The plates that define Venice: what they are, and where to eat the canonical version.
The plates that define Venice. what they are, where they came from, and where to eat the canonical version.
Fried sardines marinated with caramelised onions, raisins, pinenuts and white wine vinegar, served at room temperature. The canonical Venetian cicchetto.
Where: Cantina Do Mori, Osteria All'Arco, Antiche Carampane, Trattoria alla Madonna, Vini da Gigio
Price: €3-5 per cicchetto, €12-18 as a starter
Whole-wheat thick-cut spaghetti dressed with a slow-cooked onion and anchovy sauce. The canonical Venetian meatless pasta, served on lean-Friday and Christmas Eve.
Where: Vini da Gigio, Osteria Anice Stellato, Antiche Carampane, Trattoria Bar Pontini, Osteria alle Testiere
Price: €14-22
Whipped salt cod with olive oil and parsley, served on polenta crostini. The canonical Venetian cicchetto, on every bacaro counter from November through Easter.
Where: Cantina Do Mori, Osteria All'Arco, Antiche Carampane, Vini da Gigio, Osteria alle Testiere
Price: €2.50-4 per cicchetto
Calf liver sliced thin and slow-cooked with sweet onions in butter and white wine, the Venetian secondo. Served on grilled polenta bianca, with a sprinkle of parsley. The classic Rialto trattoria plate.
Where: Vini da Gigio, Trattoria alla Madonna, Antiche Carampane, Bistrot de Venise, Osteria Anice Stellato
Price: €16-26
A risotto-soup hybrid of rice and fresh spring peas, traditionally served to the Doge on St Mark's Day (25 April). Loose, soupy, never stiff.
Where: Vini da Gigio, Osteria Anice Stellato, Trattoria alla Madonna, Osteria alle Testiere, Bistrot de Venise
Price: €12-18
Lagoon soft-shell crabs caught during their April-May molt, dredged in flour and deep-fried whole. The most prized seasonal Venetian dish, eaten head-and-all from October through December.
Where: Osteria All'Arco, Antiche Carampane, Cantina Do Spade, Trattoria al Gatto Nero, Vini da Gigio
Price: €30-45 per portion
Black-as-ink risotto coloured with cuttlefish sac, with chunks of stewed cuttlefish folded in. The canonical inky Venetian rice dish, served at every Rialto-area trattoria.
Where: Trattoria alla Madonna, Vini da Gigio, Trattoria al Gatto Nero, Osteria Anice Stellato, Antiche Carampane
Price: €16-26
A paper cone or platter of mixed deep-fried lagoon fish: schie, calamari, prawns, sole, sometimes whitebait. The canonical Venetian fish supper.
Where: Acqua e Mais, Trattoria alla Madonna, Antiche Carampane, Trattoria Corte Sconta, Trattoria al Gatto Nero
Price: €18-30
Beef sliced paper-thin, served raw with a mustard-mayonnaise drizzle. Invented at Harry's Bar in 1950 by Giuseppe Cipriani for Contessa Amalia Nani Mocenigo; now a global classic.
Where: Harry's Bar, Bistrot de Venise, Quadri, Bar Longhi, Locanda Cipriani
Price: €25-45
White peach puree topped with chilled Prosecco. Invented at Harry's Bar by Giuseppe Cipriani in 1948, named for the pink-tinted robe in a Giovanni Bellini painting. The canonical Venetian cocktail.
Where: Harry's Bar, Bar Longhi, Caffe Florian, Locanda Cipriani, Grancaffe Quadri
Price: €22 at Harry's Bar, €12-18 elsewhere
Venice's signature bacari bar snacks: tiny bites on toothpicks or small crostini, from baccala mantecato on grilled polenta to fried sardines and crispy fritters. Eaten standing with an ombra of wine.
Where: Cantina Do Mori, Osteria All'Arco, Bacareto Da Lele
Price: €1.50-4 per piece, €15-25 for a 6-piece round
Veneto's landmark dessert: layers of espresso-soaked savoiardi sponge fingers and a fluffy mascarpone-egg-yolk cream, dusted heavily with cocoa powder, served chilled in a glass dish or in individual ramekins.
Where: Cantina Do Mori, Bacaro Jazz, Harry's Bar, Pasticceria Tonolo
Price: €8-14 a slice
The Spritz Veneziano is the city's signature aperitivo: a chilled glass of Prosecco with a bitter aperitif (Aperol, Select or Campari) and a splash of soda, garnished with an olive and an orange wedge.
