Restaurants in Venice. Le Antiche Carampane: eat like the locals in venice.

Last visit : May 2025

Price : €€€€/€€€€€

My rating : 8/10

Web : https://www.antichecarampane.com/it/

Phone : +39 0415240165

Email: info@antichecarampane.com

In a city that lives (and often survives) to the rhythm of mass tourism, Le Antiche Carampane represents a bastion of authenticity, a trattoria that resists prefabricated folklore and maintains a strong bond with the most genuine lagoon cuisine. There are no menus translated into five languages or dishes displayed in the window: here, the cooking is for those who know how to listen to the dialect of the ingredients, the rhythm of the seasons and the salty breath of the lagoon.

I love Venice; I'm not saying anything sensational, I wonder if there is a single person in the world who, seeing Venice, has not been enchanted by it. As a lover of the sea, I cannot help but deeply love the city that more than any other in the world has pushed the boundary between land and sea to the extreme, elevating the relationship of the human being with a theoretically alien and hostile territory with which, however, man has long learned to coexist; and if the continuous dialogue with the sea is part of the very essence of Venice, it could not be otherwise for its cuisine, where seafood plays a decisive role. Venetian cuisine is as much a paradox as the city itself; the brackish and murky waters of Venice, at first sight, do not seem the ideal environment to draw exquisite products from which to elaborate delicious dishes, and yet the lagoon cuisine often manages to surpass in delicacy the seafood cuisine of other Italian regions that have been favored by the proximity of crystalline and lush seas.

Another seemingly counterintuitive thing is that Venice, a city suffocating under mass tourism and depopulation, invaded by junk and souvenir shops, despite being full of low-profile restaurants dedicated exclusively to fleecing tourists with a low-quality pseudo-Italian cuisine, proudly preserves its own traditional catering, even if it is difficult to find (this is less true in Florence, the other great Italian art city, where in the historic center the ratio between tourist traps and authentic places is overwhelming in favor of the former).

Le Antiche Carampane is a restaurant that has stood the test of time for decades, refusing to follow trends and continuing to offer true, authentic, genuine lagoon cuisine.

The context: a lively and authentic Venice

The restaurant is located in a secluded street in San Polo, once frequented — as the name itself recalls — by the “carampane,” the courtesans of the Serenissima. Today, between the thick walls and low lights, you can breathe in a Venice that has no need for disguises. The atmosphere is intimate, the furnishings authentic, the service familiar but competent, and the wine list reflects the same philosophy as the dishes: territory, small producers, character.

Ingredients and gardens: genuineness as a principle

As soon as you sit down you are greeted with a small welcome dish of fried schie (juvenile shrimps), ideal for preparing your palate for the flavours of the lagoon.

Once the menu is opened, the menu speaks clearly, and not just for the names. From the vegetables of the “Osti in Orto” of Sant'Erasmo (the garden of Venice par excellence), to the fish of the day according to the Rialto market, everything revolves around freshness and proximity. There is no mannerism in the dish, only respect. And the result is evident: fettuccine with Granseola that smell of the sea and home, spaghetti in sauce with golden onion and anchovies from the Gulf of Trieste, prepared according to a recipe that needs no updating.

It is impossible not to start with "La tradizione", the mixed appetizers that combines a taste of typical dishes of the lagoon cuisine, in particular the sarde in saor (fried sardines, dressed with sweet-and-sour onions, pine nuts, and raisins) and the creamed cod; I only found the presence of the tuna tataki out of place, not so much because some Taliban law forbids a Venetian restaurant to include in its menu a dish that has almost nothing to do with the Venetian tradition, but because I doubt that the raw material came from the Adriatic and much less from the lagoon; despite this, the tuna tataki was exquisite, but it was the other dishes that stood out for the freshness of the raw materials.

Another almost obligatory choice is the cuttlefish in black ink with white polenta; here you don't reach the unrivaled heights that I reached in the trattoria in Ortigia , but the flavor of the cuttlefish combined with the sweetness of the white polenta evokes lagoon memories like a Proustian petite madeleine and it's inevitable to close your eyes and think "I'm really in Venice".

Moeche: the peak of the lagoon

But there is one dish in particular that deserves a special mention: moeche , when present. For those who don't know them, they are small green crabs from the lagoon that, during the spring and autumn moulting period, lose their shell and are fished when they are still "soft", very tender. They are eaten whole, fried, and represent one of the greatest expressions of Venetian gastronomy. Few ingredients, maximum yield: crunchy, salty, sweetish, moeche are an identity experience, difficult to explain and impossible to forget. They are not cheap (I wouldn't be surprised to see them listed on Etoro together with gold and oil) - and they don't have to be. They are rare, seasonal, and they tell the slow pace of the lagoon better than any tourist guide.

A note of color: in January I was in Yucatan, in Cozumel, and in a small gourmet restaurant I was offered a fried crab that was, unknowingly, in all respects, a moeca; I would never have expected that Mayan cuisine had points of contact with that of the Venetian lagoon.

The sweets

Even the desserts, all homemade by Andrea, follow the same logic: pavlova with Greek yogurt and berries, gianduia whipped with fresh cream, artisanal biscuits. Each preparation is an exercise in balance between rusticity and elegance, without giving in to fashion.

On my last visit, my wife and I tried a sorbet with nutmeg, pepper and grated lemon and a tiramisu; the first one was different from a common sgroppino (a sorbet flavored with vodka and lemon juice) for its spicy notes, I found it excellent but not memorable, while the tiramisu was very close to perfection.

The toilet

An honorable mention goes to the toilet, which opens directly onto the street; I don't recall having seen anything like it on any continent; another touch of Venetian eccentricity that contributes to making this place picturesque.

Restaurants in Venice: Le Antiche Carampane. Conclusions.

Le Antiche Carampane is not simply a good trattoria: it is a lesson in gastronomic coherence. Every dish, every ingredient, every choice reveals a precise desire: that of not transforming Venetian cuisine into a postcard caricature. It is the right place for those seeking an authentic Venice, made of vegetable gardens, fishing nets and recipes that have passed through the centuries without the need for makeup. An essential stop for those who love local cuisine, and above all for those who are not in a hurry. Because here, every bite deserves to be listened to.