Where to Eat in Burano: Typical Restaurants and Dishes to Try

Are you thinking of taking a break during your visit to enjoy a nice meal in Burano? Well, that’s a great idea!

On the island not only the little houses, taste has its colors too! Great flavors await you if you choose to stop here for a culinary break.

Typical Buranella cuisine is mainly seafood, but meat lovers cannot be disappointed either! Not to mention its typical cookies.

Let me tell you something: eating well in Burano is easy because there are many traditional dishes that will leave you speechless!

Read on to find out where to eat in Burano so you can choose the place that suits your taste!

Book your visit to Burano and experience a journey through flavors, discovering traditional dishes that belong to the history of the lagoon!

Best restaurants in Burano

Burano canal with colorful cottage features | ID 33513782 @ Stevanzz | Dreamstime.com

Want to know where to eat well in Burano? Below is a selection of the best restaurants chosen just for you!

• Osteria al Fureghin: located in Sestiere S. Martino Sinistra, 888, is an eatery that offers typical Burano cuisine, specializing in fish dishes. A very colorful place, also equipped with outdoor tables, it knows how to make its guests happy with amazing dishes and average prices

• Trattoria Da Romano: You could say it is an institution on the island! A historic establishment that was established in 1920 and has been carrying on the traditional cuisine of Burano for four generations now. Just think that initially this place was a kind of bazaar frequented by locals and offered dishes for fishermen on their return. You can find it at Via Baldassarre Galuppi, 221 and it is a seafood restaurant where you can feel like family!

• Trattoria al Gatto Nero: are you a pasta lover? This is the place for you! This trattoria serves fresh homemade pasta, all made with fish. A typical Burano cottage with a blue facade and outdoor tables where you can eat high quality dishes, located at 88 Giudecca Street. A word of advice? Eat in company because the restaurant provides many dishes for a minimum of two people: more taste and less expense with the freshest fish!

• Ristorantino al Museo: in Piazza Baldassarre Galuppi, 113/115, it is right in front of the famous Lace Museum. A cozy place where you can eat both fish and meat, all typical dishes! Recommended if you want to taste the renowned bigoli in sauce typical of the Venetian lagoon! Lots of choice and more than fair prices.

• Ai Banky: a fresh and youthful business, opened recently but by experienced hands. The restaurant, in fact, offers “cicchetti,” or dishes characterized by small quantities: the managers’ 20 years of experience in a fish market ensures excellent choice and processing of raw materials. Innovation and tradition, therefore, come together: light and minute dishes to be enjoyed while drinking local wines or the typical Venetian prosecco. You will find skewers of squid, shrimp, grilled cuttlefish, fillets of different types of fish and much more, in addition to the classic mixed fritto. A place suitable both for eating and for a nice aperitif or for those who want to try different types of fish: many small plates, many tastings!

What to eat in Burano: the most authentic dishes

Spaghetti with Burano fish sauce | ID 22949488 © Stocksnapper | Dreamstime.com

There are many typical dishes of Burano cuisine. The main ingredient, of course, is fish, the undisputed protagonist of the most traditional recipes for centuries now.

Among the most traditional dishes are Baccalà mantecato and Sarde in saor, sardines fried and marinated in vinegar and onion.

To end the list of fish-based first courses, one cannot miss risotto di gò, once a poor dish due to the abundance of goby in the lagoon, the fish used and from which the risotto takes its name.

Today it has become a prized dish because of the demand and the smaller catch available. Think of it as a recipe so ingrained in the island’s history that the risotto is also called “alla buranella.”

If you want to try something different and very tasty, but still belonging to the local cuisine, I recommend bigoli in salsa: a typical pasta similar to spaghetti but with a porous surface.

This characteristic allows them to “catch” the classic sauce with which they are served made of stewed onion and anchovies.

As for the main courses, it is always fish that “ticks the box”: you should not miss the cuttlefish col nero, a specialty of Burano.

To prepare cuttlefish according to this recipe, you have to cook them in their ink, for a special and very tasty dish.

Whichever restaurant you choose to sit in, you will have one guarantee: fritto misto di pesce! It will be hard to find another place in the world where you can eat this dish at the same level!

There is, finally, one last dish characteristic of the lagoon: the Bisato in tecia. In other parts of Italy it is actually known as anguilla alla Vallesana, and it is a historic recipe in the Venetian diet.

Typical of wet and cold areas, it is a dish with a strong and intense flavor, capable of warming you up and especially suitable if you decide to plan your visit in a winter month.

But a self-respecting meal must always end with a dessert! Don’t worry, Burano will not leave you high and dry.

On this island you will find a typical cookie named Bussolà, made in the shape of an esse and prepared with lots of egg yolks, flour and plenty of butter.

Bussolà cookies, a traditional product of Burano | ID 311136584 © Iryna Budanova | Dreamstime.com

They are all nutritious ingredients: in fact, originally these cookies were made by sailors’ wives for their husbands when they planned to be out many hours to go fishing.

Later they became Easter treats and many versions ofthem were born : flavored with lemon, rum, vanilla..

Today you can find them all over the lagoon and at any time of the year and they are delicacies that are now part of the Venetian tradition.

Restaurants with a view and intimate venues

There are many restaurants on the island that offer exciting views in which to spend quality time eating.

For example, I suggest the Riva Rosa Ristorante – Enoteca, which offers homemade bread and pasta as well as fresh fish of the day to pair with fine selections of traditional wine.

This restaurant offers the opportunity to eat with a view of the canal right from the tables, but there is a real hidden gem: do you want a magical and intimate moment?

The Riva Rosa offers a unique opportunity: reserve the only table on a private terrace with a breathtaking view, immersed in a romantic atmosphere!

If, on the other hand, you wish to stay close to the canal and eat with your feet almost touching the surface of the water, then Ristorante Da Forner is for you!

Typical Buranella cuisine, with seafood specialties, right on the canal just a few steps from the central Piazza Galuppi.

Frequently asked questions

Conclusions

We have come to the concluding part of this article in which I have told you what you need to know for a nice meal in Burano.

First of all, I have provided you with a list of inviting little restaurants popular with visitors where you can taste typical dishes.

We also found out which places have the most attractive locations in which to stop for a lunch capable of combining relaxation, pleasantness and taste.

You were able to read what are the culinary traditions and the most characteristic recipes of Buranella cuisine: I explained how fish is the undisputed king on this island.

Finally, I answered some of the most frequently asked questions regarding Burano cuisine and the best places to eat.

And have you tasted some of the dishes I mentioned? Which was your favorite or which one inspires you the most? Tell me yours in the comments!

Burano is color and taste: a place where treating yourself to a stop means experiencing a truly magical moment! Book your visit and come discover the flavors of the lagoon!