Where: Al Merca, Cantina Do Mori, Cantinone Gia Schiavi (Cantina Schiavi), Bacareto Da Lele
Price: €3-€6
Tramezzini are Venice's crustless white-bread triangles, generously stuffed with creamy fillings (tuna and olive, prosciutto and artichoke, egg and shrimp) and stacked behind glass at every bacaro.
Where: Cantinone Gia Schiavi (Cantina Schiavi), Al Merca, Bacareto Da Lele, Bacaro Jazz
Price: €2-€3.50 per triangle
Fried sardines marinated with caramelised onions, raisins, pinenuts and white wine vinegar, served at room temperature. The canonical Venetian cicchetto.
History: Sarde in saor traces back to the 14th-century Venetian Republic's spice-trade preservation methods. Sailors needed a way to keep fried fish during long Mediterranean voyages; the sweet-and-sour onion-vinegar marinade pickled the fish and added the raisins and pinenuts that signalled wealth from the Levant trade routes. The dish is on every bacaro counter and every osteria carte to this day; it is to Venice what bouillabaisse is to Marseille. The 14th-century cookbook Libro per cuoco of the Anonimo Veneziano contains the earliest written recipe.
Where to try it: Cantina Do Mori, Osteria All'Arco, Antiche Carampane, Trattoria alla Madonna, Vini da Gigio
Watch out for: Fish, Sulphites
Whole-wheat thick-cut spaghetti dressed with a slow-cooked onion and anchovy sauce. The canonical Venetian meatless pasta, served on lean-Friday and Christmas Eve.
History: Bigoli is the whole-wheat pasta extruded through a brass torchio (press) that gives it its rough texture and bite. The in salsa preparation, onions slowly melted into a paste with salted anchovies, was the canonical lean-day dish, traditionally served on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and Christmas Eve. The dish has no tomato, no garlic, no cheese, just onion, anchovy and olive oil reduced to a near-confit. It survives unchanged at every traditional Venetian trattoria and is on the menu at Vini da Gigio, Anice Stellato and Antiche Carampane.
Where to try it: Vini da Gigio, Osteria Anice Stellato, Antiche Carampane, Trattoria Bar Pontini, Osteria alle Testiere
Watch out for: Gluten, Fish
Whipped salt cod with olive oil and parsley, served on polenta crostini. The canonical Venetian cicchetto, on every bacaro counter from November through Easter.
History: Baccala mantecato is Venice's interpretation of dried stockfish, brought back from Norway by Venetian merchant Pietro Querini after his 1432 shipwreck on the Lofoten Islands. The Venetians whip the soaked-and-cooked salt cod with olive oil into a pale emulsion (the mantecatura), the texture of a thick aioli. Served traditionally on grilled polenta crostini, it is the canonical winter cicchetto from November through Easter. Despite the name (baccala in Italian usually means salt cod), Venetians use stockfish (dried, not salted) for this dish, the legacy of the Querini trade route.
Where to try it: Cantina Do Mori, Osteria All'Arco, Antiche Carampane, Vini da Gigio, Osteria alle Testiere
Watch out for: Fish
Calf liver sliced thin and slow-cooked with sweet onions in butter and white wine, the Venetian secondo. Served on grilled polenta bianca, with a sprinkle of parsley. The classic Rialto trattoria plate.
History: 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.
Where to try it: Vini da Gigio, Trattoria alla Madonna, Antiche Carampane, Bistrot de Venise, Osteria Anice Stellato
Watch out for: Dairy
A risotto-soup hybrid of rice and fresh spring peas, traditionally served to the Doge on St Mark's Day (25 April). Loose, soupy, never stiff.
History: Risi e bisi is the canonical Venetian Republic dish, traditionally served to the Doge in the Doge's Palace on the Feast of St Mark (25 April) using the first peas of spring. The texture is risotto-but-looser, somewhere between a soup and a risotto, made with the pea pods reduced to a broth (the canonical version uses both pods and peas). It is on the menu at every spring carte from Vini da Gigio to Anice Stellato, and the proverbial Venetian saying goes that it should be ne troppo brodoso ne troppo asciutto (neither too soupy nor too dry).
