Cantina Do Spade — Restaurant in Venice

I did not get to try the food as I was COMPLETELY ignored. Warning, potentially RACIST staff, please be aware if you are not Caucasian.

Let me set the scene.

I arrive at the restaurant, there's already a group of two waiting before me, all 3 of us were standing just inside the door (where you would normally wait to be served). One of the waitresses comes and asks them about their reservation and promptly shows them their table. The bartender is already serving an existing customer.

Before the waitress gets back, a family of American tourists comes up behind me. The dad in the group proceeds to just walk into the restaurant while one of his daughters points out to him that I was waiting before them, he ignores this and continues into the restaurant and the rest of the family follow. The bartender sees this and asks them where they're going. The dad tells them he needs a table for 4 people and points to a vacant table (he clearly did not have a reservation). At this point I thought the bartender would ask them to get back in line, no, he signals to the waitress and she goes and gets the table ready for them. They sit down, meanwhile, I'm still waiting.

Bartender has finished serving the customer and is now making drinks, the waitress is still serving the American table. The manager walks in and starts talking to the bartender while he's making drinks, the waitress comes back and asks a few questions etc. Nobody has given me ANY eye contact while I'm literally standing in front of their door. An Italian couple walk in behind me and immediately, I can't stress this enough, IMMEDIATELY, the manager stops talking to the bartender and addresses them. The manager gets the waitress to show them to their table.

After this, I literally had to raise my hand and firmly say "excuse me" before the manager finally looks at me. I told her that she has seated the couple after me and she tells me they have a reservation. I have no issues with this but she never asked me if I had a reservation?? Again, nobody even acknowledged my presence but served the people standing BEHIND me???

The manager tells me they don't have tables at the moment and I will have to wait or I can eat outside, I said I'm happy to eat outside. You order by picking what you want at the counter and they take it out, so I'm waiting for someone to serve me/ask me what I want.

Meanwhile, another American tourist walks right into the restaurant and the waitress addresses them. They have 4 people but no reservations. The waitress checks the books and speaks to the bartender and manager and they magically have a table inside, just needs to be cleaned. So there was no table for me but there's a table for these people behind me.

After that, the manager disappears outside. At this point, I am close to tears because I am still waiting to be served and everyone has ignored me. The kitchen staff have even walked past me multiple times and given me looks like "why is she still standing there?" Manager has disappeared, bartender is still making drinks, waitress is cleaning the table for the other group.

I decided to leave at that point cause they clearly don't want my business. As I'm leaving, I see the manager outside having a chat with someone.

I don't like to throw the racist card around lightly but out of the people who got served vs me, I was the only one who's...

We booked this restaurant after seeing all good reviews and comments, it seemed like a place to have proper North Italian food…

Service has been great, seamless arrival and sitting, service-minded and attentive staff. However, food really left a looooot to wish for. We ordered:

Context: We were 3 guests.

Antipasti/starter:

Codfish with Polenta: presentation was regular, the dish itself was beyond tasteless. Such a shame since both main ingredient have potential when properly cooked.

3 Main dishes (Primi):

Risotto Do Spade: which is supposed to be their signature dish, had a great consistency and an okay/mediocre flavor. Fish ingredients were rather chewy which felt like chicken. Lacked salt, flavor and roundness.

Spaghetti a la Busara: is one of the few tomato-based seafood dishes. Was actually recommended by the waitress and eagerly we went for it. Cooked Al dente (great). Presentation was great, good langostines on top, yet tomato sauce was rather mediocre, namely, flavorless as if it was just cooked with can tomatoes. In addition, the person having it almost chocked as the dish contained a few (yet long) branches from the species - not much thought in the eater’s experience.

Paccheri with sea food: it was Al dente (great again), yet somewhat flavorless, namely, not significant nor strong fish flavor. Sea food was rather chewy and lacked of character.

Overall, to our opinion and expectations, this place is nothing better than the tourist traps on the main streets. Note: this is based on the above dishes, perhaps there is something else worth (and tastier) trying. It was however not...

Good food, good service, charming out of the way place While it may have been a little bit pricier for me than I like to spend - it was still a good deal considering we were in Venice, Italy. The place itself is really quaint, out of the way (took us about 3 hours trying to find it!), and most tourists - I imagine - only locals, know about it. Serving only seafood and deserts, they do offer some good wine and beer to go alongside your choice of shrimp, prawns, french fries...and anything else deep fried you'd like to try.

Again, the prices were a bit high (just a plate of fried calamari, nothing with it, was around 10-13 euro), but if you sit in San Marco's Square, just an espresso is slightly less than that!

The atmosphere was great, and I do believe I was the only foreigner in the restaurant during that particular lunch hour. The service was very good, hosted by very nice people, and it's not far from touristy areas (actually all of Venice is touristy) - but just set out far enough from the noise and chaos, that our lunch was pleasant. It was full when we arrived, but we managed to get a seat in the small place in the back. Again though, it was occupied solely by locals, no tourists.

I recommend this place to anyone looking for a semi-quiet lunch, with only the sound of Italian around you and the smell of fresh fish, and the taste of good, authentic...