Generally speaking, we have found that we have made our best dining and drinking decisions on this trip after research ahead of time. When we just wander around a town and pick a place just based upon the menu hanging outside we tend to make tasteless and overpriced mistakes. The opposite was true while looking for good restaurants in Venice though, which was a good thing because we spent a lot of time wandering and lost.
One of the best examples of this was La Mascareta Venice.
We started out our evening from our apartment with our map in hand, determinedly walking to another restaurant all together. After about an hour of being lost and with darkness setting in, we had found ourselves ducking into a random bar for a break from being lost and to have a drink. The bartender recommended La Mascareta as it was just around the corner. We stumbled around the corner, headed inside, and it was only when I laid eyes on the man behind the bar wearing a sparkly green waistcoat that it hit me: La Mascareta was featured on Jamie Oliver’s Italy show!
We headed in intending to just have a drink and look around as it’s always fun to be somewhere you have seen on TV, especially when it’s of Jamie Oliver fame (you know what a fan I am). We sat at the bar and had some of the prosecco that this part of Italy is famous for. Soon, we saw the famous owner of La Mascareta behind the bar making “cutting boards” of Italian meats and cheeses. He was featured on the Jamie Oliver show and is famous for his party trick of being able to open bottles of prosecco with a sword (although very rarely these days and only for a fee). It didn’t take long for us to decide we wanted one of those cutting boards for ourselves and a bottle of prosecco to accompany it. The prosecco was delicious, as were the meats and cheeses; my only criticism would have been that there could have been more cheese in the selection as we were only treated to about four slices on our board.
We finished off with a portion of the homemade tiramisu. I’m not normally a fan of tiramisu as often it can be too creamy, too coffee-flavoured or just plain tasteless, but when it’s done right, as this one was, it was dreamy heaven.
This bar/restaurant isn’t the cheapest place for drinks or food by any means, but you can find good apertivos if you order glasses of the prosecco or wine, and the food is of a really good standard. Plus, this is Venice; nothing here is cheap.
But the experience itself for us was well worth it and it was without a doubt our best meal out in Venice. And all totally by accident.
If you follow in our foodsteps:
- La Mascareta is located at Localita Castello 5183, Venice
We stayed in Venice as a guest of GoWithOh, who provided us with a wonderful city centre apartment as part of my surprise birthday weekend.
Leave a Reply