Where to try it: Vini da Gigio, Osteria Anice Stellato, Trattoria alla Madonna, Osteria alle Testiere, Bistrot de Venise
Watch out for: Dairy
Lagoon soft-shell crabs caught during their April-May molt, dredged in flour and deep-fried whole. The most prized seasonal Venetian dish, eaten head-and-all from October through December.
History: Moeche are the male lagoon shore crabs caught during the few weeks each spring when they shed their hard shell and grow a new one, leaving them entirely soft-shelled and edible whole. The fishermen of Burano and Chioggia spend April and May watching for the moeca window, which lasts roughly 6 weeks; the crabs are sold the same day at Rialto Pescheria. The canonical preparation soaks the live crabs in beaten egg for 30 minutes (they eat the egg before being killed), then deep-fries them whole. The result is a sweet-fleshed nugget eaten whole, shell and all.
Where to try it: Osteria All'Arco, Antiche Carampane, Cantina Do Spade, Trattoria al Gatto Nero, Vini da Gigio
Watch out for: Shellfish, Gluten
Black-as-ink risotto coloured with cuttlefish sac, with chunks of stewed cuttlefish folded in. The canonical inky Venetian rice dish, served at every Rialto-area trattoria.
History: Risotto al nero di seppia is the canonical Venetian black-rice dish, coloured by the cuttlefish (seppia) ink sac and folded with the stewed cuttlefish meat. The dish is on every Venetian and lagoon-island trattoria menu and is one of the city's three canonical risotti (alongside risi e bisi and risotto di go). The cuttlefish is gently stewed in white wine and onion, then the ink sac is added in the last minutes to colour the rice; the dish should be a deep black, never grey. Best at Trattoria alla Madonna, Vini da Gigio and Al Gatto Nero on Burano.
Where to try it: Trattoria alla Madonna, Vini da Gigio, Trattoria al Gatto Nero, Osteria Anice Stellato, Antiche Carampane
Watch out for: Shellfish, Dairy
A paper cone or platter of mixed deep-fried lagoon fish: schie, calamari, prawns, sole, sometimes whitebait. The canonical Venetian fish supper.
History: Fritto misto della laguna is the canonical Venetian fish supper, served as a sit-down platter at trattorias or as a paper cone at street-food counters like Acqua e Mais near Campo San Polo, where the scartosso tradition continues. The mix varies by season and morning catch: schie in summer, moeche in spring, calamari and prawns year-round, plus the occasional whitebait and sole. The fish is dredged in flour only, never breaded, and fried in olive oil to a pale gold. Best served immediately with lemon and a glass of Soave.
Where to try it: Acqua e Mais, Trattoria alla Madonna, Antiche Carampane, Trattoria Corte Sconta, Trattoria al Gatto Nero
Watch out for: Shellfish, Fish, Gluten
Beef sliced paper-thin, served raw with a mustard-mayonnaise drizzle. Invented at Harry's Bar in 1950 by Giuseppe Cipriani for Contessa Amalia Nani Mocenigo; now a global classic.
History: Carpaccio was invented at Harry's Bar on Calle Vallaresso in 1950 by Giuseppe Cipriani for the Countess Amalia Nani Mocenigo, who was on a doctor-ordered raw-meat diet. Cipriani sliced the beef paper-thin and topped it with a Worcestershire-and-mustard mayonnaise drizzle in geometric pattern. He named it after the 16th-century Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio, whose retrospective at the Palazzo Ducale was running that same year, because of the resemblance between the red beef and the painter's signature reds. The dish is now globally codified and still served the same way at Harry's Bar.
Where to try it: Harry's Bar, Bistrot de Venise, Quadri, Bar Longhi, Locanda Cipriani
Watch out for: Egg, Mustard
White peach puree topped with chilled Prosecco. Invented at Harry's Bar by Giuseppe Cipriani in 1948, named for the pink-tinted robe in a Giovanni Bellini painting. The canonical Venetian cocktail.
History: The Bellini was invented at Harry's Bar by Giuseppe Cipriani in 1948 for the painter Giovanni Bellini retrospective at the Doge's Palace. Cipriani noticed the soft pink colour of the Bellini paintings' robes and developed the cocktail to match: white peach puree (canonically only white, not yellow) with Prosecco, in a 1 to 3 ratio. The drink is still served the same way at Harry's Bar today, with the white peach puree prepared in-house from peaches harvested at the Cipriani family's Veneto orchards. Globally copied with frozen pulp or even pureed yellow peach, the canonical version is only available at the original.
