Taverna San Trovaso

We enjoyed this restaurant so much that we returned for a second of the three dinners we had in Venice. The seafood here is not fancy, but what I imagine is eaten at Sunday dinners. Bountiful, fresh and toothsome.
It is not a «pretty», restaurant, nor is there a view, except for the canal next to it if you’re seated by the window. If you’re a seafood lover, you will be spending all your time gazing at your plate.
I also recommend the quintessential Venetian dish of cuttlefish and polenta. You can get your greens in with the spinach side dish. Warning: it’s loaded with butter, which may outbid the health fiends, but it was delicious.

Wow. I weep for the people who have left positive reviews of this tourist trap. Half the people in the restaurant are eating pizza, and so should you if you’re cursed to eat here. The seafood is godawful.
Grilled monkfish? Bone dry.
Grilled squid? Rubbery and flavorless. No fat, little salt, no seasoning to speak of. Perhaps this treatment works for fine fresh squid, but this was not that.
Grilled prawns? Only kind of sad. The most edible dish of the evening. Easily bottom third of grilled prawns I’ve had, though.
Pasta with onions and anchovy? Utterly inedible. Disgusting. No onions, an entire can of cheap anchovies. What should be a beautiful local dish is a tire fire here. The other three at the table were distracted by how much it reeked.
Oh, and the polenta. It jiggles. No joke. And somehow, it’s so tough on the outside it is a serious challenge to even cut with a knife. There is no indication that this food is made of corn.
There is no toilet paper in the ladies room.
The service was fine.
This is a tourist trap. Avoid.

Came back twice because there were things on the menu I really wanted to try from all the reviews!
It was good, but I’m actually surprised at all the hype. I was told Venice was THE place for seafood and while the seafood I had did taste fresh, I thought overall my dishes were just ok.
I had the squid ink pasta with the cuttlefish, the Bavette alla Busera and the linguini with white clam sauce while the fiancé had the pizza (humongous!), truffle ravioli and a chicken dish. All were just fine — not bad, but nothing to write home about. The saving grace (for me) and the main reason for the 4 stars was the TIRAMISU! I LOVED that dessert! We were here twice and had 3!
We got really lucky to be able to get in here twice even though we thought it was ok because there were always tons of people waiting to get in. The first time we were super lucky and got in with no reservations and the second time we got in was because we made a reservation during our first visit. It was convenient for us and we were more familiar with the area where it was located so it was an easy choice.
I wouldn’t not recommend the place, but I don’t know if that’s saying much.

This place is not good. Tourist trap. A waste of an evening in Venice. Go to La Bitta. We went there last night, wish we had again. Less than 5 minutes away.

I ordered the scallops as my antipasti and the spaghetti carbonara as my first course. I stopped there.
I was given only 3 small scallops floating in drawn butter served in their shells that took up almost the whole plate. They were overcooked and very rubbery.
To give some context on my pasta course, I had been looking forward to trying a good spaghetti carbonara before we left Venice. I had tasted my wife’s when she ordered it in Rome a few nights before. Hers was good, but I knew we could find better…
While looking at the description on the menu, I was concerned by the fact that it was made with «beaten eggs» and bacon. Isn’t good carbonara supposed to be made with just yolk? They know what they’re doing. I’ll trust them, I said to myself.
When the dish came out, it looked like they had dumped an undercooked Denny’s bacon omelette onto some overcooked pasta and mixed it up. I don’t think the «bacon» wasn’t even pancetta or bacon like it should have been. It looked like prosciutto. I did my best to get a few bites down, but stopped when my wife told me it was battle not worth fighting.
The service wasn’t as bad as the food, but not great either. A few tables who were seated well after us got their main courses before we even got our antipasti. I think our server may have forgotten to put in our order because there was a moment of panic on his face when he looked over at our table before darting back into the kitchen.
It’s not satisfying to trash a restaurant, but this would have been a lesser crime had the prices not been double what they should have been and had we not been in Italy where you’re supposed to find good Italian food.

Very nice restaurant would recommend to anyone in the area. You should made a reservation for this place if you’re not planning to wait in line before they open at seven in the evening.
My wife and I ordered the shrimp gnocchi, fish (seafood) soup, and the said ink pasta. I would rate it as fish soup, Gnocchi, squid pasta in order of how much I liked it. As I have never tasted such a great soup. Gnocchi was better than any US restaurant I’ve been in. The squid pasta I liked but could not compare to those two.
There is a service charge for each entrée of two euros.
Restroom is pretty good condition and there are two floors. Make sure to come early without reservation and they do accept credit cards.

First day in Venice and we found this Gem! This place have the best pasta we’ve EVER tasted! We had the Spaghetti Vongole is made with a saucey garlic butter sauce that taste like heaven, that is covered/​mixed with I believe, a whole pound baby clams! The baby claims itself made up the for price of the dish which is only 11 EUR. We also ordered the Mixed Seafood plate w/​Polenta which was perfectly cooked. I hate places that overcook seafood. This place makes everything so perfectly! My husband loves the Red House wine they have on tap. He said it’s the best Red he has had in a long time.
This place gave us such a great experience, we came back for dinner the very next day. I recommend always calling to make reservation otherwise there will be a line outside before it’s opened. Luckily we got in line 15mins before it opened at 7:00pm so we were able to be seated while people who came around 7:00pm had to wait for the first batch of people to finish dining.

