The glut of Italian restaurants in town means we have high expectations whenever we eat at one. When we eat at one that’s as expensive as Venezia it’s only fair that those expectations rise even higher. It certainly isn’t a bad restaurant, indeed there are plenty of things to like, not least the complimentary limoncello (it nearly blows your head off). It’s just that it can’t stand up to comparison with the other places that offer similar (if not better) food for less. The surroundings don’t particularly help; it isn’t offensive but the black and white photos, and wall filled with wine bottles, are a little too generic to give the place much atmosphere even when it’s pretty busy—its location as a long-term resident of Sukhumvit 11 mean it does get busy with a mix of locals and tourists. But the biggest problem is the food and, perhaps most surprising, it’s the signature dishes that fair worse. Take, for example, the appetizer of little neck clams in a Posileppo sauce. The clams were small, gritty and, worryingly, a number were not even open, while the sauce was distinctly watery and bland. Maybe, they just don’t do seafood well, as another signature dish the seafood cannelloni is also a letdown. The pasta was dry and bland, the seafood sparse while the green olives simply overpowered everything else. On a more positive note, other pasta dishes including the ravioli alla boscaiola are more impressive, in a rich creamy sauce that perfectly complements the juicy parcels of beef and mushroom. Indeed they do get a lot of simple things right like the Caesar salad and garlic bread. Desserts are also well executed; the tortino di cioccolat is both crisp and gooey and the ice cream refreshingly homemade. But they spoil it with the little things: failing to bring us bread at the start of the meal, not having some dishes on the menu and, above all else, those prices. Sure it’s expensive to bring in original ingredients; it’s just we know of plenty of other Italian restaurants that manage to do it while providing a nicer atmosphere and without charging B300 for a pasta dish. Corkage B200.
