San Trovaso, Venice

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am back from Venice and just wanted to give a brief review of the restanrant in Venice. We received a recommendations from locals for "Ristorante San Trovaso" near to the Pont Academica.

When we finally found the Taverna it was closed (opens at 19:00). From the outside look and location (next to a primary school), we were "very very" sure to have found a juwel in the Venice Jungle. So we had about an hour to kill and walked around the area to have a wine or two.

As we got back to the entrance the freindly waiter opened the gate and we were still impressed being the one of the first guests.

After looking at the menue and ordering we were absolutely confident to get the best local Venetian food. We ordered Red House wine (was very good) and Spaghetti Vongole, Frittura Mista di Pesce/mixed fish in batter, and the Grigliata mista di Pesce/Grilled Sea food Platter, Grilled Orata/Dorade etc. My friend ordered the fried chicken (like Schnitzel) with a special but very simple request...to have some melted Mozarello on the Chicken (al forno so to say). The waiter's reaction was quite surprising. 'Not possible' says the waiter (the cook cannot do this?!?!), but he could bring us mozarella separately. We agreed.

Food looked very good, BUT taste was just horrible. Pasta was soaked in salt, the fish (all fish dishes) was nothing than dry dead "something", the fritto Mista was dripping grease, when I asked for a (any) sauce to dip the dry fish into, they brought me small majonaise packs like at McDonalds:-). By the way, we did get a very BIG BIG plate of ice cold Mozarella balls (of course NOT Free of charge, ie. charged like a Primi Piatti) which tasted like nothing and it really looked funny on the Chicken .

It happened again...the food was just horrible! I will post some pics later.

The meal wasn't cheap, for 3 primis, and 4 secondis and one wine we paid 140EUR. For the very worst meal/dinner we had in Italy...in Venice.

I went here with my party on a Tuesday night in June around 7:30-ish and while busy outside, it was nearly empty inside. The staff was friendly, though the service could have been better. I had a green salad- which was a typical Italian green salad consisting of just lettuce- and a grilled steak. The steak was cooked to order and decently seasoned (though it should be noted that this was the first post-airline-food meal in a while). Another person in my party had the veal chop, which was also just decent. The last person in my party had the prawns, which were fishy and served at a cooler temperature. I tried the chocolate gelato, which was as good as all gelato is.

Note: For those of you traveling in the summer, it was fairly cool inside the restaurant- in contrast to the ninety degree weather outside at least.

Nothing special but decent food at a reasonable price. Service was slow. Very busy. We sat upstairs which is less attractive than downstairs. We went there after finding that a nearby restaurant at which we were planning to eat was closed.

This restaurant has been recommended both here and on several other review sites so I convinced myself - and my family - we had to give it a try. It looks lovely from the outside, was convenient for our hotel and has a well-priced menu with good veggie options, so my family and I decided to eat there the Sunday evening of our long weekend.

We had a lovely welcome, greeted by several of the smart waiters with "buona sera" and smiles … but sadly that was the highlight of the evening.

I don't like writing bad reviews but, as I found this place by reading reviews on the internet, I felt I had to add my experience for the sake of other people. (And, on checking again, these positive reviews are almost all from several years ago so the place could well have changed hands since they were written.)

We were led upstairs - which it turned out is where they plonk all the tourists. I say 'plonk' on purpose; although there were about 15 or so tables in the room, with only one occupied when we arrived, we were sat at the table right next to that other group. The next people to arrive after us were sat directly behind us and they filled the dining area in this fashion for the rest of the evening. It may not seem like much but it really felt as if we were being lined up for the restaurant's convenience rather than the diners' comfort.

It took about 20 minutes in a fairly quiet dining room before anyone came to take our drinks order - including 6 Bellini's which we'd really wanted to try on our visit to Venice. Unfortunately these ones were straight from a bottle and extortionately overpriced at €3 each (whole bottles were commonly on sale for €5.50). Oh. Disappointing.

Some time after our drinks were delivered the waiter came to take our food orders and after that we chatted amongst ourselves and waited. And waited. Finally, 4 out of the 6 first courses arrived, minus those belonging to the 2 vegetarians in the party who had to wait a further 10 minutes for theirs as the rest of us ate.

