Osteria Da Carla

As often happens in my travels, the best places are the ones I stumble upon by pure luck, and this spot was no exception. Our original restaurant couldn’t accommodate a table for five, but this place welcomed us and made room without hesitation. The space is small but cozy, and the food was truly exceptional. The standout dish was the octopus: easily the best I’ve ever had. It was incredibly tender, almost melting in your mouth, which is impressive considering how tough and chewy octopus can be when not cooked properly. We also ordered the ravioli, bao, lamb chops, and cacio e pepe, and every dish was thoroughly enjoyed by our group. We selected a bottle of white wine that was so good we ended up ordering a second. Overall, it was a wonderful and memorable evening for all of us.

Tucked into Corte Contarina near Museo Correr, Osteria da Carla hides a modern interior behind its timeworn façade. Once a bàcaro run by Pietro Panizzolo in 1935, later Carla’s osteria, it’s now reinvented with a chic menu. A trio of ciccheti opened the meal – shrimp on ink polenta, ray in braised leaf, and duck with orange and pecorino – thoughtful but uneven (6.5/10). Black ink bigoli with tomato, bottarga and basil had bold Veneto flavours, though the pasta was stodgy (7/10). Baccalà alla Vicentina came with pea purée and crisp polenta taragna – inventive, if slightly unbalanced (7/10). A rare solid eatery steps away from Piazza San Marco.

I have eaten in the best restaurants around the world. 🌎 I love good food, but the level of dining of this restaurant was out of this world. The delicate way of preparing each dish with the explosion of flavors in your mouth is just very satisfying . I urge everyone to try this place. Make sure you reserve in www.osteriadacarla.it . You will not regret this. I urge the chef to compete for Michelin stars ⭐️ . My entire family and I give him ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Thank you for such great food. PS :Deserts, !!!! The best ever.

A very pleasant environment in the heart of the city. The room is small but cosy. A few tables outside. Friendly staff, speaks English. The menu is small but sufficient. Good wine list. Food is tasty, nice-looking. Prices a little higher than average. However, the quality of the food is good value for money.

Hidden gem strategically proximate to great shopping. We stopped for lunch and were impressed with great food and very attentive service. Every element on our plates was executed perfectly. We didn't have room for dessert, but highly recommend based on what we saw.

It's a hidden gems restaurant. It's definitely worth to eat there. Sashimi Salmon is one of the best choice. We spent 166€ for 3 people, 2 courses with a good bottle of wine. Very recommend.

The restaurant is somewhat hidden from the tourist areas in a side alley, but that's a big plus for us. The food was great, the staff was very friendly, the vibe was nice. It's a small, but cozy place. I definitely recommend it! The chocolate sphere dessert was very special, exciting combination of sweet and salty.

Luckily stumbled across this quaint, beautiful restaurant who happened to have a corner table for 4. It was a perfect last meal in Venice. Their menu was well thought out with excellently re-interpreted and executed classic dishes. The meal was delicious, the desserts too and the service was perfect. One to remember and return for.

This small restaurant is tucked away on the corner of a smaller side street just off of the much busier Calle Frezzeria. They have a few outdoor tables and a cosy interior. The food was solid, very beautifully plated. The bread was very fresh - soft interior and crusty exterior! Our favourite dish was the Parccheti with Squid Ink. The Cacio e Pepe Ravioli with raw shrimps was also quite nice, although the filling was a tad on the salty side. Service was decent and efficient as well. Overall a solid choice if you're looking for a place to eat with a slightly more upscale vibe without breaking the bank.

We arrived without a reservation but were seated immediately. Drinks ordered, water poured and menus handed out. We started with the bao buns and aged prosciutto with an infused butter. My daughter like the buns, I thought then buns were dense but the filling was good. The prosciutto was excellent. Next we ordered a prawn salad and cacio e pepe ravioli with muscles that sat in a tomato water. The prawn salad was greens with the prawns. Dollops of yogurt and avocado cream were placed in the dish so you could swipe them up with each bite. Crispy wontons in lieu of croutons gave the salad a nice crunch. The ravioli was served in a shellfish infused tomato water with shaved celery on top and little tiny baby mussels. I thought the tomato water cut the overly salty filling, my daughter disagreed and thought it was too much salt. The restaurant is tiny but well decorated. The service was bad. 3 servers, 2 tables and alls they did was chit chat up front to each other. The second glass of wine that was ordered was never delivered. Overall good food bad service

The food was probably the best we had in Venice...now the service was disappointing. While I understand Italians have a custom of not adding cheese to their pasta dishes, as someone who was raised in putting cheese on every pasta dish- including dishes with pasta and fish like a fruitti di mare, if the client who is paying the dish asks for a cheese on the side for a dish, just obey to it, don't give me a lecture on how it's disrespecting the dish, because at the end of the day who is paying for the meal, the tourist, not the waiter. Don't expect great friendly service from them, but hats off to the chef for the dishes.

Excellent food! Best we had while traveling in Europe!! We had some appetizers, pasta, and dessert. Recommended by locals while shopping.

The duck was fabulous, as was the tuna! We enjoyed the quiet side street outdoor seating with our reservation. Tiramisu was great as well!

