Restaurants in the province of Venezia

Venice eats from the lagoon, not the open sea, and you can taste the difference: small fish, molluscs, sweet-and-sour, and the spices that once arrived by ship.

What you eat here

• Cicheti — the small plates of the *bàcaro*, eaten standing with an *ombra* of wine: baccalà mantecato, sarde in saor, baby octopus, mozzarella in carrozza.
• Sarde in saor — fried sardines marinated with onion, vinegar, raisins and pine nuts.
• Risi e bisi, goby risotto, and bigoli in salsa with onion and anchovy.
• Moleche — moulting crabs, fried whole, available only two short seasons a year.
• Calf's liver alla veneziana with onions, and *castraure*, the first artichokes of Sant'Erasmo.

The wine

Prosecco DOC covers much of the province; in the lagoon Venissa makes wine from the Dorona grape at Mazzorbo, and the coast has Lison-Pramaggiore reds. With cicheti you drink what is open, by the glass.

Opening hours change. The ones on the listings come from public sources and may be out of date. Where a restaurant confirms tables with us, the availability you see is the real one.