Rating: 
Summary: Moderately useful
Review: This book is obviously a labor of love-as are most books about Venice. The authors are enthusiastic amateurs about Venetian food, and are anxious to dispel the idea that one can't get good food in Venice. It is, to put it mildly, highly subjective and excessively ladies at lunch. Neither, of course, is necessarily bad - we all taste subjectively, and we all eat lunch, but my (subjective) feeling is this goes over the top. And even for a small paperback it is sparse. Forty restaurants, and a comparably sized list of "bars" are treated, but few get more than a half to a full page.
And there is less there than meets the eye - each place gets a quite brief paragraph loosely describing the type, the atmosphere, and the service; the rest of the review gushes at length about the always excellent, perfect, fantastic, flavorful, wonderful, outstanding dishes available. Such descriptions are suspect - they read like paid-for restaurant ads. One place, for example, has "several good pasta dishes, outstanding ragu, excellent risotto," a wonderful veal, and several steak dishes, "every one worth trying." Such a listing is typical. I find it hard to believe that the authors really sampled "every" steak dish, as well as the hundreds of dishes lovingly suggested throughout the book.
The problem with evaluating Venetian restaurants is that there are hundreds of them. The problem with books about Venetian restaurants is that there are dozens and dozens of them. The big, expensive, and famous places get on all the lists, more out of habit than based on regular and frequent visits, but after that there is very little agreement about the rest of the places listed. Even among Venetians there is little agreement. This book is a list of places the authors have been to that they liked - as such it may be of interest. But it is not as useful as many other such books, and should not be read as a guide that reflects any real consensus about quality- there is, unfortunately, no such book.
Rating: 
Summary: The perfect trip companion
Review: This pocket/purse sized guide is the perfect companion for the food lover as you travel through Venice. With a sampling of restaurants from numerous price levels and atmospheres, it provides a list of guaranteed good meals. Not intending to be an inclusive list of all restaurants, bars, etc in Venice - which I venture to say would be impossible considering the number of places to eat in Venice -it takes the more novel and helpful approach of providing a "best of the best" that these two women have experienced throughout their travels. The bios indicate that both women have spent considerable time in Venice over many years and experienced the myriad of good and bad meals that the city has to offer. This book offers up their favorites providing imformation regarding the best dishes they have tasted at each (the best of the best of the best you could say), as well as price, forms of payment accepted, and clear directions (always helpful in Venice!). The authors have also included personalized vignettes about some of the restaurants which, though they can be easily skipped, add a special touch to this charming guide and make one feel that the city is already a special friend. A must have for the traveler to Venice!!
Rating:
Summary: You're In the Hands of Experts
Review: Venice is known as a feast for the eyes but not for the belly--that is, it's known as a town where you can't expect to dine very well. Ordinary is what you'll get at best, and sub-par more often. Well, that's partly true, even largely true for the hapless, unarmed tourist. And Venice is quintessentially a tourist town. Live with it.Or don't, because there are plenty of good places where Venetians eat, and they are well worth discovering. Fortunately for you, Shannon Essa and Ruth Edenbaum have done that already, and they have published their secrets. In this tiny book they give extensive details on 40 restaurants and 40 bars ranging from cheap to very expensive, from drop in any time to 'reservations strongly recommended,' from calm and delightful to noisy and smoky, from cash to cards. Their attention to detail is excellent. They give you not only menu recommendations but the name of the nearest vaporetto stop AND walking directions from there. (One's gratitude knows no bounds.) They know the little secrets. Of course, everone by now has heard of the ombra, that traditional Venetian cooler, buy do you know the sgroppino? Do you know cichetti? Do you know that when ordering coffee in Venice (and everywhere else in Italy) you should forget anything that you've ever heard (or had) at Starbucks? Well, Essa and Edenbaum do. This is the sort of book that makes you wish longingly to know as much as the authors do. Well, buy it and you're on your way. Note to the publisher: Yo! Next time, publish this in pocket-size format, OK? Readers will want to carry it with them. --Bill Marsano is the wine editor of Hemispheres, the magazine of United Airlines; he visits Italy three to six times a year.
Rating:
Summary: A Marvelous Book
Review: We ate in Venice for seven days and Chow Venice never failed us. The one time we used local resident's advice we appreciated Chow Venice even more.
The authors never missed, from inexpensive pizza to top-of-the line restaurants. The directions to the restaurants were always accurate - an important feature (though we used The Blue Guide's maps, not Streetwise Venice).
I could not ask for a better book - short, precise, clear and readable.
The food in Venice is wonderful. Use this book and enjoy both the food and the book.
Rating:
Summary: BEST Venice restaurant book
Review: We have been to Venice 3 times in the past few years and will be there again next month. Before this book it was a chore to keep writing down the names of recommended restaurants and getting all the location info.
The authors of this book have made it easy to get GOOD information and DIRECTIONS (with explicit walking directions from major landmarks) about restaurant that they have SAMPLED VERY RECENTLY.
They have sampled all price ranges , located them by area, vaporetto stop etc.
I HIGHLY recommend this book, even if you are not going to Venice, it makes interesting reading !
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