Ostaria Boccadoro — Restaurant in Venice

We found this place as a highly rated restaurant in a quiet square that seemed like a perfect place to get dinner. We arrived at the booked time and the place was already fairly busy. We were offered a choice of 2 tables outside the restaurant, with no seats available inside.

This restaurant should not be allowed to serve food outside. We ended up with a combined total over 50 bug bites in the 20 minutes or so we sat outside. After being terrorised, we asked if we could move inside, where a table was now available.

Despite so many insect bites, the food was actually the most disappointing part of the experience. I ordered the dressed crab for my starter, expecting a crab prepared with a few trimmings, maybe some herbs or spices added to it for a bit of flavour, perhaps served with some other small side dish, even just some bread. Nope! They brought a crab shell to the table with exactly one thing inside it - crab meat. Plain, unseasoned crab meat.

I'd heard Italian cooking focused on the quality of ingredients rather than the complexity of the cooking, but this wasn't that. I enjoy crab meat, don't get me wrong, but €20 for a couple of hundred grams of plain crab meat is a joke. We chose Italy for our honeymoon because of the food, and this was the most boring crab I've ever eaten. Not even some black pepper or lemon juice. Whilst bread was provided on the table, it was dry, borderline inedible bread, with no butter or olive oil to moisten it, so that was of no help.

Once we'd moved inside to escape the ridiculous number of insects (seriously, it should be illegal to allow outdoor eating without the bare minimum of citronella candles or some other deterrent for insects), my main arrived. I ordered crab gnocchi, which turned up once again unaccompanied by anything else to make the meal more interesting. It was literally a plate of gnocchi with a sprinkle of crab meat over the top - thank goodness I had the crab starter too, otherwise I'd have left the restaurant having only eaten less than 50 grams of crab, that was how little was included in the main!

The gnocchi was actually quite good, with a flavourful sauce and cooked reasonably well, but due to their special recipe which uses more potato, the gnocchi was actually closer to balls of fried mashed potato. Once again, I like mashed potato, but this is meant to be an exceptional restaurant in a city of exceptional restaurants, and yet they managed to produce food that I would barely think twice about if it was given to me for free. This was only made worse by the paltry portion size (we literally walked around the corner to the nearest takeaway pizza place and got a slice each as we were both left hungry, and the pizza was better than anything either of us had eaten here).

Sadly this meal wasn't free, with a €20 starter and an even more expensive main. We decided enough was enough and didn't bother with dessert. A truly disappointing start to our experience of authentic Italian food.

I've finished writing my review, but I still don't think I've done justice to just how poor our experience was. Seriously, it was dreadful. This food was so average, so boring, so uninspired, so bland. I know England is an island nation so we're pretty good at seafood, but I had assumed Venice, being a port city, would be equally good if not better. I was wrong. Don't bother coming to this restaurant for good sea food. Go to Cornwall or the Lake District.

Also, seriously don't let them seat you outside. I'm writing this review 5 days later and I'm still suffering from itchy and painful insect bites. I recognise that we could have been more prepared, but the restaurant should warn you when booking that there's an insect buffet just outside, and you're the all you...

Elegant dishes with friendly waitstaff. My boyfriend and I were hesitant about picking this place as it looked a bit stuffy for our usual tastes when judging by the decor, but I'm so happy we gave it a shot. Delicate but distinct flavors, from the squid ink tagliolini to the literal melt-in-your-mouth gnocchetti. The raw sea bream with honey and strawberries was an unexpected first and favorite for me, and the rosemary panna cotta served with salt was a similarly rewarding experience. All pasta and desserts are made in house, and the chef has both a daily tagliolini dish as well as the option for a custom chef's choice order for the whole table. Against the refinement of the food, the staff was completely friendly and approachable; they even recommended the best local wine bar to go to after dinner and gave detailed directions. Cant recommend this...

Stay away! This is not authentic Italian or even Venetian quisine! We booked this based on reviews and when my husband and I sat down and tasted the olive oil we were surprised how mediocre it was. Terrible in my book.

What a waste of time!!! Terrible quality of food and nice service. Would rather have fabulous food and terrible service!!

The tuna was over cooked the first attempt and "fishy" smelling like it might be bad the second attempt. This restaurant should not be allowed to operate.

We paid $70 for the drinks and $30 for the food as it was SO bad and we complained and walked out.

We went out afterwards at 10:00pm and had a pizza!!

Terrible food please don't waste your time and money!! Terrible!!

So sad for Venice. Please close your restaurant!!! 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻

Leah and Robert Paterson Cavalière...