Venice is renowned for being a VERY EXPENSIVE location to eat, shop, live or breathe these days, so it's nice to find some deals around. The first night we hit a famous "family" spot called VINI da GIGO just behind the San Felice Church (seconds from the Ca d'Oro) which is a true local experience, especially when it comes to seafood. The local drink reminiscent of Campari is APIRIL served with a spritz and works fine on a hot summer night to refresh the palate. The ANTIPASTO MISTO SPECIALITA VENEZIANE offers up some spider crab (watch for shells), White Polenta(they don't use yellow here), a Fried FISH BALL made from creamy MONKFISH, yummy SARDINES and ONIONS, a small size scallop however served with its rare and SUPER-TASTY CORAL, and SMALL local SHRIMP on POLENTA with a drizzle of balsamic (Will's favorite). BIGOLI in SALSA is a local pasta specialty that is served everywhere and offers larger than spaghetti pasta served with an intense and tasty sauce made from anchovy & onion, however, it is a pure sauce and there are no whole bits of either ingredients found therein.
A SOAVE CLASSICO CALVARINO 2004 from Pieropan started us offer using the wonderful local Veneto region wine and we moved on to super aromatic COLLIO BIANCO from Friuli region 1999/2001 mixed vintages from La Castellana winery that had the oddest hint of coconut milk (which we all liked!). Our final wine was a light red--the regional SCHIOPPETTINO Riserva 2993 from ANTICO BROILO in Fruili as well. It was a great match for my SEPPIE ALLA VENEZIANA another very local dish of SQUID served in a rich squid ink sauce over White Polenta. Everyone else loved their fish dishes as the were so fresh and simply prepared.
Desserts were quite good as well with a CREMA CATALANA that is akin to Creme Brulee but may be the best we have ever found anywhere?? A simple LIMONCELLO chiffonade drink was nice, but hardly filling while the BERRY TART with CREME ANGLAISE made me happy, and others adored the SEMIFREDDO of CHOCOLATE with Berry Sauce and Hazelnut!!
Super kudos to our warm and welcoming waitress who was a dream and anticipated our every need.
