La Lanterna Da Gas — Restaurant in Venice

We stayed in San Marco district and decided to walk to La Lanterna. On the map, there is not obvious or good way to get there from our hotel without the use of the water taxi, but we decided to be adventurous and carve a path anyway. It was an excellent choice. We were able to see different areas of the city we would have otherwise never experienced. Wouldn't you know it? This ancient city has other monuments, churches, and museums tucked into its many other districts.

Once there, the scene is quite romantic with a separate outdoor seating plaza, doorside seating, and indoor seating. The tables next to the door, where you could watch people pass by, was our choice. While there, we convinced another couple who was reading the menu it was a worthwhile meal.

Our waitress was kind and not over-involved with our evening. It was appreciated that we were left to enjoy our own company with small interjections to complete our order and deliver drinks and food. She spoke English well.

The wines were quite nice and added to the meal. The appetizer, a simple ham charcuterie with a burrata in the center, was unbelievably good. The quality of the cold cuts - dry aged ham with a salty and powerful flavor - mixed with the fresh and creamy cheese was perfectly balanced. Simple ingredients creating a great experience. This was a theme for our meals in Italy.

For the mains we shared the seafood risotto (minimum of 2 people per order) and it was magnificent. Prawns, octopus, clams, mussels, and squid made for what I have to believe is a perfect rendition of venetian seafood in a rich dish. If you love mushroom risotto, this will be a different dish. The rice will still be perfectly cooked and the sauce creamy and luxurious, but a seafood stock being mixed into the rice will create a differently flavored base than chicken stock will. Please understand this on your way in. It is different but still wonderful in its own way.

In summary, I would love to come back here and try a few other menu items. We enjoyed our experience and appreciate their product. It is very worth it to leave the main tourist squares and roam about the rest of the city. Be adventurous and walk if you are able. Remember that the places who serve simple ingredients seem to make the greatest...

This is a long time due review that I'm very happy to make to send a special thanks to Elio, the gentleman who owns & runs La Lanterna.

We visited la Lanterna on a night of early September, while we were in Venice to get ready to celebrate our wedding 3 days later.

As the weather was still warm we decided to eat outdoors (as one must do in Venice whenever they can!!).

La Lanterna has a lovely space, in a quiet small square right beside a much larger and way luckier square, possibly the liveliest in Venice. The contrast therefore was lovely.

We had our dinner and it was lovely. It would have already been archived as a successful night but then magic happened.

Some rain drops started to fall down and so we all had to get a bit closer under the tent.

Because of the fantastic atmosphere that the staff of the restaurant had created, everyone was ready to be friendly. We started talking with our neighbors exchanging appreciation on the food we just had. After that we decided to share a bottle of Prosecco.

And then more rain started to fall.

At that point Elio appeared. The night before it rained like I had never seen before. It was a true storm that damaged a lot of things in Venice. I saw entire boats sink in the canals.

As the weather forecast was negative also for that night Elio was sensibly concerned that something bad could have happened again.

But he also noticed that a new friendship had started.

So, like a true gentleman, he begged our pardon, he explained the situation and asked us to continue the banter inside. There he offered us a voucher to redeem a full bottle of Prosecco the next time we would have been around. To ensure the vibe kept going and we had no bad experience, he then also offered us some amazing limoncello spritz. They were strong and very, very generous. By far the best ones I had in Venice that week.

And then he joined the conversation. And we became friends.

He eventually closed the restaurant and offered us one last round in a nearby bar that stayed open until late. On him.

One doesn't see a behavior like this so frequently. I bet most travellers have hardly ever experienced this.

I strongly recommend that you go and visit Elio. And maybe tell him that you heard of...

While the food here was great, and the ambiance was of course lovely, we had an incredibly unfortunate experience with the waiter here. We were lectured and berated because we don’t speak a language other than English (I am sorry this is not taught from a young age where we live- and have all been studying for the past 4-8 years for our professional careers). This was the very first interaction we had with our waiter, and he essentially told us how stupid we are for only knowing one language. We have been attempting to learn Italian words and phrases to use while here, so it wasn’t for lack of trying. When he came back to the table to ask us to order, he told us that we were going to order in Italian (totally fine), but then laughed/ corrected us every chance he had. We had two other servers/waiters who were very friendly , and came up to chat with us while we waited. When we did get our food, it was delicious! When it came time to run our card, he told us it was declined twice (strange as it hadn’t been an issue in the previous 4 days we had been in Italy). We later learned from our card company that he had declined the transaction both times, and there was actually nothing wrong with the card. I’m sure in an attempt to embarrass us further. It was a terrible experience, and it was unnecessary. We are a group of extremely educated young professionals who have been nothing but respectful and willing to learn since being here. This completely ruined our last night in Venice. Sad. We will never come back here, and will never recommend to others...