Trattoria alla Madonna — Restaurant in Venice

We went here because it was recommended online on quite a few blogs but I can’t understand why. None of the staff smiled, they all seemed so miserable and they had more staff than customers most of which were just standing around. The atmosphere was weird because when you enter there is what looks like a frozen buffet and it’s really off putting seeing your food in big pots left out. It would be nicer if they got rid of the entrance section with the food and made a nice bar to conceal the kitchen entrance. It just felt really grubby especially as it’s down a back alley. The overall impression was not good at all. We were seated immediately and 4 different people on the way to the table asked us how many it was for. It all seemed very disorganised. We sat down and the menus weren’t very pretty (not that it matters but it just adds to the feeling of doom you get walking in), also nothing on the menu looked particularly appetising. We ordered the madonna platter and caprese salad to start. There was no description on the menu of what would be included but it was a plate of gross looking fish including pealed cray fish with their eyes left of staring at you. It tasted old. The caprese salad was ok but nothing special. The mains came, we ordered on recommendation of the waiter: spaghetti with ink gnocchi with meat sauce lobster (half)

The spaghetti with ink sauce was horrible. The spaghetti was raw not al dente. Terrible start when an Italian restaurant can’t even boil pasta! The gnocchi was ok but the meat sauce tasted like what you get out of a tin when you go camping. The lobster was nice but it is literally just lobster with no salad or anything. We had the house wine and it was vile. It came in a broken jug that the waiter spilt all over the table and tasted horrible. I couldn’t even finish one glass. I’m not even that fussy and never waste food but pretty much all of it was inedible. The bill was so expensive. For this quality i’d expect it to be cheap but it cost more than the actually nice restaurants i’ve been to in Venice.

I’ve never wanted to leave a restaurant so desperately. Overpriced, bad food, bad service. For the first time I have nothing good to say apart from maybe the lobster was ok but I would never ever go back.

The place needs a gordon ramsey make over. It seems like a real life kitchen nightmare. Gordon if you are reading this, i’ve got a...

Food rating: 4.5

This place was recommended by a friend (who knows we're foodies and steered us in all great directions for our other meals in Venice) - so I'm a little confused why the reviews are scathing and rating pretty low.

We had the crab starter (€19), spaghetti with mussels (€16) & seafood risotto (€16). All dishes were good! The spider crab was very simple - just lemon, served with it's eggs - it's pre-prepared in the fridge as you walk in to the main room. The spaghetti was in a red sauce, & flavorful. The seafood risotto was cooked in a nice broth, and the least Al dente of the 5 risottos we had traveling through Verona & Venice - but it was cooked just right.

We were told by our friend that the must haves were the risotto and crab, & he didn't disappoint.

It wasn't our #1 mind blowing meal in Venice, but it was a very solid, simple & local choice (only 1 other table were tourists from FR). And service was fast. We were out within an hour which was perfect.

We also had the pleasure of watching some of the staff (& manager?) have a late lunch like a family in the dining room, with the guests. They got served spaghetti out of a massive pan & it looked AMAZING. If it's good enough for the locals, it's definitely good enough for me!

Portions seemed of a normal Venice size, along with price (actually, those were the cheapest pastas we had our whole trip). I feel like some of the low ratings may be mismatched expectations from tourists who want to pay less for really large American...

We were staying at an AirBNB nearby and our host recommended it to us on our last night in Italy. When we sat down the bread was already at the table and was partially stale, our waiter brought us breadsticks in individually wrapped packages that he threw on the table before getting our drink order.

The food was disgusting as well as the most expensive meal we ate in the country for $136 for 4 people. My fiancé got the lasagna which was gooey/mushy and the pasta layers were so extremely over cooked that he didn’t finish his single piece of lasagna. My future in-laws both had ravioli and it tasted like it had been frozen and unthawed very quickly. I had the grilled sole fish which our waiter took away to prepare and “debone” but by the end of the meal I had picked out no less than 40 fish bones. We ordered a bottle of wine that was listed as $28 then priced as $30 on the check. We also had a sit down fee of $8, as well as another $15 tourism charge that we were not charged for at any other restaurant in Venice. Our waiter brought our check and stood over us as we looked over the check and asked 3 times if we would like to add a tip, being extremely pushy and rude.

We visited Rome, Florence, and Venice and this was the most unsatisfactory experience we had at any restaurant over our week here. A take away sandwich from a shopfront would’ve been better than the meal...