Al Graspo de Ua — Hotel in Venice

Found this place down the back alley from our hotel (Hotel Rialto) which faces the Grand Canal. The alley also leads to one of the Pandora shops and Max Co. I quickly checked Yelp and was happy with the reviews so we took a chance. We went kind of early for Italian dinner at 7pm. There was no one else in the lovely dining room. They we're playing a soft American sexy time type music (haha).

Very friendly staff greeted us and took our coats and gave us the menus. Menu is 90% seafood. We opted for a 4 course meal. 2 pastas, shared a veal course and mixed veggies (by recommendation) and a chocolate souffle. For reference we have been in Italy for a week now (Rome, Florence, Tuscany, Venice, Burano) and this pasta was #3 of the best we have had so far. I had the pesto with shrimp which was light, perfectly salted, and not too heavy on the cheese. Shrimp was cooked perfectly, not overdone, and peeled and cleaned properly. My husband had the ravioli with white dry martini sauce. The portion was small (5 pieces) with cherry tomatoes and shrimp. Although sauce was creamy, it was very light, both pastas were very fresh. Food came with long bread sticks as well as baguette slices with butter (odd). Bread was pretty good, seasoned, easy to eat on its own even if you're supposed to use it to sop up the amazing sauce (which we did). We could have licked our plates clean.

The veal cutlet came with some kind of light apple (?) sauce with a side of mashed potatoes. This wasn't our favorite, but worked well with the mixed veggies (grilled eggplant, zucchini, tomato and bell peppers). And finally we had a lovely, rich chocolate souffle that came with ice cream and whipped cream. Perfect end to an amazing meal.

The service was 5 star, not quite fine dining, but attentive without being intrusive, friendly and seemed like they wanted to be there. They had a €40 5 course option, but we didn't like all the options, it wasn't even mentioned. All 3 servers spoke excellent English and even helped us a bit with simple Italian phrases. I told him I was pregnant (and couldn't drink wine). He later asks me what the gender is, when I replied "it's a boy" he congratulated my husband and shook his hand. I asked him what if I had said girl, he jokingly said "better luck next time." We had a good laugh. It was one of the pricier meals we have had, a little under €100 with a €3.50 cover charge. Also got a half bottle of volipocella table wine. Like most table wine, just palatable, nothing to write home about.

If you have trouble finding this place, know that it's worth the...

If you are reading this review and even considering staying at this hotel, my advice would be to avoid this hotel at all costs.||||The hotel is in a very handy location, however it is tucked away in an alley way and can be difficult to find. Having said that it is very close to the Rialto Bridge and only a short walk away from San Marco Square. These are the only positives about the hotel.||The hotel is in severe need of renovation. The common areas look like they have not seen any care in over 40 years, the rooms are a disgrace and the staff do not care.||We paid for a superior room, which turned out to be on the 5th floor, the hotel doesn't have an elevator, which is to be expected in Venice, however as you are climbing the flights of stairs and notice that the banister is barely attached to the wall, you do start to worry.||When we got to our room, we found that the curtains were ornamental and did not shut. However we did notice that there were shutters on the outside of the windows. We opened the first window to attempt to shut the shutter, only to find that the shutter had actually fallen off. We then went to try and open the second window to shut the shutters, only to find the window wouldn't open. So every morning at 5:30am we were woken up by the sun streaming in through both windows. We did complain about this 5 times, but the hotel did nothing about the problem. We even complained to the booking agent that we use, who informed us that the hotel refused to speak to them. This issue has obviously been going on for some time as we could see the sticky tape around the window where previous guests had obviously tried to attach something to try and block out the light coming through the window.||||Add to this the chair that fell to pieces when you sat on it, the appalling bathroom and the shower cubicle that wouldn't shut, the bedside shelf that was falling off the wall and the exposed electrical switches on the wall, I personally think the hotel should be shut down.||It is an absolute disgrace and not fit for...

Stayed 1 night after a eve flight. Small hotel literally steps away form Rialto bride you head out of the entrance walk straight ahead and turn right you have the amazing view of the bridge and the canal and the hustle and bustle of the other tourists, cafes and restaurants simply breathtaking. Less than of 10 minute walk to San Marco sq, Doge palace etc 5 mins from the spiral staircase. Room was small and tastefully decorated in Vientian style and had everything you needed, including a full length mirror, kettle etc, plenty of sockets next to the bed and mirrors. The hotel we moved to (Rialto Bridge) which is just infront of this hotel whilst bigger and lot more expensive did not have room layout that was practical such as having plug sockets next to mirrors or next to the bed to charge your phone as you lie down or indeed a full length mirror. In hindsight I wish I had saved money and done our full three nights day at this hotel. Unless of course you want the view of the canals from your hotel window . Do not book this hotel for a view as it has none just the busy little streets below. The breakfast was again small but has everything you need and is quick. Again unlike the more expensive hotel we stayed in where we were unable to make our own toast and had to wait quite a while for the toast to arrive which then was cold at that point. The staff are all lovely and Michael was a star helping us out with the ironing 🤣👌👏. As the new hotel we had moved to unfortunately were unable to provide an iron but more than happy to iron clothes for €50 + for 3 items, which was not something we wanted to waste our money on I simply went back to this hotel even though we had checked out informing what had happened and he whipped out the ironing board and iron...