Tavernetta San Maurizio — Restaurant in Venice

During my third trip to Venice, I visited Maurizio’s restaurant for the first time – and I returned the remaining two nights to dine there. The experience was more pleasant than even my dinner at the Gritti Palace. (Menu suggestions below)

If a diner wants massive pasta plates, cheesy squares of pizza, or large pitchers of discount wine, I recommend eating somewhere else.

What Maurizio offers to his guests (besides cleverly naming his restaurant after himself and being on-site) are an intimate and quiet dining experience, small-scale operations, flavorful dishes created with attention and care, and knowledgeable and capable staff to answer questions and provide suggestions.

While the restaurant does have outdoor seating, I opted for an indoor table. I was able to see that the staff are indeed cooking the food themselves, meticulously and personally. Many tourist trap Venetian restaurants hide their operations (think of microwaved pastas and frozen pizzas), so it was refreshing to see Maurizio’s team engaged expertly with fresh food. 

 The staff was willing to answer questions and make recommendations, even when a server didn’t know perfect English. (Mi scuso per il mio pessimo italiano!) The beverage recommendations were fantastic, especially since I struggle with selecting wines for myself; I was enamored with the Lugana Prestige.

I can’t wait to return to Maurizio’s tavernatta, and I am grateful for having found his gem and for the opportunity to thank him in person. MENU RECOMMENDATIONS: Firstly, the fegato alla venexiana. I ordered this dish twice during my stay. It’s the best liver dish I’ve eaten, and the Venetian style makes it rich and tender. I frequently miss its complex taste. Secondly, the agnello, the lamb chop. This lamb chop’s texture and flavor rival many lamb dishes I’ve eaten in London. The saor, a local style of fish with sweetly cooked onions that delivers a burst of taste. The tagliolini, a light and fresh pasta dish that is the right size to offer deliciousness without cloying your appetite (as in some other nearby restaurants). The crema fritta, or fried cream. This dessert was a great surprise to me; having worked as a pastry cook, eaten pastry throughout Paris and London, and scoured American cities for cream-centered donuts, I admired this rustic and earthy pastry. It’s not immensely sweet (a good thing), and it makes me want to describe it as a “tavern donut.” Give this one a go; coffee would be a great companion. If you can’t make up your mind, do the tasting menu, the degustazione; it was worth every euro.

(To show I’m not biased and blind, I give two criticisms: On one occasion, the table bread was stale. Also, the cheese plate was lacking; it’s smaller and less exciting than others I have found in European cities. I would have preferred eating a second, delicious...

Avoid this place if you are not a local. They will railroad you into more expensive items and upsell you on everything. They treat tourists like a paycheck. we sat down and wanted to order a bottle of wine and the waiter shoved a recommended battle in our face and started to open it without saying what the price was. You can guess how that turned out.. then when we ordered a single course of dishes, the waiter informed us -- not asking.. he was going to bring us two appetizers. I was so flabbergasted at the audacity that I didn't want to make a scene and say no all we wanted was the single course, and of course we didn't want that much food so it sat on the table until they took it away. And and all this more than doubled what we expected to pay. The waiter even asked for a tip at the end of the evening after more than doubling the cost of our meal and on top of that all the food was completely unimpressive. Shameful and predatory.

At the end of the day, I will take responsibility for allowing the waiter to upsell some stuff we didn't want, but the food was nothing special and more importantly, the service was notably more attentive to some, locals and not others, tourists. The locals were doted on and offered condiments like fresh pepper and parmesan but we were abandoned once we got our food.

I should have listened to the other reviews, I had a similar experience to the more critical ones. However being Americans and knowing that some Americans can be obnoxious and sometimes when they say the wait staff was rude it's because they brought it upon themselves. In this case we absolutely did not do that, we were incredibly low key and gracious and basically got bullied. The staff was not rude to us but we did get the feeling that we were second class citizens only there to give them as much money as they could...

Worst restaurant experience ever! Once we were sat at our table, the waiters completely changed their tunes from the welcoming smiles to absolute atrocious service and attitudes. Once given a menu, me and my group discovered a bottle of water costed €4.50 (while it can be bought for €1 in a shop and even refilled for free from one of the many water fountains). As a result, we chose not to purchase any beverages and were met with more attitude from our waiting staff. The pizzas were heated from frozen and were not worth the €8/9 price. Once finishing the meal, we were asked the usual question of whether we wanted any deserts or coffee, before we even answered, another waiter preceded to answer for us saying ‘no’ and as my Italian is not the best, was likely to say that ‘our group is too cheap for their desserts’. Having received the bill, we noticed a cover charge for €15 (the same price as what our waters would’ve come to, had we ordered them). After questioning what this charge was for, a condescending explanation was given by the waiters that they ‘must charge for changing and cleaning the tables after us, as is explained in our menus’. As we were not happy with the service, we wanted to let the waiters know, to which we were told a swift ‘yu too, please leave’. Would definitely not recommend going here, not only is it overpriced, but the waiting staff was extremely rude, ruining the...