Trattoria Povoledo Venezia — Restaurant in Venice

I have had better at an Olive Garden…

I don’t want to seem like I’m making baseless criticisms, though. Thus, here’s the breakdown:

The Good • The servers were generally friendly and professional. I appreciated the way in which the younger servers interacted with the family—especially with the children. • The restaurant as a whole was accommodating for our large group. While this hasn’t been a problem throughout our trip, it certainly helps. • The background music was nice… Can you tell I was fishing for a third bullet?

The Bad • The gnats were abundant by every sense of the word. Everyone kept their right hand over their wine glasses and their left hand ready to swat and shoo at every moment. • I understand the beauty of simple dishes. What I don’t understand, however, is the overall insistence on using the blandest ingredients possible to make a lasagna reminiscent of those Hamburger Helper meals we ate as kids. Nor can I arbitrate any reasonable origin for a veal cut more elastic than a rubber band ball. • One member of our group ordered the lobster — this was a mistake. While the servers were accommodating and removed the dish from the ticket, placing unfresh seafood on the table to begin with is entirely unacceptable.

Piggy-backing on other reviews (and their refutations from the owner), I don’t feel that this restaurant is all it’s chalked up to be. Sure, we ate our food, but that’s because it’s dinner, not because it’s good. No, it’s not obvious that customers are meant to take part in seasoning their own food. No, fresh fish is not supposed to smell like an aquarium. And no, it is not in poor taste to speak one’s own opinion of the tragedy that occurred the night of December 30 on 2023 the year of our Lord when my family chose to step foot into this trattoria.

If it seems I am too harsh, let it be known that across every other meal I have had in this beautiful country, not once have I experienced a menu of dishes so unappetizing as these. I write this review in English less for locals who know to stay away and more for travelers enticed by the hostess outside attempting to wave any unsuspecting passerby into the restaurant. For better meals nearby, I highly recommend looking for restaurants with 4.5 stars or above.

To those reading, thank you for your time and consideration. And to the owner of this sham who will undoubtedly respond to this review, God...

This was the worst restaurant I have encountered in a month in Italy. Before entering the restaurant it was asked if we could just order drinks and were told yes by the manager at the door. We decided to have an appetizer as well to share. The waitress, instead of telling us there was no sharing, ran to the manager. He came to tell us we could not share. When we got up to leave he held out a menu and very condescendingly, as if we were children who could not read, pointed to every word on the menu as he read it to us. After being degraded as the stupid American we continues on our way out. He could not respect our decision to leave and added to the disrespect by saying this was not my home. Implying we were stupid Americans expecting them to change for us. We let are intent known before entering because we were aware of restaurants restrictions, especially those with terraces along the canals. I feel if he would of listened to us at the beginning instead of trying to heard us in for our money the whole situation could have been avoided. It could have been avoided again with the original server quietly and politely letting us know instead of getting the Gestapo-like manager who treated us as stupid, cheap Americans. In all my years of European travel I have never experienced being treated like the American stereotype. We make it a point to be part of their economy by staying in their hotels, eating in their restaurants and even buying groceries in their stores. Venice was amazing, but after this experience when I return I will make it a point to not only not go to this restaurant, but shy away from all establishments that have high tourist traffic.

I'm sure the owner will make a rude comment saying it was us and never his staff as he has responded this way before. Having an owner say anything other than I'm sorry you felt you had a bad experience only reinforces negative reviews.

Watching the staff as a whole interact with other customers as we waited a long time to order this interaction seems to be the norm for this restaurant.

I hope others have a...

I write this review to prevent people of living the horror of eating at this place. First of all, hygiene. The bread that it was brought to us seemed fine at first, but when we took the top slices, the ones underneath were already missing the soft center (like someone ate the soft spot and left the crust and they just brought it to us like that). We asked, they didn't give us a new basket, they just told us it was the chef's choice, because we may have preferred to eat only the crusts... We didn't exactly believe him. Second, someone approached us to sell us something (mumbo jumbos), and he was very persistant and made us uncomfortable. The front man saw what was happening, even made eye contact with us and saw that we were uncomfortable and wanted him to do something, but he chose to ignore us. And it was weird, because all night he wouldn't stop talking to us and making jokes. Third, about the jokes, it's funny when people ask you something and you only say no. It's okay to have fun sometimes with the customers, but saying no to everything is not very polite. And the jokes didn't stop there (there were many others), we asked for a lighter and they sent us the light for fire (the huge one - as we could only assume was another joke). Forth, there was a mixup in the order because of the photo provided in the menu, they said this happens all the time and it's not a problem to change it to what we wanted originally, but still we were charged the original one, which was of course way more expensive (they kept the receipt for unknown reasons). And finally, fifth, we ordered a meat well done, but it was in best case scenario medium rare. We even saw blood. We didn't have fun to say the least.

Edit because apparently the owner doesn't remember: you have tables outside, we sat outside. IF THIS IS THE ONLY ANSWER YOU CAN GIVE, I FEEL SORRY FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS AND US. So many points, and you just answered nonsense....