A Banda Del Buso — Restaurant in Padua

A friend who lived in Padova for many years before the pandemic recommended this restaurant to us, and I’m so glad of the recommendation! This restaurant is on a very quiet side street, far away from the touristy parts of the town, and you would find it basically only if you have a local friend who knows about it. In fact there are two restaurants owned by the same owner: A Bando Del Buso specializes in meat dishes; its sister restaurant “Osteria Del Pesche” just across the street (literally just 3 meters away) specializes in fish. In this review I focus on the meat restaurant. I’ll leave a separate review for the fish restaurant.

The food here is the best I found in Padova. They have a small menu: a few appetizers (I especially like the bacala), a few primi, a few secondi, and they have a separate “grilled meat menu” with three options for grilled meat. My favorite dishes are the mushroom risotto (from Primi), bigoli, panna cotta e frutti di bosco. I also especially like their espresso which is among the best restaurant espresso I’ve had. The mushroom risotto (with truffle) is absolutely excellent. You should also get their side salad which costs only 5 euros but comes in a giant bowl (five times bigger than what I was expecting) and tastes extremely fresh and delicious!

They have both indoor and outdoor seating; indoor seating has air conditioning and outdoor seating has shade and fans and plants. I particularly like the fact that they filter their own water and water is included in the “coperto”. They also have free...

I loved it! I stayed in Padova for 4 nights, and I spent my first and last nights here. I was travelling alone after staying with friends, and wanted to try both local wines and local foods. Feeling incredibly self-aware, I walked in and asked for a table for one. However, I immediately felt comfortable and at home.

The menu was different on the first and last night, so I couldn't try the dish I was hoping for, but I understand that it's a regularly-changing menu (which is strange in the UK, where menus sometimes only change once a decade). However, I try another Venetian speciality and it was amazing. The house wines were also fantastic and on the last night I tried grappa for the first time - the grappa menu was vast, and I would recommend the coffee/grappa mix to finish your meal. I can't remember getting home.

The food was great and the restaurant was unimposing and comfortable, which I really liked, but the thing that made it perfect was the staff. Everybody was so friendly and Lucia (I think? I apologise if I've got your name wrong but you did tell it to me after a bottle of wine and some grappa!) was very friendly and talked me through the grappa menu and explained how all of the local Venetian specialties came to exist and what they entail.

Spero di...

Horrible service, dirty dining room. The waitress told us “I just work here” and that she doesn’t care to help us. She also said the kitchen was too busy for us to order so much (we were 5 people) although the restaurant was almost completely empty. Really a shame, we were just trying to support a local restaurant. We were two adults with three kids…

I’m writing again after getting a response: I’m surprised to read the claim that I’ve never been to the restaurant… I was there on 25.8.2025, and I even noticed a keffiyeh hanging in the window at the entrance. My review is based solely on my personal experience, and not on any “copy-paste.” The service I received was unfriendly, and the waitress herself told us that she “just works here” and that she doesn’t care to help us. I wrote this review honestly so that other people know what to expect.

To anyone reading the owner’s response, I can confirm that I was at the restaurant on 25.8.2025, and I stand by every word I wrote. It’s unfortunate that instead of taking responsibility, they choose to claim I was...