Taverna San Trovaso — Restaurant in Venice

We wanted to try this place because it came highly recommended by a nice local lady and the other restaurant she recommended was fantastic. Our waitress was very nice and helpful. She was a bit busy because she had the entire room to handle by herself. Because of this, after she took our order we didn't see her again at our table until it was time get the check.

Ambience was nice. However, we tried to order what we saw on their web site, but were told that the menu had just changed this week, so they didn't have those things. The bread they brought for us seemed like it was left over from the day before, and accompanied by pre package store bought salted hard bread stick. Unimaginable at best.

We started with the grilled scallops. It was 2 pieces of tasty scallops nicely presented on a shell, and 6 tiny (about the size of a pea) of something else on smaller shells. Not sure what but it seemed they were cooked too long and shrunk up.

We also ordered the tuna salad. Pictures showed this looked real good. In reality, it was a nice, if plain, salad with canned tuna on it. -. Our main meal was a pasta with duck. Which had very little flavor and my wife could only eat about .a quarter of it. While I had the special of steak strips and bake potato. Both of which also had very little flavor. And, sadly, it was not a good cut of steak. It was very tough and had much gristle in it. I too left a good bit on my plate.

I have not doubt that this nice restaurant had a great menu before judging by the reviews and word of mouth, but they should really go back to that old menu and/or chef, because this one isn't that great when compared to the quality of those around them now.

Edit: I see the owner has responded. To be fair, the scallops were tasty, just small. And to respond to the rest of his comments. The waitress (who was very nice) only checked on us once after the scallops were delivered. No checking after that. and there was no defense of either the duck, the steak, or the canned tuna fish salad.

Lastly, I'm not hiding behind anything, just posting an honest review. So sorry you don't appreciate honest feedback. But seriously, bring back the old chef/menu. I hear that it was...

Obviously a spot favored by locals, but terrible service for the tourists. I was wearing an Italy sweatshirt I'd bought that evening because it was unexpectedly cold after sundown, my husband was in a tshirt and jeans. The host sat two well-dressed couples that had come in before us without reservations, took one look at us, and ordered us upstairs in a practically deserted room with shabby tables, florescent lighting, and no views (the two windows were obstructed by fake plants). The two other American couples there that had just been seated asked to be seated in the main dining room downstairs (which elicited an eyeroll and obvious scorn from the server) and never came back, so I assume there was plenty of room there. An Italian couple was led upstairs about 10 minutes later, ordered just after us, and received their food long before us. The server chatted them up and asked if they wanted music; they said yes, and the room was thereafter filled with radio pop. When the server brought our water, which by the way was EUR 2.50 and the restaurant's own brand, aka tap water, he didn't even bother to fully open the bottle before clunking it down on the table and walking off. It was hands down the most snooty, condescending service I have ever experienced. Now, the food. It was as good as you would expect from a restaurant that values its guests based on solely on aesthetics. The bread basket consisted of two hard rolls and packaged biscuits. We ordered a beef carpaccio appetizer, which was average tasting, burrata ravioli, which was in the oddest pesto sauce and tasted like supermarket pasta, and grilled squid that was so black you couldn't see what you were eating, came with two perfectly square bricks of polenta that tasted like gelatin, and was excessively salty. Please avoid this restaurant. You're better off grabbing a pizza from a kiosk and...

We were recommended this place by our AirBNB host as a good local restaurant with fair 'un-Venice like tourist prices'. As it was our first night in Venice we thought we'd try it and decided to book in advance. We were glad we did, upon entering at the opening time of 7pm the place was already half full (maybe they opened their doors early?). We ordered one pizza for the kids to share - which they enjoyed even with the burnt edges (maybe that's how they do it in Venice?), but kids generally enjoy pizza regardless of the quality, so this isn't saying too much. My wife got one of the seafood spaghetti options, and for myself the tortellini. We both felt our meals were just 'ok', mine was rather small and I finished within moments of starting - I was glad for the 'complimentary' rolls they provided. I say complimentary, as we had to pay a $2 euro cover charge per person (we were aware of this as was on the window menu) - this may be common in Venice (as we will find out), however so far in Europe it hasn't been. So what that meant was what would have been an 'ok' price to pay for our meals, suddenly didn't add up - especially coming off the high value and quality we received in Salzburg the nights before (similar price, but much larger portions and quality of food and service). While the service was fast, it also felt like they were rushing you out the door, and in addition as we don't really drink we also feel a little second class when we aren't ordering a lot of alcohol which is obviously where most establishments make their extra $'s. We won't be visiting again during our stay in Venice or recommending to anyone unless they are short on...