The restaurant Adriatica is gorgeous, and I don’t say that lightly. Being in Venice, you might be tempted to grab a table out front overlooking the lagoon – and for most restaurants here, that would certainly be your best bet. But if you’re eating here, you should absolutely ask for a table either inside or in the garden. Inside: you have a midcentury-meets-coastal dream design, buttering you up nicely for the experimentalplates to follow. If you’re looking for something a little more intimate and – let’s face it – Venetian, the gardens overlooking an inner canal are a top choice.
And so, last Saturday night, dressed well but lightly in a balmy 28º degrees, we were welcomed to our table in the garden. The host informed us that there was a private party in a certain section of the garden whose music might disturb us, but this only affirmed our decision – we hadn’t been anywhere with a DJ in ages.
We chose the Octopus as our shared starter, which is pan-seared and thrown together with a vibrant green pea cream, crunchy chunks of apple and celery, and then dotted with a tastes-like-summer-holiday oyster mayonnaise: the star of this dish, but which was (sadly) eclipsed by the strong pea flavour.
For mains, I took crab ravioli with essence of tomato. This dish was by all means ‘correct’, but was absolutely overshadowed by my date’s choice: the tagliatelle with rabbit ragù. This dish (of which I helped myself to more than one little taste) was all at once light and wholesome: perfect even in the Venetian night heat, yet simultaneously reminiscent of an Alpine fireside meal.
The service was light-touch: available when needed and always with a smile, but ever so slightly less present than expected. Whether this was intended to echo the intimate nature of the gardens or simply the result of one waiter serving all five tables in the garden is unclear.
Our summary? À revisiter!
Given that the menu changes every two weeks, and that there were already many other items we would’ve liked to try, I expect to be writing about this restaurant again very soon.
Ristorante Adriatica
Fondamenta Zattere Al Ponte Lungo, 1412, 30123 Venezia VE, Italy
