Calf liver sliced thin and slow-cooked with onions in butter and white wine. The canonical Venetian secondo, served on polenta bianca.
Fegato alla veneziana is the Venetian Republic's answer to the Roman frattaglie tradition: thin-sliced calf liver, melted onions, butter and white wine, served on white polenta. The dish appears in 14th-century Anonimo Veneziano manuscripts, and the onions-and-liver combination was a way to use the offal of the cattle slaughtered for the Republic's salumi trade. The polenta bianca (white corn) is the canonical accompaniment, not yellow. It is still on the menu at every traditional Venetian trattoria from Vini da Gigio to Antiche Carampane.
5 editor picks for Fegato alla veneziana in Venice, ranked by editorial score. All Venice signature dishes · Fegato alla veneziana across every city.
Antiche Carampane ★ 4.6
san-polo · Rio Terà de le Carampane 1911, 30125 Venezia VE
Antiche Carampane in Venice's San Polo is the 1983 family-run seafood trattoria the Rialto fishmongers send friends to, the room with the no-tourist-menu sign on the door.
Vini da Gigio ★ 4.5
cannaregio · Calle Stua Cannaregio 3628A, 30121 Venezia VE
Vini da Gigio in Venice's Cannaregio is the Lazzari family's canal-side trattoria, a Slow Food-listed family room running the canonical Venetian carte since 1981.
Osteria Anice Stellato ★ 4.4
cannaregio · Fondamenta de la Sensa, Cannaregio 3272, 30121 Venezia VE
Osteria Anice Stellato in Venice's Cannaregio is the canal-side modern Venetian seafood room on Fondamenta de la Sensa, with outdoor tables along the rio in summer.
Trattoria alla Madonna ★ 4.2
san-polo · Calle della Madonna 594, 30125 San Polo, Venezia VE
Trattoria alla Madonna in Venice near the Rialto is the 1954-founded room with a turnover that fills 200 seats twice a day, the canonical Venetian fish lunchroom.
Bistrot de Venise ★ 4.2
san-marco · Calle dei Fabbri, San Marco 4685, 30124 Venezia VE
Bistrot de Venise near San Marco is the 1993 room that cooks from manuscripts of the Anonimo Veneziano and Renaissance Venetian cookbooks, the only such kitchen in the lagoon.