Trattoria de GiGio, Venice

As part of our cruise around the Med last September we were lucky enough to spend an evening in Venice, so instead of staying on our ship for the evening meal we thought we would try to find a restaurant which served authentic Venetian cuisine. The family run restaurant 'Trattoria de GiGio' was a place which seemed extremely popular with the locals, and as a well known, family run restaurant, we hoped that it would give us the experience we were after.

 

Interior of the restaurant

 Upon entering the restaurant there was a really nice atmosphere. Filled with the chatter of Italian voices, we thought immediately that it was a good sign of things to come, so we quickly looked through the menu and came to our decision pretty quickly. Being seafood lovers, we opted for their traditional venetian fish menu consisting of many dishes we had heard of which made our mouth water, but also those more authentic recipes we hoped for and were intrigued by.

Polenta and brown shrimp

The first dish to arrive was a combination of brown shrimp and polenta. The shrimp were delicious, and their saltiness did match the creaminess of the polenta very well, although I must admit when the shrimp had all been eaten I wasn't much of a fan of the polenta (not due to the cooking at all, purely because the texture is something I can't quite get my head around yet!).

Antipasti salad

Next the waitress bought out a cold, and extremely colourful salad, consisting of onions, mixed peppers, prawns and squid. This was absolutely perfect after the polenta due to its variety of textures and perfectly cooked seafood. The squid was some of the best I'd had, and the sharp vinaigrette which coated the salad complemented the squid perfectly...as an avid fan of calamari I have to say I'd never considered eating squid cold, but it was really very tasty and something I recommend to all seafood fans!



Venetian sardines

The following dish was one neither of us were sure of when we ordered the tasting menu initially, but it was quite possibly my favourite, and most definitely the biggest surprise of the whole meal for me. The sardines were cooked in this sharp wine wine and vinegar sauce and the cooled, and served with sultanas, onions and pine nuts. The dish was really sweet, but the mixture of textures and flavours I thought worked absolutely perfectly together and I most definitely wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to a friend or order it again.

Warm crab and scallops

The next plate of food to arrive was very much a sight for sore eyes, and it smelt absolutely divine! We had two huge king scallops still within their shells, cooked in a creamy mushroom and parsley sauce, accompanied by crab, and crab claws in a similar garlicky sauce. Due to the predominantly cold courses thus far, this came as a lovely alternative especially seen as both components were cooked perfectly.

Smoked swordfish carpaccio

Drawing towards the end of our meal, a plate absolutely full of smoked swordfish carpaccio arrived with warm bread. You could tell that they were really proud of the quality of the seafood offered - and we were impressed too when we dug in. The fish was so full of flavour, and despite being offered a huge portion, I could have probably had double and not even batted an eyelid.



Moules Mariniere

The final course to arrive was a large bowl of mussels in a white wine and cream sauce. The mussels were of a great size, but I could have definitely done with either a larger bowl, or slightly more sauce too dip our bread into! Either way, they were still very enjoyable and it rounded off a lovely meal in the beautiful city of Venice.

Tiramisu

We couldn't really leave a traditional Italian restaurant without sampling their self proclaimed 'famous homemade tiramisu', and it definitely didn't disappoint. The cream was to die for, and the boozy coffee sponge was so good! It was really little, but I could immediately understand why as it was so rich. We also ordered a liqueur coffee (but due to stupidity on our part we opted for it with grappa). This made the drink so strong and bitter I have to admit it was too much for me to finish nevertheless, it was really well priced and the food had been so lovely prior to this it really didn't matter.

I think in a city like Venice with such a huge thoroughfare of tourists, it is sometimes impossible to find a restaurant that serves honest, well priced and authentic cuisine, but I have to say with Trattoria de GiGio we found a gem and I would definitely suggest it to anyone I know visiting the city - so long as you are prepared for a 'real' venetian experience!