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By Mara Bivone
Vini da Gigio
Fondamenta San Felice
Cannaregio 3628A
Venice
Tel: +39 041 5285140
Vini da Gigio is the evolution of the bacari (the traditional Venetian version of the meze/seafood bar) into a high level restaurant. It has the atmosphere of an old world tavern, with tastes of a past era, where all ingredients used in the  preparation of the dishes are fresh, selected and bought personally by the owners every morning. This is a family-run trattoria on the quayside of San Felicel just off the Strada Nova, very popular with both Venetians and visiting Italians, who appreciate the affable service, the well-prepared pasta, the seasonal specials such as wild duck from the lagoon, the imaginative and varied wine cellar, and the high-quality house wine. As a result, it's always packed, and one should book at least three or four days in advance. 
Run by the friendly Paolo Lazzari and his sister Laura, who oversees the kitchen; the cuisine is mostly seasonal and invariably typically Venetian: sarde in saor (marinated sardines), grilled calamari or shrimp with polenta, penne with crab and pumpkin raviolis, tagliata di agnello (breaded, fried lamb filet), baccala mantecato and toasted polenta. I get usually tempted by desserts such as almond-brittle semifreddo with chocolate sauce, but I invariably opt for the sgroppino (whipped lemon sorbet, Prosecco, and vodka) — a refreshing cocktail said to have digestive powers.
 The last time we visited, we started with a basic antipasto of grilled vegetables that was perfect in it's simplicity. We split two primi piatti between three of us - gnocchi with pesto and shrimp, and ravioli stuffed with arrugula and cheese and topped with a Taleggio cheese sauce; the sauce was so good that I used almost an entire baguette sopping it up. We all had secondi piatti - fegato alla veneziana (liver with sweet onions) and polenta for me, the tagliata di agnello for Giorgio (my significant other), and for Mario (our friend visiting from Udine), anguilla alla griglia (grilled eel), so fresh it practically swam from the plate.
Vini da Gigio has one of the best quality/price ratios in Venice.
© April 2007 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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