Where to try it: Harry's Bar, Bar Longhi, Caffe Florian, Locanda Cipriani, Grancaffe Quadri
Watch out for: Sulphites
Venice's signature bacari bar snacks: tiny bites on toothpicks or small crostini, from baccala mantecato on grilled polenta to fried sardines and crispy fritters. Eaten standing with an ombra of wine.
History: Cicchetti and the bacaro tradition emerged in Venice in the late Middle Ages, when the city's working-class taverns served small plates to dock workers who could not afford a full sit-down meal. The format codified through the 19th and early 20th centuries: a small glass of cheap wine (an ombra, from the medieval Venetian dialect for shadow) plus a few cicchetti. Cantina Do Mori (operating since 1462, the oldest continuously running bacaro in Venice), Osteria All'Arco and Bacareto Da Lele all serve the canonical format.
Where to try it: Cantina Do Mori, Osteria All'Arco, Bacareto Da Lele
Watch out for: Gluten, Fish, Dairy, Egg
Veneto's landmark dessert: layers of espresso-soaked savoiardi sponge fingers and a fluffy mascarpone-egg-yolk cream, dusted heavily with cocoa powder, served chilled in a glass dish or in individual ramekins.
History: Tiramisu (literally pick-me-up) was invented in 1969 at Le Beccherie restaurant in Treviso, the small Veneto city 30km from Venice. The original recipe was created by chef Roberto Linguanotto and pastry chef Aldo Campeol's wife, building on the older Venetian custard zabaione. The dish was a regional Veneto staple through the 1970s, exploded into international fame in the 1980s and has become the most-cooked Italian dessert worldwide. The structural recipe (savoiardi sponge fingers, mascarpone, egg yolks, sugar, espresso, cocoa) is Treviso and officially recognised as a Treviso-Veneto traditional product.
Where to try it: Cantina Do Mori, Bacaro Jazz, Harry's Bar, Pasticceria Tonolo
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Egg
The Spritz Veneziano is the city's signature aperitivo: a chilled glass of Prosecco with a bitter aperitif (Aperol, Select or Campari) and a splash of soda, garnished with an olive and an orange wedge.
History: The Venetian spritz traces to the early 19th century, when Austrian soldiers in Habsburg-ruled Veneto spritzed local whites with sparkling water (the German verb spritzen, to spray). The bitter-aperitif version arrived in the 1920s with Select (1920, Pilla family of Padua) and Aperol (1919, Barbieri brothers, Padua); the modern Aperol-Prosecco-soda formula was codified at Venetian bacari postwar. Aperol Spritz became a global drink after Campari Group acquired Aperol in 2003; Select, the less-sweet original, is what Venetians actually drink. The 18:00 spritz at a campo bacaro is the canonical aperitivo move.
Where to try it: Al Merca, Cantina Do Mori, Cantinone Gia Schiavi (Cantina Schiavi), Bacareto Da Lele
Tramezzini are Venice's crustless white-bread triangles, generously stuffed with creamy fillings (tuna and olive, prosciutto and artichoke, egg and shrimp) and stacked behind glass at every bacaro.
History: The tramezzino was invented in 1926 by Angela Demichelis Nebiolo at Caffè Mulassano in Turin, but the form took hold across Venice in the 1950s and 1960s when bacaro counters stacked the triangles as a walk-in snack alongside cicchetti. The Venetian version is taller and more generously filled than the Turin original; the mayonnaise-bound filling rises 3cm above the bread, giving the sandwich its dome. Cantinone Gia Schiavi (Cantina Schiavi) on the Dorsoduro fondamenta is widely cited as the city's reference (60-plus variations behind the counter); Al Merca and Bacareto Da Lele run rival stacks. Eaten standing, midmorning or aperitivo.
Where to try it: Cantinone Gia Schiavi (Cantina Schiavi), Al Merca, Bacareto Da Lele, Bacaro Jazz
Watch out for: Gluten, Egg, Dairy, Fish
Venice's signature dishes include Sarde in saor, Bigoli in salsa, Baccala mantecato, Fegato alla veneziana, Risi e bisi. See our signature dishes chapter for where to eat each.