Vini da Gigio

Venice is an amazingly beautiful city with a not-​as-​beautiful food situation. All of the popular spots are littered with tourist-​trap restaurants betting you’re willing to sacrifice quality for scenery. Well, I wasn’t, and consequently I walked and walked until I thought I was fully clear of the tourist scene. I wanted me some authentic Venetian cuisine!
From the looks of it, Vino da Gigio had a lot going for it: the exterior was homely, and the menu was filled with Venetian specialities. In fact, they are authentic, and a little on the upscale side. Unfortunately, they’re also on the up-​price side, but food quality lags behind. You end up spending around € 15 for their primi and € 24 on a main dish, for the quality of something around half that. Still, food wasn’t terrible, and if you can get over the «Venice premium» built into price (and possibly built into the prices of most restaurants here), you do get to choose from an array of Venetian specialties.
They do have some meat items, but I was only interested in seafood. Give me the authentic stuff. I wanted something that Marco Polo, Casanova, or Vivaldi would have called lunch. I’ve dealt with unfamiliar foods before – show me your stuff, Venice!
…is what I was thinking, but not being brave enough to try some of the more exotic, and thereby authentic choices – cuttlefish (seppie) cooked with ink, eel (anguilla), fried sardines – I went for the grilled sole, which was one of the «pesce del giorno», and I still felt sufficiently Venetian.
The fish was decently fresh, and was served with a small square of polenta. I’d only had polenta a few times before coming here, but this was the least memorable of that I’d had. It was nice and chewy, but thin and insignificant. I’ve had better in the US, despite polenta originating here in Northern Italy.
I paid around € 25 for something not even that filling – though they do give you a huge basket of different types of bread sticks and crackers to snack on.
I was not impressed enough with the food to get dessert, and so my meal ended here. I’d sooner try someplace new than repeat.

This showed up as a good place to go for the needs of a gluten free diner. They did have their own set of GF crackers rather than the normal bread and two types of GF pasta which was nice. However, I would agree with other reviews that it was a bit over hyped.
When we arrived they did seat our party of two without a reservation but the body language seemed that they were unhappy about doing so despite there being plenty of open tables. We got the ham, the octopus salad and the GF tagliatelle pasta with cheese and pepper. The ham was fine but the octopus salad lacked a bit of flavor. The pasta was simple but cooked perfectly (just a bit al dente) and was sauced so it had flavor but wasn’t be drowned in cheese sauce.
The place was a bit hot and stuffy as well. Though not a terrible meal I’d say there are plenty of other places in the area that are worth a try at the same or lesser price point.

This is a quaint little spot. So picturesque. We didn’t make reservations so we had to come back very late at night for dinner. For us that was 9:00 pm but so worth it. Service was amazing. We enjoyed out meal and the coffee was so good. Definitely be prepared to sit awhile, we were in no hurry and enjoyed the ambiance and the friendly staff.

Although a lot of tourists are able to find this place because it is all the guidebooks, we had a very nice dinner which was completely affordable. Make reservations or arrive early so that they can squeeze you in and enjoy the (sea)food!
The staff was nice and helpful.
Don’t forget to have a coffee made in a very special coffee machine.

This place was recommended by a waiter in Rome. The food was fantastic. If you are a seafood lover, you must go there. The razor clams (Venetian clams) are amazing! the service wasn’t terrific but it wasnt bad either. I think the place is closed on Mondays. And if you go for dinner I suggest you make a reservation.

Vini da Gigio will show up in more travel books and blogs as a must go in Venice, they are all wrong.
While it wasn’t that bad, it wasn’t worth the hype either. Couple that with some of the slowest and lax service I’ve seen in Europe and you get a hyped meal that really disappoints. There were some high notes and we all discovered a new type of seafood that we fell in love with.
Canocchia or a Squilla Mantis was a newly discovered treat. Textured softer than a Japanese sweet shrimp, this little bugger was amazingly soft and delicious. We were all fighting for a second bite. He’s the lil’ dude in the upper left of the plate.
Anywhere we saw razor clams we had to get them. Here I think they overcooked them a smidge and made them a notch too chewy.
Pesto is my favorite sauce. While not as versatile as cream cheese, it almost goes on anything. But here it was on the bland side.
Our plate of fried stuffs was also a bland dud. All it needed was a pinch of salt and another minute in the fryer or less minutes waiting to come to our table.
We shared a couple desserts; first up was some pudding/​flan type thing that wasn’t nearly as good as the picture;
And lastly was a tiramisu who suffered its last days in stemware, poor little guy. It really does no good for the dessert to have inconsistent layering.
So overall, skip this place and make your way further into the depths of Venice for some stand-​up bar food or just indulge in endless gelato!

Awesome Fish and Ravioli! Great off the main street restaurant! Between the Jewish Ghetto and Rialto Bridge.

Excellent !
Devant l’abondance de restaurants de la Sérenissime, il est dur de faire un choix ! Il y a les resto à touristes à éviter d’un côté et les resto hors de prix de l’autre. Et bien moi je vous conseille de passer par Vini Da Gigio ! Un décor charmant et un accueil très agréable (sans zèle excessif juste ce qu’il faut). Et ensuite arrivent les plats et là c’est du bonheur: Carpaccio de poissons fumés en antipasto, spaghettis avec une sauce à l’encre de seiche (excellente) en primer puis le fin du fin les anguilles grillés ! Quel bonheur pour le palais !!! C’est fondant et goûteux à la fois. Arrive l’assortiment de fromages (copieux et très bon avec un panachage pertinent) et je finis avec un tiramisu d’une recette certes très classique mais tout simplement parfait. Bref un sans faute ! (facile à trouver en plus: station Ca d’Oro, gauche et droite après le pont !). Pour faire passer tout ça, je vous conseille la Grappa cuvée du patron parfumée comme j’aime…

We decided to try this place out as it had been recommended in several guidebooks and articles. The problem with being lauded in a guidebook for being an authentic place to try local cuisine among locals is that it draws a lot of tourists. When we went I don’t think there was a single local in the whole (quite small) establishment excepting the staff.
Prices are fairly usual for Venice, i.e. expensive. But if you live in London even Venice seems good value. Starters and 1^st courses around £7−10 and mains about £12−16.
The food was sublime. We had the antipasti misto (Venetian style) to start. This was basically an asiette of Venetian seafood dishes and was dribblingly delicious. It was not cheap (about 24 euros I think, but we shared it between us). It included scallops, shrimp with polenta (my favourite), some grilled white fish thing, and clams (again especially delicious).
For mains I had penne with Gorgonzola and pistachio and he had beef. The portion of penne was small but so rich that it seemed a lot, it was very tasty. His beef was the beef of the gods. It melted in the mouth; I’ve never had such a tender and delicious bit of flesh.
We had puddings as well, but it was a terrible case of eyes bigger than belly as I could barely get halfway through it. We were so full; it was a truly lovely meal. One of the tastiest I have ever had.
The bill came to about £60 for two of us (3 courses and a bottle of prosecco) that is not cheap for Venice but you’d pay double that for the same quality in London. You must book in advance as it fills up rapidly.