Ai Do Archi Venezia — Restaurant in Venice

To say this was the worst meal I had in Venice doesn't quite do it. To say it's even the worst meal I've had while in Italy isn't also not quite there isn't even quite right. Let's break down the problems so that I can be really clear on where things went wrong.

When we arrived, we were seated quickly and the views of the church are amazing. The staff at first seemed friendly and came and took our drinks order. The wine was brought, but was quite vinegary. Not bad enough where I'd send it back, but it seemed like the bottle might have been open for a while. But still no bread. Bear in mind the cover charge is €3, which is more than most restaurants in the area. Eventually I asked... And we had a basket of stale French bread brought to our table. I duly sent that back and we got some fresh bread. At this point the couple on the table next to us asked if our bread had been stale because theirs was.

Then the mains turned up about 5 mins after we'd ordered.

I'd ordered lasagne. It was... Fine I guess. I'd say it was about the standard I'd expect from a budget supermarket ready meal, reheated in the microwave. Nice plate though.

My mum ordered calzone. The first one brought out was basically raw. The cheese inside hadn't even started to melt and the chopped tomatoes were cold. I'd comment on the temperature of the ham, but we didn't see much. I complained and asked if it was freshly cooked (it had arrived very quickly). I was then quite forcefully compelled to follow all of the waiters back to the kitchen to be shown their pizza oven and the chef. It was explained to me that calzone can often be cold because the mozzarella is cold from the fridge. I've never had cold calzone before, neither has my mum. To be honest, it felt quite intimidating. Eventually I agreed they could try again with another calzone. I wish we'd just left. The new one was slightly warmer, but still far from hot.

After the debacle of the mains, we left to go have dessert elsewhere. It turned out to be quite an expensive and...

Quite a challenge. Family of four (kids aged 11 and 9). Try to find somewhere decent to eat on our last night in Venice that ticks all the boxes. A wife who used to live in Rome. A husband who wished he had. And a wide selection of restaurants on Trip Advisor with patchy reviews, or too small for a family of four, or too hot, or the pasta too cold, or the waiters too rude. I mean, finding somewhere decent in this context would be akin to winning the lottery? If you read some of the reviews on Trip Advisor you'd think Venice was full of Goldilocks wannabes with nothing better to do than show off their cultural ignorance with some maladvised commentary. With time running out and the Trip Advisor app booking facility not working (leading to a hasty web login despite the ills of iOS 9.3) and hey presto - cutting a short story long - we book into Osteria Ai Do Archi. Thanks to friendly waiters and great food, Archi is now a friend of mine. Out of respect for the waiters I tried to speak Italian and they really appreciated it despite my Italian being slim to non existent. They wouldn't bring us the bill until James (9) had asked for it in Italian, and when I wanted another glass of Pinot Grigio (we'd already had one bottle - excellent at €20) they brought out a half bottle and asked us to finish it - only charging us €5. Oh, yes - we ate food too: pasta, meat, bruschetta, tiramisu.... all excellent. Una magnifica serata. Pop along - and embrace some off the beaten track...

Me and my partner had a wonderful meal here this evening. We ate outside and they gave us a mosquito repellent in case we needed it which was very nice. The food was delicious. We started with a pesto, buratta and pistachio pacchette which was fantastic. The mixture of the pistachios and the pesto along with the buratta made for a fabulous flavour. We both then had the fillet steak and vegetables. I had mine rare and it was nice and red in the middle. My partner had hers medium and it was still quite bloody but the meat was extremely tender too. All we added was a bit of salt and pepper (which was on the table) to give it a bit of an extra flavour. My partner really enjoyed her steak. For me, it was one of the best steaks I’ve ever had. The flavour was fantastic and the meat was so tender. And the size of the steak for how much you paid was extremely generous. The choice of vegetables paired with the steak were great too as there wasn’t anything to overpower the steak itself. We also had 4 alcoholic drinks between us and a free limoncello to finish off.

Highly highly HIGHLY recommend you check this place out if you’re...