Antica Locanda Montin — Restaurant in Venice

Antica Locanda Montin is, as its name suggests, a historical inn, still offering both accommodation and food. The restaurant and décor are steeped in nostalgia, perhaps to a fault.

This review is strictly for the restaurant.

The main dining room is dark and very traditional, with paintings covering nearly every wall. It could certainly use a modern refresh. The garden, its best feature, is genuinely lovely and surprisingly spacious, especially by Venetian standards. The service is polite, which in Venice qualifies as a minor miracle.

The main issue is the food. The restaurant is rooted in tradition, but unfortunately, also stuck in it. The menu is so firmly anchored in the past, it seems to have missed several culinary movements, including most of the last seven decades.

The same tired Venetian classics are trotted out, lovingly untouched by innovation or whim. No seasonal variation, no playful reinterpretation, just the same dishes, again and again.

I can’t imagine the existential dread of being a chef here. While most restaurants now respond to the rhythms of nature, shifting menus by the week or even by the day, Antica Locanda Montin remains immovable. Its menu changes not by season, but by era, and the era in question appears to be post-war austerity.

Elsewhere, restaurants accommodate dietary needs with grace and creativity. Here, asking for a vegetarian or vegan option feels like you’re getting less, not something different of equal value.

It’s a real pity. The place still radiates charm, and its story is tied to great names in the arts. One only wishes they would breathe some fresh air into both the décor and the cuisine ... the place...

To start the Garden is absolutely beautiful and gives a minutes peace to stampedes of crowds in the Venice streets. We booked for 2pm and arrived exactly on time. Upon seating we were given the menu in Italian which we cannot read and asked for an English menu. The English menu did not have prices on which I thought was a bit of a coincidence! This came to about 2:15 and we were told the kitchen was to shut at 2:30 and had to order now. The waiter got very aggressive with my girlfriend asking us to order immediately without properly checking the menu and gave us recommendations. In the end, she simply said fine and took the waiters recommendation on sea bass and mixed veg side. I had a clam pasta dish which was tasty but coated in olive oil and got very greasy towards the end. My girlfriends dish tasted nice but was rather small. We had two Aperol Spritz also priced at five euros. After asking us if we wanted homemade dessert three times and declining all three times we got the bill. My girlfriends sea bass was €25 with the mix veg coming to €8. This totalled €32 for a pretty average piece of fish that she was persuaded into having by the waiter. The total came to €80 for the two charging us for bread covers. It's a shame that such a lovely location had rude staff and...

To start the Garden is absolutely beautiful and gives a minutes peace to stampedes of crowds in the Venice streets. We booked for 2pm and arrived exactly on time. Upon seating we were given the menu in Italian which we cannot read and asked for an English menu. The English menu did not have prices on which I thought was a bit of a coincidence! This came to about 2:15 and we were told the kitchen was to shut at 2:30 and had to order now. The waiter got very aggressive with my girlfriend asking us to order immediately without properly checking the menu and gave us recommendations. In the end, she simply said fine and took the waiters recommendation on sea bass and mixed veg side. I had a clam pasta dish which was tasty but coated in olive oil and got very greasy towards the end. My girlfriends dish tasted nice but was rather small. We had two Aperol Spritz also priced at five euros. After asking us if we wanted homemade dessert three times and declining all three times we got the bill. My girlfriends sea bass was €25 with the mix veg coming to €8. This totalled €32 for a pretty average piece of fish that she was persuaded into having by the waiter. The total came to €80 for the two charging us for bread covers. It's a shame that such a lovely location had rude staff and...