with a menu that skews towards Venetian and Veneto regional cuisines. Owned by the same family since 1987 (specifically, by a married couple comprised of a native Florentine and a native Texan), Al Covo is a rustic little restaurant with some outdoor seating on warmer days. The portions are hearty, fresh and beautifully presented, with a focus on fish from local waters, such as Adriatic monkfish wrapped in crispy pancetta with celeriac fondue and Giàlet beans, and linguini with local clams.