My BF and I had a late dinner here, and even then, there was a line! I think we waited about 20 – 30 minutes before we were seated. This place seems popular, and the restaurant is pretty big, so the wait wasn’t too bad. We ordered the ravioli with mushrooms in a truffle sauce, and the bigoli with sardines. Both were really, really delicious. I love truffles and truffle oil, so the ravioli was very flavorful. The sauce was so good, I wanted to lick the plate. The bigoli was very good as well. It was a tad salty, but it packed a punch with flavor. I’m salivating as I’m writing this review. We actually stumbled upon this place on our last night here in Venice, so if possible, you should make a reservation in advance!

We had dinner here for our last night in Venice. Seafood was fresh and portions were good. If you’re looking for a cute sit down restaurant with decent prices and is away from the hustle and bustle of tourists, I recommend this place!

Decent food. Not cheap, but far better than the average Venetian tourist trap. Friendly and attentive waiters, who even encourage you to speak Italian if you try (and not cut you short with English). Seems to be popular with locals too. No terrace or any place to sit outside, but the inside is cosy enough (and air-​conditioned).

I had pasta carbonara and my daughter had penne with broccoli and chili pepper. My «bacon» was actually ham bits, very rich but the spaghetti was cooked perfectly. The broccoli penne seemed like pesto made with broccoli, no real chunks of vegetable and wasn’t spicy at all– they just sprinkled chili powder around the white edge of the plate. Service was prompt but no personality. Overall the food was good, but the A/​C was worth eating here since it felt like 103 outside! I shoulda tried seafood, but wasn’t adventurous enough so I can’t judge the place on its pasta.

If I only had one day in Venice I would choose to eat at Osteria Enoteca ai Artisti and Taverna San Trovaso. My wife and I decided to go to Taverna on the last evening of our recent Venice trip and were really glad we saved this place for last. It’s a very popular restaurant amongst locals so we got there early and waited in the rain for the doors to open. Totally worth it!
As for the food. Five-​star all the way. Loved the seafood spaghetti, Venetian cuttlefish with squid ink sauce and wild mushroom ravioli with truffle oil. This is classic Venetian food at its best. The prices were decent by Venice standards too as Taverna is nowhere near being the most expensive place we ate during our stay (those restaurants are generally in San Marco.)

First place we ate when we got to Venice. The food was pretty good and very reasonably priced. Shared an appetizer, got the mixed seafood platter (for 2) and the two of us each got a drink — came out to $ 51! Nothing that special, but I was very happy with the meal.

Good food. We had buffalo mozzarella with tomatoes; melon and prosciutto; a calzone; margharita pizza and stuffed calimari. Everything but the calimari was excellent. (Calimari was rubbery and flavorless)
The wait staff was fine, but they seemed a bit put off that we did not order appetizer, first, second course and dessert for each diner, as well as a bottle of wine. That bothered me a bit, because we did order plenty of food and planned to tip like Americans. Not a big deal, but it is something that would make me choose another restaurant for dinner tonight, even though I liked the food.

We took the spaghetti Vongole here. It was the second best we have ever eaten.
If I take into account the price, then it is even the best Vongole ever (only 11 EUR with 2 EUR coperto).
The service was excellent and the prices are very competitive.
Vongole, Tiramisu, a liter Prosecco and a liter wine costed only 45 EUR for 2.
Best value for money in Venice. We will definitely visit this restaurant again the next time.
The restaurant had good airco and a strong WiFi-​signal, altough it dropped out constantly.

Ce restaurant est «prévu» pour les touristes dans le sens où les cartes sont en différentes langues (espagnol, français, anglais, allemand et bien sûr italien). Les serveurs parlent bien anglais.
L’accueil était moyen, mais la serveuse était attentive et efficace.
Nous avons pris un antipasti regroupant trois plats typiques vénitiens: des sardines avec oignons, pignons, vinaigre (sarde in saor) /​des sardines grises et de la polenta (polenta e schie) /​des tartines avec de la crème de morue (baccalà mantecato con polenta). L’entrée était pas mal mais pour avoir mangé des sarde in saor la veille, celles-​ci avait beaucoup moins de goût et étaient ainsi bien moins réussies.
Nous avons pris chacun un plat de pâtes dont un avec un avertissement de la serveuse. Les bigoi in salsa (anchois et oignons) envoyaient en effet bien du lourd en terme d’anchois; même l’amoureux des anchois qui l’a pris n’a pas pu finir tellement le goût était prononcé et au final «écœurant». La serveuse avait prévenu donc aucun problème avec cela (juste le fait qu’on n’aime pas né pas finir nos assiettes…). Pour ma part mes pâtes busera (langoustine, sauce tomate et piment rouge) étaient très bonnes sauf les langoustines sans intérêt particulier (et peu présente mais ça je m’y attendais malheureusement).
Au final, nous avons pris un dessert à deux: un tiramisu ! Il était tout ce qu’il y a de plus classique mais assez léger. Je vous conseille fortement de le partager entre deux personnes car la quantité est assez importante.
Bien sûr, comme on est à Venise, les restaurants se font bien plaisir sur les prix (par rapport au reste de l’Italie hein, sinon ça ressemble aux prix français…): 2 euros de couverts par personne, une dizaine d’euros pour un antipasti, entre 10 et 15 euros pour un plat de pâtes. Les desserts sont aux alentours de 5 euros. Et le verre de spritz aperol est à 3,50 euros (et là, on sent bien qu’on n’était pas dans un restaurant fréquenté par les vénitiens snif snif :’().

