Vini Da Arturo — Restaurant in Venice

If you are reading this, chances are you heard about this place on the "Somebody Feed Phil" show on Netflix. Perhaps you too are thinking about going and ordering the giant pork chop. I'll get straight to the point: it is extremely expensive and very disappointing.

The restaurant was empty when we arrived, and remained so for the duration of our visit. The waiter assured us that they are usually very busy, and serve plenty of locals. We asked about the aforementioned giant pork chop, and we were surprised how expensive it was (56 EUR). No menu outside, so we were sitting at our table when we came to this realisation. "Oh well," we thought; "it's big enough to feed two, and it must be good". Wrong. The chop smelled very strongly of vinegar (bring a bottle of malt vinegar to your nostrils until you get the burning sensation to recreate the effect) and the vinegar taste completely overwhelmed any flavour the meat may have had. I've got nothing against vinegar---great on fish and chips, for example---but this chop had no crunch or rich flavour to balance it. It was soggy and the vinegar dominated everything. It doesn't come with any sides either, so there is no respite. Thank god we ordered a salad; the balsamic vinegar on that was a welcome relief!

In the show, Phil exclaims "genius!" as he takes his first bite. Either he was suffering from a debilitating head cold, or he was eating a different dish. I can't speak for any of the other dishes on the menu, but this one should be avoided at all costs. The other dishes were certainly expensive. An aperol spritz cost us 10 EUR and was mostly ice. This common Venetian drink, which cost us about 4 EUR in other bars/restaurants, was the worst we have had.

At this point I would like to put in a good word for the waiter, who made the effort to speak to us about our stay in Venice and made several recommendations.

In summary, we felt deeply disappointed and completely ripped off. We were too polite/British to say anything about it at the time, but we left with the shared feeling that we need to warn others to prevent them having a...

3/10 review of the pork chop. 5/10 overall dining experience. PORK CHOP: Oddly enough I have eaten A LOT of pork chops and cook them regularly for dinner in my own home. This pork chop doesn’t even make it on my top 10 list or any list of mine, and I wouldn’t recommend it. It is too acidic/vinegary and there is no additional flavor, just the vinegar. You have the look of what should be fried but the texture is mushy/soggy so there was nothing crunchy about this pork chop. It’s definitely large enough to share for 4 people in my opinion. We ate the vegetables as a side dish which was nothing special just steamed veggies (keep in mind most vegetable side dishes in Italy are either steamed or grilled and do not have seasoning, maybe light salt and pepper). SERVICE: You can tell the staff are extremely proud of their “celebrity” status and uses this as a conversation starter. I didn’t particularly like that as I wasn’t impressed with the dish so the “fame” didn’t live up to my personal experience or expectations. Overall they were friendly but I could’ve dealt without the small-talk conversation. The restaurant is small with about 9 tables (a mix of 2 and 4 tops) so don’t come with luggage, bags, and a bunch of stuff. PRICE: I would not spend the money to dine here for this dish (€70+). Maybe the other items are a better experience. If you feel you absolutely must try this place because of the Netflix show “Somebody Feed Phil”, then go for it. But I think they pulled out all the best stops for Phil...

Whenever I head to Venice, the most important part of my agenda is to squeeze into a tiny booth inside Vini da Arturo where I order their famous pork cutlet for lunch. When we enter the door, the old owner Ernesto is always sitting in one of the booths leisurely reading his newspaper inside this homey, little restaurant with a salon hang of drawings and memorabilia (including three framed photos of Tobey Maguire) on its wood panels. Oddly for Venice, this is a place with absolutely no seafood.

Start with the cold marinated melanzane in saor - a must! - and then after some pasta - maybe spaghetti of carciofi or radicchio (but if you’re here for the cutlet, just skip this and save space!) and then behind the constant ringing of the telephone, the pork cutlet is pounded and fried in their very tight kitchen. It’s always a surprise just how large the cutlet is when it arrives, and because I always gasp, I always inhale the delicious, stinging brute force of the vinegar - just powerful and literally mouthwatering. What a pleasure to be overwhelmed! Though that said, it may not be for everyone. Hani, who has been there a long time and is now the restaurant’s new owner, always recommends we save some cutlet for the next day as he swears it’s better - it’s milder! But the meal never ends there for us: the restaurant makes incredible tiramisu and panna cotta, without fuss, which may really be the actual reason we keep coming back over the years. Such an enjoyable...