Foodie Venice

What you need to know about eating out in Venice
Word to the wise: Don't be one of the millions of tourists who swarm to the city each year willing to pay top euro to sit at a plastic table eating stodgy pizza washed down with rough red wine.

How many people do you know who have returned from Venice raving about the food? Sadly, the city of superlatives has a below-par restaurant scene.
Even taking tourists out of the equation, Venice hasn't got a particularly strong foodie culture. Unlike, say, the Romans, Venetians are more likely to grab a couple of cicchetti (tapas-style snacks) at a bacaro (bar) than stop for a three-hour lunch.

One way of eating well here is to leave the safety of the tourist menus and brave these small, local hangouts, where there are often no seats and usually no menus.

Otherwise, fish is usually a good – if not cheap – option, thanks to the city's watery location, and you should budget for one really good seafood blow-out during your visit. Carnivores should look out for duck dishes and melt-in-the-mouth fegato alla Veneziana, Venetian calves' liver.