We're meeting family members in Venice in a few weeks. Both family members are vegetarians, no meat, no dairy, fish maybe; one person has dairy intolerance (no cheese). I have fond memories of travel in Italy eating dishes with meat, fish and dairy. What to do?
Do you have recommendations for restaurants, cafes or trattorias that cater to vegetarians in Venice? Looking for places with more than the cursory "vegetarian special: salad" showing up on menus.
Thanks.
I'm sure others will be able to provide some specific suggestions, but many--maybe most--restaurants will offer a grilled-vegetable platter, and I think it would be a rare pizzeria that didn't have at least one vegetarian pizza without cheese on the menu; I don't see any reason why other vegetarian pizzas couldn't be prepared without cheese. And pizzerias often do have other dishes on their menus, so the entire party wouldn't have to subsist on a diet of pizza.
Reference to a website like Happy Cow would probably be a good idea so your dairy-intolerant person gets enough protein.
Lots to eat for vegetarians and non-dairy eaters! I especially head for places that serve cicchetti - those platters of food under the glass; you choose what you want, and they serve up small - or large - portions of your choices. Many are vegetables; some are seafood. Some places specialize in little toasts with veggies or seafood on top. Some places are regular cafes or trattorias that also have larger menus; others specialize in cicchetti. Near the Rialto Market, I especially like Cantina Do Spade; it can get quite crowded during the late afternoon, early evening. They keep bringing new platters of food from the kitchen throughout the early evening. You choose your food, ask for your drinks, and pay at the bar. Then you find a table. Other places also serving cicchetti nearby are Cantina do Mori and Bar All'Arco. You can find all of them on google maps with lots of pictures. Across the Grand Canal, a couple of blocks off the the main walking street (Strada Nova), not far from the Ca D'Oro vaporetto stop is a restaurant that I really like that also serves cicchetti during lunchtime and into the late afternoon, Osteria Al Promessi Sposi. Food is fantastic, great menu and wonderful veggie cicchetti choices. Reasonably priced.
Denis and I are both vegan. We always get a kitchen, preferring not to be completely dependent on restaurants. We only eat out occasionally.
As mentioned above, your friends should be familiar with Happy Cow. If they're not, they could use their home town for practice.
A few years ago I posted a review of La Tecia Vegana: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy-reviews/vegan-in-venice
When I looked for it by putting Vegan in Venice into the search engine here, I got 36 listings: https://search.ricksteves.com/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=vegan+in+venice&button= Of course, they're not all current or solely about Venice, but they could look at those threads for some reassurance. And they won't all be the token vegetarian salad special, lol! Or just pasta alla pomodoro.
When I studied Happy Cow listings, looking at menus, I noticed that the "contorni" section of the menus looked like one could do just fine, and be comfortably full.
One of the things that bothers us is the scarcity of suitable dessert options. Never fear, sorbetto the the rescue! There are plenty of vegan options there, yay!
This place is really good:
I'm not sure cichetti will be very satisfying. I mainly stick to vegetarian, including dairy and eggs, but I do eat some fish. Most of the cichetti I saw (4 days in Venice this week) had fish, meat and/or cheese. The few restaurants I've been to in Venice and Florence, where I am now, had at least one vegetarian soup and some side dishes of vegetables. Every gelateria has some non-dairy choices.
You might try Gam Gam. It's a good restaurant on the edge of the Ghetto. The food is typical Israeli/Middle Eastern and it's kosher so since they serve meat, there are no dairy products on the premises. They may have some fish options. I'm sure you can eat a full tasty meal there without any meat products in them. They may be closed on Friday nights and Saturdays - check the website. Pre-covid, you could preorder and prepay for meals on the Sabbath (Shabbat), but without tourists, that may not be the case now.
Pizza is everywhere in Venice. Any restaurant can make veggie pizzas without cheese.
La Zucca is excellent!
