What to eat in Venice
Venetian food leans on fish and salt before pasta and tomato — the city looked at the sea for centuries, rarely inland.
- Cicchetti
- cicchetti (2–3 pcs): €4–6
- Starter
- Sarde in saor, €12
- Salt cod
- Baccalà mantecato, €13
Venetian food has been shaped for centuries by what arrived by boat — fish, salt, spices from the East — so pasta and tomato aren't the main word here; sardines, salt cod and cuttlefish are. The cheapest way in is cicchetti at a bacaro, cicchetti (2–3 pcs): €4–6 for two or three bites; a main course in a restaurant runs €13–20.
The meal eaten standing up
Cicchetti are small bites at the bar — a piece of salt cod on bread, a sardine, a croquette — ordered by the piece and eaten with a glass of wine, standing, an hour before dinner. Two or three pieces run cicchetti (2–3 pcs): €4–6, and it's the cheapest way to try several dishes at once without sitting down at a table.
A starter that travels backwards in time
Sardines, stewed with onion in a sweet-and-sour vinegar-and-raisin sauce, were invented to keep on board without ice — Venetian sailors carried them this way on long voyages. Today they're eaten cold or at room temperature, as a starter before the main course, for €12.
Boneless salt cod, whipped to a foam
Dried cod is first soaked, then simmered and whipped with oil until it turns into a smooth foam, served on a piece of polenta or bread. This dish arrived through trade from the north rather than the Venetian sea, but it has long since become local — €13 a portion.
Pasta and rice, Venetian style
Bigoli in salsa is a thick pasta with an anchovy-and-onion sauce, no tomato — €13. Risi e bisi, a pea risotto, was once served to the doge on the feast of St Mark, thick enough to eat with a fork, not a spoon — €13.
Squid-ink pasta and liver: two mains worth remembering
Squid-ink spaghetti turns the pasta black and carries the taste of the sea without a drop of tomato, €16. Fegato alla veneziana, liver with onions on polenta, is the oldest Venetian meat dish and the priciest of the six here, €18.
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
What are cicchetti?
Small bites at a bacaro's bar — fish, croquettes, bread with toppings — eaten standing, by the piece, with wine. Two or three pieces run cicchetti (2–3 pcs): €4–6.
What's a typical Venetian dish?
Sarde in saor (sweet-and-sour sardines) and baccalà mantecato (whipped salt cod) are the oldest; squid-ink pasta is the one most people remember.
How much does dinner cost in Venice?
A main course in an ordinary restaurant runs €13–20, without drinks.
Ready for Venice?
Where to next
The best time to visit Venice
→Venice has four seasons and a fifth — high water, which is not a disaster but a timetable.
Verona · 104 km
→An amphitheatre that still stages opera in summer, a courtyard tied to Shakespeare's tragedy and a fortress over the river — all inside a loop you can walk in a day, with a second day opening up Lake Garda.
How well does Venice suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
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