This place is off the beaten path and worth finding. We arrived between 11:30 and 12 for lunch and the place was filled with locals not tourists. Service was great, atmosphere was good and food was excellent. We came for pizza and were not disappointed. Highly recommend their pizza and try a lemon soda. Good food, good service and reasonable prices.

One of my favourite meals so far on our tour of Italy.
Highly, highly recommend the fish soup. Incredible tasting broth and a generous pile of fresh shellfish.
Unpretentious, reasonably priced.

Wonderful find in Dorsoduro area of Venice. They opened promptly at 7PM and there was already a long line that formed around 6:55 when we arrived. Although it is a larger space than most Venice restaurants, it is recommended to make reservations as there were some that got turned away or were told to come back at a later time.
We ordered the seafood mixed grill (chef picks plus two large cubes of polenta) for two — around 31 Euros and the Spaghetti alle seppie nere (cuttlefish with squid ink) — around 12 Euros and a side of their daily vegetable (asparagus)– 4 Euros as well as various glasses of wine. This was more than enough for two (we left stuffed and were not able to finish our dishes) But then again, we did have plenty of bread and the cracker sticks that were provided (that is part of the cover charge). Entire meal ran around slightly less than 70 Euro’s — which is a bargain compared to what we would have paid in the states.
I thoroughly enjoyed both the mixed seafood grill and the spaghetti and definitely recommend. Saw a lot of patrons order pizza, however. They are English-​friendly.

Comida para 2 por 40e. Pizza y pasta, birras, cafés y tiramisú para compartir. La atención es buena y está muy cerca de l’Accademia.

Fish soup! That’s the last dish of the Venetian specialties that I was determined to find! It’s Monday, and the fish markets are closed — so the only restaurants that serves seafood are ones that have their own ‘fishermen’! Wow, so lucky to have found this gem — the fish soup was DELIZIOSO!!!
Will definitely come back on my next trip to Venice!

A great, incredibly spacious, very high ceilinged restaurant. Many Italian families. We went two nights in a row. Friendly service. I had carpaccio w Parmesan and arugula, buttered spinach and pesto pasta. My brother had pasta a white wine that he thought was excellent — house white. He just ordered and rated his after dinner «Barolo grappa». Very good. The place is also tucked away down its own pretty brick walk. Quite charming.

Le meilleur restaurant de Venise. Rapport qualité-​prix inégalée. Les spaghettis vongole sont une merveille et en plus il n’est pas cher du tout

En route pour Venise avec 10 copines pour feter le futur mariage de l’une d’entre elles, nous avons été très satisfaites de ce resto.
Le personnel était sympa, service à l’italienne.
La déco typée Venise.
Les plats étaient très bons, copieux et pas très chers.
Le resto étant dans un coin pas très touristique, vous y mangerez presque comme un vrai vénitien…
Ici c’est tout le contraire du piège à touristes…
Allez-​y :)

¿Has ido a Venecia y te da todo vértigo y no por la altura? Sí, allí te puedes gastar un ojo de la cara en cualquier cosa. Pero no todo es así. En una pequeña fondamenta de la zona de Sta. Margherita está San Trovaso.
El interior es el típico de una trattoria italiana, sus mesitas de madrea y sus cuadros de Venecia en las paredes.
La comida esta buenísima, tradicional y hecha en casa. spaghetti alle vongole? Nero di seppia? Bolognese? Los tienes de todos y no pueden estar mas buenos. El precio buenísimo y el trato muy agradable.
¡Que aproveche!
Ahh no te olvides de reservar, si no no cenas.

Da das Basement bereits weitgehend besetzt war, wurden wir im ersten Stock untergebracht. Der Service und auch die Küche sind ziemlich schnell, Küche vielleicht etwas zu schnell, was ungemütlich wirkt. Essen ist befriedigend und preislich angemessen. Portionen nicht allzu groß. Alles in allem Durchschnittlich

Bonne cuisine avec quelques spécialités vénitiennes comme les spaghetti alle seppie (spaghetti à l’encre de seiche) ou les spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti au palourde). Les plats sont copieux et à un prix raisonnable.

Très bonne cuisine pour une taverne à un prix raisonnable. Bön et charmant service. Tout les serveurs sont polyglottes.