More like 4.5 stars! If you ever been to Venice, you know then that there are many many restaurants hidden amongst the maze of it's streets. If you like tappas and you want to be close to St Marc Basilica not far from it's high end fashion district then this is a great place. You would need to reserve early in the day to make a reservation for dinner. The owner also is their chef and boy we were treated to great wine selection. In fact, they let us taste a few before we made our local red wine selection. Great for romantic and small groups. $$$

We tried to walk in one evening and couldn't get a table, so we made a reservation for two days later. That turned out to be the best decision of our three weeks in Italy. Quite simply, the meal here was as good as any meal we have had anywhere in the world. The menu is varied and, I dare say, offers something for everyone. My foie gras was fantastic. Somewhat of a cross between a pate and a mousse, the flavor was intense, the texture sublime, and the portion size excellent for the price. I followed the foie gras with shredded king crab with rice noodles, an absolutely perfectly poached egg (firm white with hot runny yolk), and asparagus. I thought after the foie gras that the rest of the meal would have to be "down hill." I thought wrong. This was sublime. Surely, after those two dishes, there must be something coming that wouldn't be as good. Wrong, again! I ordered the linguini in tomato cream with roe, pistachio and citrus peel. I'll just say, sheer perfection. This entire experience would have been absolutely perfect except for two, incredibly minor things: when we asked the waiter for a wine suggestion (saying we wanted an orange or a white wine) he "chose" the most expensive in each category. Not that they were really expensive, just that we have always had waiters "choose" mid-price wines or at least ask about price points. The other minor faux pas was our first course arriving before we had finished out cocktails. Otherwise, the evening was absolutely perfect in terms of food, pacing of service, and ambience. This is a tiny place with 24 seats inside, so make a reservation and be prepared to enjoy what will perhaps be the best meal ever.

Our entire family just arrived in Venice & went to eat lunch. The waiter said he could not seat a family of nine. I told him we would seat 4 and 5 or could break It up however It was convenient. He looked down his nose at us and suggested that we should first check the menu and prices. Regardless of the quality or ambiance of this restaurant, I wouldn't spend a Euro here. We have been traveling in Italy for seven days and this was not only rude, but an error in judgment of our ability to purchase his product. Please get over yourselves.

We were walking around just hoping to find good food and this restaurant was amazing. The wine, the food, the atmosphere and the service was amazing. We had three Cichletti as appetizers: yellow tomato soup with grilled octopus, smoked swordfish wrapped around sweet cream and grapes, and tuna over tiny fennel. All of them exceeded out expectations. I had the pork and my wife had the calamari with potatoes and eggplant. Again we were wowed with the flavors and presentation. I had the pannecotta and my wife had the special cannoli. These were a perfect end to our meal. If we lived near here we would be regulars.

Several years ago I ate here with my family. If I'd been Yelping at the time, I'd have given it five stars for authentic local cuisine, friendly atmosphere, and reasonable (although not cheap) prices. I came back expecting the same. Osteria da Carla has changed. The food, decor, and service is more precious and pretentious than it used to be. The food was good: a plate of polenta dotted with several kinds of local seafood; squash soup; potato-filled ravioli; and flat noodles with duck confit. The four of us shared an appetizer consisting of a polenta cup filled with melted cheese and three pieces of crisp prosciutto. We drank water and had no dessert. Still the bill came to $97 for the four of us. The food was good but not roll-your-eyes delicious like I remember (or like the food we had at the very pedestrian Ristorante da Provolo just a few blocks on the other side of Piazza San Marco.) The decor has been updated to a sort of rustic minimalism, and service was adequate but not exceptionally friendly or helpful--perhaps even a little snooty. Next time in Venice I may try something else.

This osteria has a good location and venue quite charming, but unfortunately, I found the food to be very bland. The fish and scallops were very overcooked. The ricotta appetizer was very bland. And the dessert had used frozen (and therefore thawed) strawberries. By the way, strawberry season was in full bloom and fresh strawberries were being sold all over the place. So biting down into a mushy, thawed strawberry was very unpleasant. For those that are traveling to Italy and want good Italian food, this is not the place.

I was very unpleasantly surprised by this "pebble" if you will... Very far from what I would refer to as a gem. There is one waitress that is probably so spent by the fact that she works in the restaurant all day and night, with no help. She is very amicable and actually a Venetian, she is the single best part of the restaurant. She recommended a delicious bottle of Italian red wine for 18 euros. This is the only part of the dinner that I enjoyed. They did serve us some Venetian tapas that had clearly been sitting out, including those with fish. These were not palettable. Neither was my pasta- short pasta with mussels and CANNED asparagus. Need I say more? My brother got the highly recommended lamb chop. I refused to try it. He refused to finish it. We also got the ricotta and spinach ravioli. Dry in canned red sauce. Save yourself. Read the review. Go to osteria San Marco, you'll love it and you'll be glad you read this. The restaurant is cute updated and quaint, but unfortunately restaurants are more about food than ambience.

We loved everything!!!! The food is exquisite! Absolutly wonderfull! Keep up the good work!

We stumbled on this osteria at the end of the alley and had a wonderful meal. Service was attentive yet relaxed. The food was fresh and well prepared. By the end of our meal we all agreed that our lucky find was a first rate restaurant.

Would give 4.5 if I could. All dishes were consistently good. A bit pricy and formal with excellent service.

What a great gem to find! We were looking for a nontourist trap lunch. Off a major busy fairway, this quaint, clean, tiny restaurant has great food. We had mussels with pasta, greek salad with feta cheese, and pasta with mozzarella balls, tomatoes and basil. They change some of their menu items daily, to suit the need of the taste of the day. All were excellent helping sizes. The food was fresh, and very tasty! Our waitress said the brick walled, wood beamed restaurant was built in the 1400s! I would definitely go back to see what they have to offer the next day!

We came here for appertivo, glass of red wine, still water, and an assortment of the tapas from their case. Very good mixture of textures and flavors. We sat outside in the alley.

Had an amazing lunch here! Our waiter Francesco was so kind and helpful and absolutely adorable. Everyone loved the food, loved the service, and loved the experience. Was a bit hard to find but definitely worth the search!