Originally Posted by
seanmh
Perche, I'm hoping you'll be able to clarify because I'm quite nervous with dinner plans in Venice because multiple people have told me that without reservations it's almost impossible to get seated.
Is this nothing to be worried about or should I be reserving at a restaurant some time before arrival?
Thanks!
You definitely need reservations if you want a good meal. All around Piazza San Marco and the Rialto Bridge there are restaurants where a barker is standing outside trying to put a menu in your hand and wave you in. They will usually have a cheap tourist menu, but when they add all the charges it will not be cheap, and the food is horrible. These places will also have these fake plastic but realistic looking fish over fake ice in the window. These places are usually open all day, and are a complete waste of money.
Good restaurants are only usually open from noon two o'clock in the afternoon. They reopen from 7 or 8PM until 9 or 10. Italians eat slowly, so each table will generally have only one or two sittings per night. Since there may be only 15-20 tables, you can see that these places are going to be full if they serve great food. Unless you are lucky, you will need a reservation. At lunch you usually do not, but for dinner you do. This doesn't mean weeks or months in advice. If there are no big events a week, or even a day, or even a phone call or stop by the same morning and make a reservation. Same day walk ups to good restaurants are usually not successful. Most good restaurants have web sites, and you make the reservation by email.