Trattoria Pizzería Da Gioia — Restaurant in Venice

I don’t usually write bad reviews because mistakes happen but this restaurant offers nothing but poor service and food, hopefully it’s one to forget not remember. Myself and my family are only visiting for a couple of days for the Venice Carnival so we wanted make all meals memorable. We were looking for restaurants and with no surprise we were approached by an old man with short grey hair and glasses, almost BEGGING us to come into his restaurant. After about 10 minutes of him trying to persuade us, I continued walking by because it felt extremely forceful but my mother insisted we should go as they served ‘fresh oysters’ and supposedly had a friendly host. DO NOT BE FOOLED. We went back to the restaurant and the man thanked us for returning, completely fake attitude. We were seated and ordered drinks, first of all the cups were dirty and the restaurant was full of unexperienced waiters whilst playing 90’s disco music, a very off putting start. The kitchen was filthy as we could see from our table. We were told by their staff that oysters were €4 per unit which is standard; to then finding out they were €24 for 3, after my mother and I ordered 3 each and confirmed with the waiter, the waiter lied to us because the menu never said how much the oysters are per unit which is why we asked so actually it was €8 per unit, this was unacceptable as the manager at the end didn’t even try to change the restaurants reputation. I ordered Risotto frutti de mare which was apparently the ‘star dish’, however I didn’t actually have the chance to try it as I ended up being served the wrong risotto with plain baby tomatoes sold at €19, which I may add had no taste whatsoever, I honestly could have made a better meal at home. I had to keep adding any seasoning available to it. My father ordered a soup which came very fast and tasted not fresh and microwaved. He then ordered a steak which also came shortly after the risotto dish I HAD NOT ORDERED. He was also never asked about the steak level. My mother’s seafood spaghetti arrived 15 minutes later than our food, which by then we had already finished. Our mixed side salad arrived another 15 minutes later. I have never experienced such poor service, personally from having worked at 5* restaurants and hotels in London. The manager who initially greeted us lied to us about the cover charge (coperto) which was so rude we were disgusted. The worst part of all is that he was so confident we were lying about our MEDIOCRE dishes, he didn’t even try to apologise and instead decided to ARGUE about it and prove his point refusing to offer any apology or discount on request for the various mistakes, misleading information and poor service. Our bill was ridiculous and double the standard price for 3 people and only starters and mains with a bottle of wine for €18 and the €5 bottle of still water, I would expect to pay that much for good service and food in the south of France yet our service was lower than your standard takeaway, we would of been served better at a fast food restaurant like Pizza Hut. The old man also made inappropriate jokes to my mother about sex. Nevertheless, throughout our meal a couple sat behind us had huge issues with their meal and wrong orders. This restaurant was a disgusting and vulgar experience. Please if you ever decide to dine here just walk straight past to avoid disappointment as the staff here are fake and nice only to lure you in to their filthy restaurant, no wonder their restaurant was empty as we walked in. They deserve a feature on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. All in all poor service and food with...

This was probably the worst dining experience I've ever had in all of Europe. My friends and I came to Venice for a day trip and while we walked around, a waiter lured us in saying there is free coperto, which is free seat charge. As broke college students, we took the opportunity and decided to go inside.

I ordered calamari (19 euros) & a salmon zucchini pasta (18 euros) On the menu, there are so many fantastic looking photos of the food, but it didn't actually come out to be like that. The calamari was definitely frozen beforehand... it had no taste to it. It was just rings... where was the squid? I asked the waiter if I should get the lasagna or the salmon zucchini pasta and the waiter said the salmon as the lasagna was "already prepared".

When I got my pasta, there was no salmon, yet it was SO fishy. It tasted like they just put saltwater from the ocean into my food. I had bits and pieces of crab shells in my food and different types of pasta.. that should never happen in a restaurant. They weren't even that busy.

My friend was also gluten-free as she is very VERY allergic, which we specifically said when we sat down. When they put different types of pasta and different seafood in my pasta, I told her to not eat the pasta as I knew there would be cross contamination with gluten.

The discussion with the waiter went nowhere. He was unhelpful even though I was politely telling him the troubles we had about the meal.

What a horrible restaurant. They don't care about their customers, they scam you, and act like you're in the wrong. The staff was so impolite whenever you'd ask them for help. Not the mention we asked for the check THREE times. Every time we asked it would take 10 minutes longer.

Never go to this place, go get a slice of pizza before thinking about...

SCAM ALERT! It’s the worst experience I had in Venice. The guy at the door is charismatic and show us a menu, but once inside, a second guy took some parts of the menu and said that only a la carte was available. We agreed to not cause a scene since the prices were more expensive. Above all, the menu outside the building nor the guy inviting us in ever mentioned a 15% charge over your final consumption, which is unthinkable and not a Venice thing. After we ordered (rushed by guy Nr 3) pasta and a stake, same guy showed me an enormous steak, and left, so I asked him what was all about. The price of the stake was per 100Gr and the stake was 450gr. I kindly asked if it could be cut since I can’t eat a half kilo steak. He started to get really rude, went to the kitchen and when came back said that the minimum was 400Gr and it can’t be reduced. Once again, this wasn’t on the menu or I would have order other thing. I proceeded to ask if I could change my order and literally throw the menu at me with disgust. I had enough and decided to leave. My husband offered to pay for a water they open and we never asked for, but the waiter was starting to raise his voice and saying we couldn’t leave. Other people working there tried to see what can we do, but the situation with the waiter was getting more violent. I said I was sorry, but I didn’t wanted to spend my Christmas dinner there. I started to have a panic attack due three guys ganging up on us. After they saw me crying and asking for my emergency medication, we could finally leave. Nobody deserves to be treated like this. This place should be closed by the authorities since this are...