Ristorante BIRI 5497 In Venezia

15/02/2026: Best San Daniele prosciutto in Venice, friendly service. English is spoken. Cozy dining room situated in a local square amidst a church and kids playing football. The dessert was great too.

09/02/2026: Based on the many positive reviews and the fact that the restaurant even states on its website that it's expensive but offers excellent quality food, we wanted to give it a try. Unfortunately, our expectations were not met. The Sardinian wine we chose was excellent, as were the pasta dishes, but the price-performance ratio was not right compared to other upscale restaurants in Venice. The secondi, however, were disappointing. The baked pieces of fish were extremely unusual, exceptionally gristly and difficult to remove from the bone. The scampi were fried whole, everything was very oily, and not at all enjoyable. And for the small portion, it was overpriced. The fegato (calf's liver) with polenta was of very good quality meat, but completely tasteless and unseasoned, so I had to add salt and pepper several times. Finally, the tiramisu was watery and tasted like a thin mascarpone cream. If you present yourself as a high-end restaurant in the corresponding price range, you have to deliver the expected quality, which unfortunately wasn't the case here. The ambiance is also typical of an average trattoria, with some of the banquettes stained. It's also questionable that the same cloths used for drying in the restrooms are used as napkins. The service from the younger employee was very friendly, hence the high rating, while the owner came across as somewhat impersonal and arrogant. All in all, for us, who have dined at numerous restaurants in Venice over many years, this is unfortunately not a restaurant we would return to.