La porta d'Acqua is a rather recent addition to my every other year list of "go to" places in Venice. Two years ago, I had a grilled octopus that as of March 2015, was the best dish of that year. I guess you can't go home again, because today it was good but hardly a "best of" anything. The bed of chickpea purée it sat on was quite a bit better. I also had my first mixed salad of the Spring in Italy, which had early radicchio and arugula but for a farm-to-table place, the bizarre out of season corn kernels were a weird addition. Colette had scampi and "royal shrimp" on warm arugula that was Pleasant and we shared a hazelnut pannacotta with caramel that was outstanding. Our bill, with decent bread, wine, bottled water and two espresso, one corrected, was 88€.
Moro in Mestre where we've hoteled ever since our 3 year old insisted on a swimming pool and I started running, has been a Slow Food standby for about 10 years. It's tiny, full and clearly serving both neighborhood regulars and savvy travelers, usually Asian. Tonite we saw the Maestro Lino Moro serve up his handcut beef tartare with not a hint of egg or Tobasco but instead evoo and mustard and an unknown, to me, hot sauce. But that's not what we had. I started with a plateful of medium sized fried sardines with a fantastic onion topping and Colette had a unique white artichoke heart salad with tang. I then went on to noodles with duck sauce which I shared and she terminated with a plate of four cheeses and three compotes that was simply heavenly. With great bread, 3 varieties, a required bottle of water, one of wine and a grappa, our damages came to 60 €, "the" price-quality winner of the year.
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