Antico Calice VE — Restaurant in Venice

Congratulations Antico Calice, your combination of shockingly rude service and worse food led to my losing my temper and swearing at your restaurant manager last night. I’m honestly not sure how you managed it but with next to no effort at all, you aimed low and then exceeded all expectations. A little background..... We were recommended to you by the lovely guy who ran our b and b – I’m attaching no blame to him at all. Readers may also be interested to learn that I have worked in the wine trade all my life and have very close links with the hospitality industry as a consequence - we also run our own small wine bar. In short, we are not unfamiliar with the demands of the industry and the pressures that we all face, particularly in the face of rapidly escalating overheads and ingredient costs. Tragically, the cynical attitude on display last night which sees customers not as guests but as cattle to be processed through as quickly as possible only serves to damage the restaurant community further. So what happened? We called in earlier in the day and made a reservation with a pleasant young woman. No swearing took place at this time. We turned up at the appointed time and were shown to a table – still no swearing. Menus were consulted and the wine list handed to me by a waiter clearly able to discern from our body language that my WSET diploma trumped my wife’s meagre WSET level 3. The wine list is pretty good in fairness and, by mutual agreement, we settled on Stefano Inama’s delightful Soave Foscarino – this was the high spot of the night. Waiter returned slightly prematurely to take our order and told us brusquely, he would come back in 2 minutes. He was as good as his word. (No swearing.) Mrs C ordered a marinated anchovy salad which turned out to be a substantial plate of anchovies with sufficient lettuce and tomato to qualify as salad. It was OK. My grilled sardines were breadcrumbed and deep fried and served on a bed of tapioca – not what I was anticipating but they were eaten without complaint or swearing. We’d left a small amount on our plates with cutlery to indicate that we were not finished as we felt that a €100+ meal was not something to be rushed but the team of middle-aged blokes were having none of it, operating some sort of tag team system which saw them returning every 60 seconds to clear away. Eventually we gave in and the plates were removed. (Still no swearing) Mains turned up. Spaghetti with sardine and onion for Tania and spaghetti with mussels for me. As I set to separating the molluscs from their shells, Tania said, “I can’t eat this, it’s ridiculously salty.” I took a fork full of mine. It was inedible. We gave up on them both. Waiter turned up, saw plates full of food and asked if all ok. T told him it was excessively salty. He laughed. He argued that no-one else was complaining. There are 3 conclusions to be drawn from this – either our taste buds are shot, everyone else’s tastebuds are shot or we were treated to salty spaghetti with added salt. Shortly afterwards he returned from the kitchen offering to replace them. Neither of us could face anything else. I suggested they adjust the bill. They knocked off €6.00. Still no swearing. As we left I told the maitre d (presumably) that it was very disappointing. He repeated the “no-one else is complaining” line. I told him I didn’t give a f, the food was inedible. He pointed his finger at me and told me that was my problem. I told him...

I went to this restaurant on a recommendation of our gondolier as a good “local” spot. So we booked and were very excited to try Venetian seafood!

We turned up and were promptly seated by a friendly waiter. We settled on the cooked fish plate (with a variety of cooked seafood) for our appetizer and the sea bass for two for our main. We discovered that almost all tables were tourists - some recommended by their hotel, ours by our gondolier. Maybe one table of locals - that was it! Hmmm something is fishy here…

Unfortunately, from there it was down hill and went from bad to horrendous. None of the seafood was fresh and all had a pungent bad smell because it wasn’t fresh.

The platter had a mix of different seafood. Frankly the only truly edible thing on the plate was the marinated anchovy. The large grey scampi was pasty in color and had an off putting texture and flavor - and the red prawns and the scallops only had a stench and old seafood. We picked through what we could because we were hungry and waited for our fish.

First there was a mixup where they first presented us a smaller fish and then later the one for two we had selected. Ok no problem these things happen. We find out later we were presented the fish for the table next to us. Then they asked if they could debone for us and we agreed.

When they bought out ours, it was significantly less then the big fish we had ordered. And when they presented the other fish to the next table he argued he didn’t want it deboned so they had to get him another fish. Normally this would take 15-20 minutes but surprisingly they bought his new fish (not deboned) out in 5 minutes. We are convinced they simply gave his fish to us and our fish to him. As our fish did it come out even resembling a deboned fish but a plate of fish pieces. He even made a comment that he thought he got our fish and we got his!

But the real problem was the fish taste. It has to be the worst fish I have ever eaten in my entire travels through Italy - and possibly worst meal in recent memory. I could barely eat two mouth full before I had to stop. It was terrible and not fresh!

The wait staff who picked up the plate did not bother to ask us if everything was ok with the fish. So we were disappointed since if you see two plates of a barely touched fish dish you would normally ask!

So we asked for the bill - and we’re astounded to see for this substandard seafood that was not fresh we paid €123! We had to leave and find another restaurant.

My final conclusion is this is a tourist trap and does not have fresh fish. Not worth the money...

This restaurant may look cute on the outside, but don't let that fool you. If you dare to order anything other than what they want or how they want it, expect to be treated like absolute trash. The condescending and outright rude behavior from the staff was beyond infuriating. It's as if they believe their precious menu is too good for mere mortals to have any input on. The arrogance and disdain they show towards their customers is astonishing.

The only saving grace of this horrific experience was the ginger girl working there. Her exceptional service was the sole reason we didn’t walk out immediately. She was a shining beacon of professionalism in an otherwise unbearable situation.

To the owners of this establishment, here's some free advice: if you can't be bothered to respect and fulfill the wishes of your customers, maybe you shouldn't be running a restaurant at all. Your job is to serve the people who walk through your door, not to dictate their choices and treat them like garbage when they don't conform to your absurd...