Eating Cheap in Venice: Cicchetti Guide
Eating well in Venice for the price of a coffee elsewhere
Venice is expensive to sleep in and cheap to eat in, if you eat the way Venetians do. The trick is the bacaro, the traditional standing wine bar, where small bites and a glass of wine cost a few euros and beat any sit-down tourist menu on both price and honesty. Here is how the numbers work.
The cicchetti crawl: EUR 12 to 18 a person
Cicchetti are the Venetian answer to tapas: baccalà mantecato (creamed salt cod on toasted polenta), sarde in saor (sweet-and-sour sardines), small octopus, crostini. Each runs EUR 1 to 3. An ombra, a small glass of wine drunk standing at the counter, is EUR 1.50 to 3. Five or six bites plus two glasses is a genuine dinner for EUR 12 to 18, one of the best-value meals in Italy.
| Item | Typical price (EUR) |
|---|---|
| One cicchetto | 1 to 3 |
| Ombra (small glass of wine) | 1.50 to 3 |
| Spritz | 4 to 6 |
| Espresso standing at the bar | 1.20 to 1.80 |
| Trattoria meal | 25 to 40 |
The tourist-trap tell
Restaurants must post their full menu outside, with the coperto (cover charge, EUR 1 to 5 a head) and any servizio (service, around 10 to 12.5 percent) disclosed. A laminated photo-menu in six languages with someone hailing you from the street is the red flag, thickest on the Lista di Spagna between the station and Rialto and right around San Marco. Read the posted menu before you sit, and stand at the bar for coffee or cicchetti to avoid both charges.
Shop the Rialto Market
The Rialto pescheria and produce market runs Tuesday to Saturday, roughly 7am to 1pm, closed Sunday and Monday. It costs nothing to walk through and is best between 7:30 and 10:30am before tour groups arrive. It is where the lagoon’s cooking starts: nero di seppia (cuttlefish ink), sarde in saor, and moeche (soft-shell lagoon crab) in spring and autumn.
Where to look, roughly
Walk ten minutes off the San Marco and station corridors and both the price and the food improve. Cannaregio and Castello have the most local bacari; Dorsoduro around Campo Santa Margherita leans student-cheap. Rather than chase a named spot, pick a busy bar with locals standing at the counter and no photos on the menu.
Read more: pair a cicchetti crawl with the sights in our things to do in Venice guide, or see the full cost breakdown on the Venice on a budget page.
Eat your big meal at lunch when set menus are cheaper, and keep dinner to a bacaro crawl.