Al Covino — Restaurant in Venice

If reviews are important to you, you should know that a great deal of the Venice-review landscape is challenging. There are many seemingly bought and paid for reviews written by AI that always begin, "from the moment we arrived," or "from start to finish." So a great deal of homework is needed if ratings are important. My research led me to Al Covino and the best meal we had during our week in Venice. This is a tiny (7 tables) family owned and run restaurant so reservations are a must. The service and food are fantastic. The dishes are delicious and expertly prepared. The daily, set menus are simple with a few choices from either the meat, veg, seafood, or 'chef's choice' menus, but it didn't seem possible to be disappointed. There was a staff of 4 including the chef who owns the place and his wife is the pastry chef. Two other servers were present, but at times, all four were at the tables. A member of our party was sick and stuck in the hotel room and they were kind enough to prepare a meal that we could take with us, though take-out was not regularly available. We got our sick friend a selection from the veg menu and she said it was the best food she had ever eaten. They also prepared a tiramisu for her that we had to refrigerate quickly, but it turned out wonderfully. My friend and I both started with a sausage and cheese pasta that was excellent. I had the beef cheeks. They were fantastic. The lady next to me got the octopus and it had to be the best-smelling thing I've ever encountered. She assured me it was delicious. We had the tiramisu as well and it was outstanding. A real hidden gem that you won't accidentally find. Make plans to eat here if you go to Venice. You won't be disappointed. Sorry for the lack of photos. We'd had a long day and were so hungry, we forgot to...

TOTALLY NEW RESTAURANT - NOT THE OLD COVINO

Gastronomy is not an easy trade — it always involves a lot of heart and passion, and it’s deeply tied to the subjectivity of other people’s perceptions, which is why I don’t want to complain lightly. Unfortunately, our visit was a great disappointment that has left me with lingering negative feelings.

I had eaten at the “old Covino” several times and absolutely loved it. The atmosphere, the food, the wines, the prices — everything was just right, and I spent truly wonderful evenings there. When I made my reservation, I even mentioned that I was coming especially to show my partner this wonderful restaurant that had brought me so much joy. The name, the logo, the menu system, even the booking system — everything appeared exactly the same! No sign of change.

The place has lost its wonderfully charismatic interior; the food is dull, and so are the wines. There is, however, a certain „performance of quality“. The chef walked around very formally wearing a toque (unfortunately without a talented rat underneath) and spoke of “my bread…” (kitchens are teamwork!) while taking photos with guests — all while another cook, a pastry chef, and a single service staff member kept the place running. I found that rather off-putting.

The service was friendly and eager, Even there was miscommunucation, which were solved professionelly by the service, but glasses weren’t cleared away, and the timing between wine and dishes didn’t match, which rendered the pairing pointless.

I’m still incredibly annoyed about having spent such an unreasonable amount of money there and am left wondering: why not simply change the name if you’re going to reinterpret a restaurant...

Al Covino is a tiny restaurant with about 18 seats and an open kitchen. The chef can talk each of his ingredient in details including how confident he his that the flour he uses has never looked at a nut in its life (I’m allergic to nuts, this increased my level of confidence in the restaurant ten folds). The dishes are small and come in three themes: fish, meat and garden. The chef also offers a chef’s menu in either fish or meat.

We went for the chef’s menu: we picked fish and meat and shared each plate. It started with a slow cooked limoncello glazed octopus over lemon mashed potato that tasted both sweet and fresh with its fleshed firm but not chewy. It was served at the same time aa oven baked rigatoni with slow cooked beef and aubergines. Nothing in this pasta was overcooked or soggy, a challenge for oven baked pasta, let me assure you. Somehow the chef managed to time everything down to the millisecond. Then that course was followed by an oven baked seabass over friarelli (Italian broccoli rabe, or more plainly: bitter greens). It has a slight kick to it thanks to the fresh garlic added at the last minute and the greens being cooked and seasoned perfectly. The fish came with the slow cooked pork ribs from Caserta and its mashed potatoes made from 50% potato and 50% butter. The ribs were sweet, flavourful yet meaty while the potatoes were simply divine (you can’t go wrong with anything 50% butter). For the desert booze showed up on the menu with Baba au rhum for Karine and the Tiramisu (with plenty of coffee liqueur) for me.

Everything was excellent, the experience is a must. I’m sorry we’ll have only the one meal...