Tea Time: Venice Day 2 = 2 Lunches! Al Paradiso Ristorante and Muro Venezia

   Yes, that's right, we actually ate TWO lunches on our second day in Venice. Along with dessert for the first lunch, and gelato following the second lunch. The eating frenzy had begun.
Things started off innocently enough....after our rather blah touristy Christmas dinner the night before, we wanted a proper (aka expensive, if you're in Venice) Italian meal. Seeing as our maps weren't good for much other than frustration, our choices were a bit limited to restaurants we could find. Luckily enough, two of the restaraunts I'd seen recommended online and in guidebooks were both near the Rialto Bridge, just off the west side of the Grand Canal. I figured that we couldn't possibly get lost finding at least one of the two, so off we went.
First stop, we headed for Trattoria alla Madonna, on Calle alla Madonna. Very original restaurant name, I know, but it seems like a lot of businesses in Italy name themselves after the street they're located on. Easy to remember, at least. We did find Calle alla Madonna easily enough, but the trattoria was closed for some reason! There was an official-looking notice on the door, and we saw a couple of other confused-looking tourists nearby, so it was definitely the right place. I've since tried to check online to see if they were just closed for the holiday or something, but there's been nothing in English to give any clue. Whatever the case, seems like it gets mixed reviews, either rave or rant and can be very croweded with tight seating. Just my overall impression from checking various websites, however.
We then headed over to Calle del Paradiso, hoping that al Paradiso Ristorante would be open. I'd seen online that they were supposed to have great fish and seafood, always a plus in my book. As luck would have it, we arrived just as they were opening, and there was a non-reserved table available. Note: it's probably best to make reservations for lunch/dinner, especially at the better restaurants. Paradiso only seated 22 indoors, and most of the tables had been reserved even though it was the off season. Usually your hotel concierge will happily phone in a reservation if you ask, no problem.
The menu was in Italian, English, and Japanese, which vastly helped our ordering (and was somewhat reassuring as to the quality of food, seeing as Japanese tend to frequent good restaurants!). The staff spoke some English, and the owner himself was there too and spoke very fluently with us, again a relief since my Italian is limited mostly to: 'Ciao', 'Scuzzi', and 'Gelato'!
Everyone was very couteous and actually seemed to enjoy seeing Keila (the owner kept calling her beautiful and blowing her kisses), although it's not exactly the type of place I was comfortable taking a baby to (no high chairs, either). Luckily, most of the clientele didn't arrive until we were on dessert and Keila was really pretty good, so it wasn't an issue. I definitely wouldn't want to take her there in the evening and ruin someone's romantic dinner, however!
We ended up ordering 1 appetizer to share, and then a pasta dish and a fish dish, also to share. The owner was kind enough to have everything put onto separate plates for us, too. The appetizer was octopus with a creamy polenta sauce, wonderful! Very rich, so a half portion was just right. Pasta was a sort of seafood lasagna type dish if I remember correctly, again very good. From the fish section of the menu, we selected pasta made with black squid ink (squid included). It too came with the creamy polenta so ended up being almost the same as our appetizer. It tasted great, but I think in retrospect we should've gotten something a bit different! The only thing that was somewhat disappointing with the meal was dessert. Yuki wanted tiramisu, so we again got one to split. It came in a pre-made little edible dessert cup (sort of ice cream cone-like) and wasn't all that good in comparison to the rest of the meal. Too bad, because everything else was superb! We did pay for such good food, however: just to give you an idea of the prices in Venice, the bill came to 96 euros! Ouch. That was for: a half bottle of house wine, a bottle of still water, 1 appetizer, 1 pasta dish, 1 fish dish, a cappucino, and the tiramisu. Plus the 15% service charge. (Service charges in Italian restaurants are usually 12-15% from what I saw). More than what I was really comforable spending, but we tend to do at least one really nice meal on vacation, so we figured that would be it.
After leaving Al Paradiso, we wandered over towards the Fish Market, also near Rialto Bridge. Now, I'd read online about how on Saturdays, these 2 guys set up a stand in one of the piazzas and sell a plate of the day along with a glass of wine for lunch. We just so happened to stumble upon Muro Venezia, which is the restaurant that hosts this little outdoor catering service.
We actually wandered by it once and kept walking, seeing as we'd just eaten lunch. Yuki and I didn't say much, but I think we were both eyeballing it, since a few minutes later, one of us suggested going back by it. Right as we gave in to temptation and got in line, a piping hot and fresh batch of seafood was brought out, so it was perfect timing. We did behave a bit and just got one plate. Even though I wasn't really hungry, I'm glad that we did try it. Great seafood! If you're looking for a good, cheap, and quick lunch while in Venice (no cover or service charge either), that's definitely the way to go!
The site I checked mentions that Muro serves its plate of the day on Saturdays (prices range from 7-10 euros depending on the meal), but maybe we got lucky since Monday 26th of December was a holiday? If you're interested in cheaper eats while in Venice, here's the link (it's a bit hard to see, but just click around below here if you're having a hard time finding it): http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/jan/21/cheap-restaurants-venice-food-italy
I'm not sure how current this info is, since it's from 2009, but it's worth having a look at if you're heading to Venice any time soon.

                                              Al Paradiso Ristorante