Ai Assassini - Review - San Marco - Venice - The Infatuation

"The area around Piazza San Marco and the Fenice opera house is filled with bland but somehow still expensive dining options. Ai Assassini is one of the few exceptions. Come for a lunch with a group or a romantic dinner for two, as there’ll probably be jazz playing on vinyl but never in a way that feels stuffy. Housemade pasta is what you want—during the winter, it’s tossed in butter with a flurry of white truffles, while in the spring, it’s swirled with sea bass roe and topped with crispy slivers of Sant’Erasmo artichokes. The seafood comes from the lagoon and the Adriatic, and they always treat it right. We’re talking about simply prepared sweet tiny shrimps called mazzancolle, or a crispy wedge of grey mullet." - Gillian McGuire