You are in Venice…dropped your bags at your hotel and its exiciting to wander all the little walkways, and you pass a place & think “That looks busy (or good,) we’ll remember it & come back if we don’t find anything else” …only it doesn’t work that way in Venice. You better grab a card & hope it has decent directions on it so you find your way back.
We made it a point to find our way back to Taverna San Lio because of the quaint atmosphere inside & on the sidewalk. Since we were on our honeymoon we had already decided price did not matter- which should just be your MO in Venice, period.
We ordered some fried king prawns for primi, a shared scallop risoto for secondi, and salted sea bass and potatoes for our main. How pleasantly suprised were were with our Italian speaking only team of servers bringing an complimentary Gazpacho to start. Timed perfectly come the fried king prawns….4 beautiful big butterflied prawns (sans shells) splayed on a plate and just crispy on the edges amongst delicate sauces of different colors. Enter some homemade crunchy breadsticks. After sipping some red wine, on to the just made for 2 scallop risotto…how will we ever eat the fish coming? Out comes the whole sea bass complete with head crusted in chunky sea salt on a wooden plank. The server artfully takes 2 large spoons and shifts the slat to the side, discretely removes the head & tail, and begins to open the fish & cut the moist fish from its bones. The server places all the fish on a clean plate and mindfully adds the roasted small potatoes around it in a circle. I was dying for greens, so the stadard, but generous, Insalata Mista comes at the end. Eveything has been far too succulent to forgo dessert. Creme Brulee with a little shot glass on the side of warmed winter berries and a warm chocolate torte with just a subtle hint of chili pepper with homemade vanilla bean gelato melting off the side. Damn, this is our last night here.