Virtually every budget
restaurant in Venice advertises
a set-price
menų turistico
, which at its best will offer a
choice of three or four dishes
for each course. This can be a
cheap way of sampling Venetian
specialities, but the quality
and certainly the quantity won't
be up to the mark of an
ā la
carte meal, and frequently
won't even be acceptable. As a
general rule, value for money
tends to increase with the
distance from San Marco; plenty
of restaurants within a short
radius of the Piazza offer menus
that seem to be reasonable, but
you'll probably find the food
unappetizing, the portions tiny
and the service abrupt.
In the following listings,
the term "inexpensive"
means that you should be able to
get a two-course meal with a
drink for under L35,000/?17.50,
including service and coperto
(cover charge);
"moderate" means
L35,000-70,000/?17.50-35;
"expensive" means
L70,000-100,000/?35-50; and
"very expensive"
covers the rest. We've supplied
the phone numbers for those
places where booking is
advisable in high season.
Wherever possible, we've also
supplied the day of the week on
which each restaurant is closed,
but bear in mind that many
restaurateurs take their annual
holiday in August, and that
quite a few places close down on
unscheduled days in the dead
weeks of winter. You should also
be aware that Venetians tend to
eat early and that restaurateurs
routinely close early if trade
is slack, so if you're in town
at a quiet time, don't turn up
much later than 8.30pm.
