Trattoria Da Gigio — Restaurant in Venice

My wife made reservations for us to surprise me. She tried to find something that would satisfy my wanting a multi coursemeal and a place good for our 11 year old daughter. This place was perfect.

We were sat in the courtyard which was beautiful. The waitress was extremely kind and very accommodating to our picky 11 year old.

My wife and I ordered one of the tasting menus (the all fish one). It was absolutely delicious. The first course was a trio (Octopus Salad, Whipped Cod, Shrimp w/ Polenta). All 3 were delicious. The Octopus was my favorite for it's impeccable cooking of the Octopus so it was tender. My wife's was the Shrimp and Polenta for it's richness. The Cod was good but definitely the weakest of the trio.

Second course was Swordfish Crudo and Sweet and Sour pickled Mackerel. Again both were too notch, but the Crudo left the mackerel far behind with it's lightness and freshness.

Third Course was Seared and Breaded Scallops and Crab. These two danced beautifully together with crabs light body and mildly salty flavor contrasted by the stronger scallop with it's browned butter and breading. Some crab... Some scallop... Some crab... Some scallop. Repeat till in heaven.

Lastly a bowl of Mussels. Fresh, buttered and delicious.

For 36 euro a person this felt extremely affordable for the ingredients and culinary time and skill for the dishes. I'd happily eat here...

Last time in Venice we planned to come here but had to change our plans, when it was booked out for the evening.

This year we got lucky and got a seat. Based on the good feedback our hopes were pretty high. Atmosphere is nice, prices are right and the staff nice and friendly.

But the food was a bit of a mixed bag. We had a plate of Spaghetti Vongole, a plate of Gnocchi with Shrimp and a plate with chopped liver and polenta. We've had our share of Gnocchi and Spaghetti Vongole all around Italy. But these meals here were average at tops. These meals are never overly spiced, but even so, here they were really really bland. Spaghetti were al dente though, but really just not flavours. Not really bad....just boring. The surprise was the chopped liver. Even I'm not a fan of livers, I enjoyed this plate very much. Tender, good flavour, nice sauce. Perfect match with the polenta. We had a fine evening here on the streets of Venice. But all in all the food didn't wow us, just the liver. And that's just not enough for us to come back. But...

We visited this place due to it’s positive reviews but found the whole experience lacking.

The outdoor garden was nice, but both of the serving staff left much to be desired. One of them kept trying to force items onto our order and even attempted to put both a service charge, and cover charge onto the same order and thought that we wouldn’t notice because it was in Italian.

The other waiter forgot to actually serve us even after giving us the dessert menu (which we had to rescue from the couple next to us due to the waiter forgetting who actually asked for said dessert menu, they also did not look too pleased about the menu being placed upon their half eaten meal).

The meal itself was good, but the dessert (when we finally got served) was frozen.

As we were halfway through said dessert, the waiter turned all of the lights off in the restaurant, once again, forgetting that we were there!

I don’t know if there was a change of ownership recently, but this was not the 4+ star rated restaurant that we...