Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
English roast beef served with guacamole, or tagliatelle with puttanesca and olive
sauce. Pasta dishes are well priced at
€
7 to
€
8.50, while meat and chicken dishes
cost
€
13 to
€
14; the cover charge is
€
1.50.
€€
-
€€€
Tucked into a cheerful corner in busy Ruga Rialto is
Osteria
all'Antico Dolo
(Ruga Rialto, San Polo 778;
%
041-5226546; www.anticodolo.it),
which occupies a location that has not only been a restaurant since 1434, but is
also a former brothel. Either splurge on a meal, opting for one of the day's spe-
cials, or simply snack on
cicchetti,
from
€
1.50 per portion. Under ownership of
Bruno Ruffini since 1989, Antico Dolo's roots have remained resolutely Venetian.
Served with polenta, the
baccalà mantecato,
prepared with top-quality
ragno
stock-
fish, boiled and flavored with olive oil and black pepper, is legendary. If you're not
scared to taste a true Rialto working class favorite, ask for the
rissa
tripe, which
has to be accompanied by a glass of Chardonnay.
RESTAURANTS IN CASTELLO
€
-
€€
For a truly “local” night out, and some of the best pizzas in town, I must
let you in on a discovery I made as I strolled through Castello one Sunday
evening. Drawn by the roar of garrulous locals, I ventured into
Trattoria dai Tosi
(Secco Marina, Castello 738;
%
041-5237102),
not to be confused with the sim-
ilarly named pizzeria down the road. Outside, most of the tables had merged into
one big fiesta, while inside, pizza after pizza was being thrust into the two-door
oven behind the busy serving counter. On return visits I found it just as raucous;
it's a great place to try if you prefer the cackling of Venetian gossips to the
restrained ambience of recorded versions of Vivaldi's
Four Seasons.
Operated by a
husband-and-wife team (he's local, but she's from Cornwall in the south of
England), this generous and popular eatery has been packing 'em in for more than
a decade. Start with one of the house aperitifs (a deadly combination of vodka and
fruit juice) while you study the extensive menu and enjoy the crowd. Pizza is
always top-notch (and splendidly priced from
9); I recently had the
“Squeraiola,” a winning combination of Nameko “nail” mushrooms, eggplant,
and rocket, but the variations are endless. Pasta dishes (
€
3.50 to
€
9) are prepared to
order; try the seafood house pasta, or the simpler, cheesier
zucchini e gorgonzola.
Fish dishes cost around
€
5-
€
12. Other options range from the simple to the extraor-
dinary; you can even get a massive platter to share for
€
37.
€
€
-
€€
The name means “little anchovy” but that shouldn't dissuade you from
visiting
Aciugheta
(Campo SS. Filippo e Giacomo, Castello 4357/4359;
%
041-
5224292; www.aciugheta-hotelrio.it; 8am-midnight, Nov-Mar closed Wed),
one of
those long-reliable eateries that is excellent despite its proximity to Piazza San
Marco (often a formula for high prices and questionable quality). This was origi-
nally a wine bar, so there's always an abundance of freshly prepared
cicchetti;
try
the meatballs, or sample the marinated anchovies that gave this place its name
(you'll be able to sample a range of different tastes for just a few euros). Having
been expanded into a full trattoria, the Aciugheta now offers good, affordable
pizza (from around
€
6); your best bet is to call affable Gianni over to your table
and have him make the recommendations.
