Trattoria da Romano — Restaurant in Venice

My wife and I took our first trip ever to Venice in May,2015. Part of our tour was to an island town named Burano where we had lunch at Trattoria da Romano. The restaurant was near the dock and looked interesting so we gave it a try.

I have to say the food was good and we enjoyed our lunch...UNTIL we received our 150 Euro ($177) bill. Yes....it was LUNCH) Not being familiar with reading Italian menus, and not getting much help from the waiter about pricing (no mention of pricing on a fish we ordered which was $100) we were shocked by the bill and felt taken advantage of because we were tourists and not familiar with the language.

We had to run to catch our ferry so had no time to have discussion with the restaurant on the bill at the time. However, when we got home I wrote an email to the restaurant explaining the situation and how we felt about the experience. The response from Luigi at the restaurant was a real shocker....clearly written by someone who cares a lot more about making a quick buck than taking care of a customer.

He challenged whether or not we really ate at the restaurant (like I would make something like this up??? We provided the date we were there and the amount of the bill in Euros and $), He stated all the prices of the food were in the menu and we should have known what we were ordering (not entirely true....the price of the fish we had @$100 was not in the menu or we wouldn't have ordered it) And lastly he called Tripadvisor a "squalid invention” (clearly he doesn't like or understand the need for customers to have a forum to share (or in this case 'warn') other potential customers (or in this case 'sitting ducks') about what they are in for when they walk into Trattoria da Romano.

There are lots of other reviews for this restaurant, many positive, but several others like this review where customers were really taken advantage of. Read the reviews, make up your own mind but JUST BE AWARE!!! There are lots of other restaurants on the island of Burano who likely won’t take advantage of you like this or respond to your concerns without concern or...

I am reviewing this upon reflection on a holiday a few years back. To this day (5 years later) it remains one of the best meals my wife and I have ever had. And this is not just a case of looking fondly upon the past. We knew right away at the time it would be hard to ever beat the dining experience we were treated to. The seafood risotto. Unbelievable. Worth the trip out to Burano just to try it. :). And then we ordered the fish of the day, expertly plated (from whole fish to plate with the fastest fork-work I've ever seen) by our expert and super friendly waiter. Again, one of the best fish dishes we've ever had. We decided to let our waiter make recommendations on the wines and desserts and his choices could not be faulted. In fact, we imported a case of one of the wines he recommended to Australia we liked it so much with a seafood dish. A little pricier than your average restaurant, maybe, but not crazy-expensive... and more than worth it for the quality of food and service we enjoyed! It was one of the highlights of our Europe trip. I see some people calling it a "tourist trap". Well, even if it has become more popular with the tourists, if the food is as good as it was when I went there, I would be more than happy to sit shoulder to shoulder with strangers to enjoy...

Da Romano is a legend. The restaurant specializes in fish and seafood. There are variety of seafood antipasti, salads, pastas, risottos and grilled fish. The mixed seafood appetizer included wild shrimp, mantis shrimp, octopus, squid, and clams. Superb fresh seafood steamed to perfection. The risotti neri et bianci (black and white) were both seafood based, with the darker one being cuttlefish and ink while the white one was some kind of fish (I didn't order it). Both were exceptional but the Neri stood out as the best version of this dish I have tasted. It was loaded with cuttlefish. The grilled branzino (sea bass) for two was excellent and prepared perfectly. Tiramisu is competent, cafe is perfect. It is expensive but it's a fresh fish and seafood restaurant. Some tourists seem to have trouble grasping that things differ from country to country. If you go into an Italian family owned legend for lunch, let them seat you inside and order a salad and some water, YOU ARE INSULTING THE FAMILY AND THE RESTAURANT. Light lunches are for snack...