Salus Grill — Restaurant in Venice

DESPICABLE RACIST BEHAVIOR

It’s the first time I have to write such a review. Today, I sat at the Salus Grill terrace with my wife (wearing a headscarf) to have diner.

At first, a lady (Asian) came and handed us the menu politely and while smiling. While we were almost ready to order, another waiter, a guy (Asian too), came to us and told us that if we hadn’t made a call prior to coming it was impossible for us to eat there. As a consequence, we left the restaurant but the reason provided sounded fishy since more than half the terrace was empty with no « reserved » sign on any of the empty tables. Also, the lady that handed us the menus in the first place was clueless and visibly didn’t understand why we had left.

We then saw an American family leaving the restaurant and asked the father whether they had made a call before coming, the father told us « Nope, we just walked in ». Right after, we saw a white woman in her 40’s seating at the same table we had just left and was handed a menu by the VERY SAME waiter that had just asked us to leave. We asked the woman whether she had made a reservation before coming and she also said no that she HAD JUST WALKED IN.

It then became clear that the guy rejected us under a false pretext, most likely because of my wife’s headscarf (I’m European and I don’t have any beard).

I then decided to call out the despicable behavior of the waiter in front of the other customers. He turned embarrassed and clumsy and then offered to seat to have diner which I refused. Before leaving, I reminded him that his behavior was ever more shameful since he’s Asian himself, not a European, and that he might one day experience racism himself.

The irony in that story is that my wife is an Asian herself, she’s Malaysian and the first time she experiences racism in Europe is by an Asian, seemingly of Chinese descent… It’s even more ridiculous thinking that there is also an important national Chinese community in Malaysia and such a discrimination against a Sino-Malaysian in a restaurant is unthinkable, even customers wouldn’t allow it and take the side of the guy,...

We decided to leave. We had just arrived and sat down—my brother went to use the restroom while I was checking the menu with my mom and child. I asked the server for a local recommendation (something I always do when traveling), and his response was surprisingly rude and dismissive. He told me I should go to a Michelin 5-star restaurant if I wanted something traditional, because most places in Venice aren’t run by locals.

I found this unnecessary and condescending. I have no issue with non-locals cooking, of course—but being in the heart of Venice, I’d naturally expect at least some Italian character in the food. It felt like he had an issue with that, not me.

What made it worse is that he openly assumed we had just come in to use the toilet and would leave without ordering—something he actually said out loud. That kind of judgmental attitude was uncalled for, especially since we had just sat down and were genuinely considering dining there. I asked a simple question and was met with...

This is a real person and a real review. Came with a large group of people and couldn't have been more pleased with everything. Starting with my favorite part of the evening my daughter ordered the Chinese dumplings, yes you heard that right, Venice Italy and Chinese dumplings. They were absolutely fantastic but watching the owner watch her from behind try them with anticipation was classic. Know I remind you my daughter is super picky and as she took her first by she smiled and said that these are amazing! The look on the owners face was priceless. They really do take pride in the dishes. **Now the short and sweet, portions vary drastically as well as price from dish to dish. Nothing was not enough but just adequate for the average eater. However, other dishes were quite large. For example the chicken was literally an entire chicken. Service is amazing and we couldn't have been more pleased to find this place amongst so many...