Al Conte Pescaor — Restaurant in Venice

DO NOT EAT HERE! My wife and two kids visited for a late lunch last September on our way to Octoberfest (highly recommend). My wife and I adore Venice and wanted to share the experience with our two middle kids. We arrived at the restaurant and politely asked if they were open and were still serving. The owner totally dismissed us to the point of almost ignoring us. There were 3-4 couples still eating under the awning and we asked if we could eat outside, only to be pushed inside, across from the main restaurant. We were the only people sitting inside while viewing multiple tables remained empty. We politely asked a second time and were refused. After we were seated the owner returned with menus, almost 10 minutes passed before he returned to take our order. We had several questions about the menu and I could see he was not interested nor polite when we asked for recommendations. I told him we were interested in seafood and he recommended the we order the special. It was a seafood platter for two but priced for one. I’ll get back to that in a minute. Several minutes later our cocktails arrived by a very nice polite and clearly sensitive girl. It was apparent that the owner had enough of the Americans and decided to sic the pleasant girl on us. I could see she was uncomfortable and was trying to go out if her way to make us happy. At this point, It was clear the owner sensed our frustration or disdain. I asked my wife and kids if it was us? We just flue 8 hours from NYC, we’re a tired and hungry, were we acting like the ugly Americans we hear so much about. I was assured by my wife and kids that we were very respectful and polite, they all recognized the owners poor attitude. Back to the order, the way the owner explained the platter confused me so I asked him again to clarify the price and describe the platter. He said it was a platter of mixed seafood and shellfish and repeated that it was a special, we would get a platter for two but charged for one. As you can now guess, I was duped by a very experienced and polished swindler. What the owner meant but didn’t say was, the double platter was for two but each person would be charged... one charge per person....meaning everyone was charged. We ended up with a seafood platter for two but were charged for 4 people. When the bill arrived I realized what he did and questioned the charge with nice girl who continued to serve us. It was at this time that I realized why the owner never returned to our table, the set up was pure genius. How could I argue my case with someone who didn’t take my order or set up the scam. I explained my concern with the nice girl but realized she just need to play dumb and use our language as a barrier. She said she would get the owner, imagine my surprise when she returned and said the owner was unavailable, of course he was. Finally, the food, this might have been the worst meal I’ve ever eaten, or close to it. (this is unbiased because my wife and kids agreed) only to be surpassed by the rudest and most offensive service on earth. The fish was bland, rubbery and tasteless. The shellfish was overcooked, dry and looked like it was left over from someone else’s meal. Everything was delivered either cold or luke warm. In my entire life, I have never written a review a restaurant review for fear that the restaurant could have had a bad day, an off night or just missed the mark, I don’t want to affect someone’s business. I know what it takes to run a successful restaurant, which clearly this place has done because it’s been in business for a long time and gets good reviews, maybe it was a bad day. But I felt so compelled by our horrible experience to hopefully prevent others from wasting their hard earned money and precious time from a having a similarly poor experience....

During our last vacation and honeymoon, my wife and I visited Venice during a European vacation. Venice is known as a tourist trap when it comes to food... and in general, in Europe, gratuity is included... So in some places, the staff doesn't try hard enough.. and some places, not at all!

Overall, food in Italy is pretty inexpensive, and anyone who works in Venice has to commute at least an hour each way to work because rents are so high in Venice or most lower rent apartments have been turned into Airbnb rentals... To cater to tourists... Summers can be hot in Venice and the streets are often crowded, making it difficult to walk. Something to think about when you don't immediately see a smile on a waiter's face.

When I look at some of the bad reviews of this restaurant, I can only think that they either came on a day when the staff was overwhelmed, or when they had a bad experience with a previous customer... The work all people do, in the (tourist) service industry. is hard, and tourists can be demanding, harsh and unforgiving at times...

We meandered around the narrow streets of Venice and came upon this quaint place. It was pretty empty; the terrace was welcoming on this Friday Summer evening (around 9:30pm). We both ordered the same thing (not fish) and I have to say that both my wife and I were pleasantly surprised to get such a wonderful cut of meat, cooked to perfection. The wait staff was very pleasant at all times. We declined dessert stating that we'd go for gelato to one of the several super tasty gelato places in Venice, and that didn't phase our waiter who smiled and even brought us Limoncello ON THE HOUSE...

I think as a whole, some dining experiences just work when everyone is smiling, and not stressed out... We definitely tipped these guys and you can tell it was appreciated.

I would definitely go back to this place and I recommend it... at least during similar times (evening) and circumstances (not...

This was perhaps our worst experience in Venice and one of the worst in our recent trip to Europe.

We were recommended fried softshell crab with polenta and those crabs were extremely salty. I have had many fried softshell crabs before and these were way too salty and tasted just bad. It was a bit pricey ($34) for 4 small crabs and we could only eat 3 and left 1 uneaten.

The polenta was grilled and got a little too burned on one side and was bitter. I mentioned this to the waiter after we paid for our meal and he laughed at me. The exact words were “hahaha. We have been cooking polenta for 50 years We know how to make it” I mean could it be possible that you burned 1 of them in your whole 50 years of making polenta? Is that so hard to believe that the customer actually received a bad tasting one? He did offer us free dessert and I refused because he was starting to get condescending.

Other dishes were also pretty average but I won't go into details. Service was not as attentive as other restaurants we visited in Venice.

Overall, we spent about $130euro for two people and I left hungry and pissed. I don't normally tell restaurant when the food is bad but its so bad today I felt I had to say something and they were dismissive about our feedback.

Hope you don't make the mistake as we did for going there. There were definitely a few other restaurants in the area that we loved, just not this...