Trattoria Antica Torre — Restaurant in Venice

This is the only bad food experience we've had in our three weeks stay in Italy. Stay away!

Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. The bread was old and crusty. I had to ask for it to be changed two times before a fresher basket was brought. Even then, it was by far the worse bread we've have during our trip (restaurants in Italy usually have amazing bread as a start).

We started with a 20 euros seafood appetizer plate, which was very expensive for what it was. The shrimps didn't taste anything. The rest was forgettable at best (except for the baccalà mantecato, which was good). At the same time came our plate of grilled scampi (langoustines). They were burned and tasted like it. We did not eat it. After a quick chat with the waiter, he took it away. He proposed to replace it for a shrimp dish, but with our previous experience with their shrimps, we said no.

Now sitting for more than one hour and a half, still waiting for our entrées and disappointed with the food so far, we told the waiter we weren't having a good experience and wanted to leave. He insisted that the food was coming immediately, and we decided to stay and give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt. The food came rapidly. Unfortunately, the seafood soup was full of crustacean tails still encompassed in their shells. But, worst of all, the clam in the soup was closed shut (which means it was either dead of full of mud and should not have even been near a plate). We didn't want to risk getting sick and so called it a night.

I never write reviews like this, but I felt I had to on this occasion. After all this, the waiter argued with us that it was a matter of taste (it was not) and was pushing to charge us for the meal (including the scampis that we didn’t eat). In the end, we argued (he kept telling us he wasn’t the cook and only worked here) and we ended up paying only for what we ate (the seafood appetizer and 2 bottles of water during our long wait). We were baffled that he insisted on us to pay after our bad experience.

It seemed we were not the only ones who appeared to have had a subpar experience. We noticed some of the people next to us did not finish their food. The service was also very confusing and not great. One of the waiters stood right behind my wife for most of the dinner, which made us uncomfortable. Furthermore (and I am embarrassed writing this), he did not seem to possess very good personal hygiene. Every time he came to bring something at our table, a strong scent of sweat and armpits followed.

Moral of the story: Don’t force it if it doesn’t feel right. We booked this restaurant on the same night at 50% off on The Fork and, even then, it wasn’t worth it at all (not to mention the food hazard issue ). Still hungry, my wife and I ended up spending 90 euros in another amazing trattoria, which there are aplenty in the beautiful...

Never in my life have I ever felt disrespected in a restaurant like tonight at Trattoria Antica Torre. We are two separate African American traveling families from the US consisting of four adults and six children between the ages of one and nine years old. Our families have traveled to over 27 countries together and have encountered so many amazing people. The treatment we’ve received the last few days in Venice has also been amazing by other restaurants and vendors except for Antica Torre.

After a long day at the water park we our children we decided to eat dinner before going back to our hotel. We decided on eating at Antica Torre. Each of the families sat at different tables. For some reason the Maitre d’hotel (head of waiters) thought it was okay to secretly record our families and didn’t think we had notice he had been recording us while walking by. My wife had to take our one year old outside because he became fussy in the restaurant. When my wife walked outside she notice the Maitre d’hotel playing the video for our waitress and another waiter. Later we asked him and our waitress why was he recording us without our permission. He claims that he was recording the restaurant for his boss. Our waitress noticed that we were visibly upset and started to apologize. I politely told her that we would be writing a bad review on the disrespect that we received. Later she had him show us where he would deleted the video which was a terrible idea on their behalf because the video clearing showed only our section was being videoed.

I don’t know why they thought it was okay to video us and our children and I don’t want to make any assumptions. It was very unprofessional of them to do so especially coming from the Maitre d’hotel who is suppose to set the example for his staff. Even worse, my fish was undercooked and my children didn’t like the pizza there. I highly do not recommend...

Was looking through the menu when we got approached by the service staff to be seated at the mini-square which was well ventilated - promptly handed the menu which came with English translations, and another menu with multiple photos illustration.

🍲 ordered the “local fish soup” and gotten a seafood soup that comes with mussels and clams which we don’t eat (though there were also fish and prawns too), only realised today that fish actually meant seafood after encountering the same at another restaurant

🐖 the escalope was actually a grilled variant (when I expected a fried one like it was in Lucerne), and the French fries came in grilled potato chunks too - pretty much not what I was used to

Whilst the menu wasn’t really what we had assumed like many other reviews mentioned, there were no complaints on the quality of the food - soup was clean and good and the pork was super tender.

💰 Another point to note like what others mentioned is their lack of clarity in the receipt, with no mentions of the dishes and purely the value amount of each dish and the total bill correspondingly. That said, if you don’t touch the bread and limoncello isn’t served, you won’t be charged the cover fee.

All in all, not the best meal we had in Venice, but still an acceptable place to dine in a nice environment - definitely go with fishes like what the service team...