My caprese salad was supermarket-bland - tasteless cherry tomatoes and plasticky, cheap mozzarella balls with a few bits of basil leaf. I was disappointed to have to ask for dressing as the salad hadn't been dressed at all by the chef - and was only given oil and pepper, no vinegar or salt … and certainly no smile from the waiter who only offered an "Ugh, I'm too busy for this!" look as he brought the oil to the table and stormed off again.

The first courses were generally thought to be 'okay' but all overpriced for the quality - although the fish was apparently quite tasty.

Not long after our plates were cleared away - and bearing in mind the veggies had been served last with their starters - their pizzas were brought out. They were big and looked fine, if a little oily in the case of the four-cheese one; but that's to be expected. So, they dug in while the rest of us waited.

Another main course was brought to the table, then another, then another, then another. Sadly though, this last one was not the main I'd ordered but a side dish of vegetables. I told them that wasn't what I'd ordered and the waiter just looked confused - sat the plate on the table as if I was just being silly and went to check the orders on the till. Once checked, he came back, took the plate away (Yes, you did get it wrong!) and that was the last I saw of him until about 20 minutes later when everyone else had eaten as much of their meal as they were going to (no one finished their food) and I had a steaming hot but undercooked pizza dropped in front of me. I sincerely felt as if they were blaming me for their getting the order wrong! There was no apology for the long wait and I barely touched the food …

As it turned out, the other two pizzas were also bland, sopping wet and mushy-in-the-middle catastrophes like mine, so it wasn't that they'd hurried mine to make up for their mistake; the pizzas are just generally disgusting.

We all felt as if, although the prices had looked good from the menu, for the quality and level of service we got, it was just massively overpriced and a real let-down; we were treated as if we were an imposition and felt utterly unwelcome as soon as we'd sat down.

Although this apparent desire to get us out of the way didn't speed them up when we asked for the bill, which took an extremely long time to be brought to the table. (Perhaps they were hoping we'd order more? No chance!)

So, the service was curt and far less welcoming than a fast food joint, the toilets were dirty (men's) or not working (women's) and the food was rank so I'd happily advise anyone not to step foot in this restaurant.

Although that day's rainy weather hadn't dampened our spirits or put a downer on our holiday in Venice, this revolting place most certainly did. 1/10 (for the pleasant welcome when we got arrived)/ Avoid, avoid, avoid!

Favorite Dish: The best thing I ate here were the packet breadsticks.

Always a crowd.....best to make a reservation ahead by a day or two.....comfortable surroundings....lots of fish choices....we only ate there once because we had an apartment so we cooked at home a lot. I love the grocery stores in Europe. The owner of our apartment told us of this restaurant.

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We ate here during Carnival,its very popular so take a stroll pass and book a table for later,then carry on walking pass towards the lagoon and have a few vinos in the lovely little wine shop just 2 mins walk away.
The food in San Trov' was superb and not too expensive and we would definately go again .

Favorite Dish: Everything

We were going to eat at the pizza place of the same name, owned by the same people, but it wasn't open. So we walked around the corner and found this place! As Venice was very hot this day, the air conditioning was a welcome feeling! I made the mistake of getting the tourist menu. It was hit or miss. Some courses were good, others were so-so. Overall, it was a ummmm...., good enough experience, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find this place on a return trip.

Favorite Dish: The pasta course was lasagna. The sauce was quite spicy and I would have gladly eaten another dish of this over the meat course. (the chicken was dry)

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I ate at San Travaso several times, including once with a group of 17 friends. The food was consistently good, portions were large and service was interesting. It seemed that everytime I was there, there was at least one large group. Each time, watching the waiters serve the food was like having live entertainment. The waiters would come out with plates of food and start handing out plates. But, it would quickly become apparant that they were giving people the wrong orders. So, they'd start calling out, trying to find out who each plate belonged to. Usually, the diners were busy drinking wine and talking and ignored the waiters. One waiter just yelled out an order, then gazed at the ceiling, while the diners waved their hands to get his attention. He kept his eyes rolled toward the ceiling until everyone started yelling at him. After all 20 or so people were served this way, the entire restaurant burst into applause and laughter. Try the Caprese salad - huge, with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and olives. The mussels were wonderful, as was the fettucine alfredo. The steaks were also excellent. The house wine was decent, and a bargain, by Venetian standards.