LA ZUCCA: THIS VEGETABLE-FOCUSED RESTAURANT IN VENICE SHOULD BE ON YOUR LIST WHETHER YOU ARE VEGETARIAN OR NOT
The Cost -$37 per person
The Atmosphere – With a really adorable interior featuring oak wood with green tones and the ability to arrive at the restaurant by foot or by boat, La Zucca truly sets the scene for a delightful Venetian meal despite not offering canal views. The restaurant is quite small, seating about 30 people inside and about 12 outside only when the weather permits. Bookings can be made by calling the restaurant and we would highly recommend doing so as many people get turned away at the door without one.
La Zucca, which means “the pumpkin” in Italian, is not a vegetarian restaurant but the menu is largely comprised of vegetarian dishes with a few meat options here and there. While the restaurant only offers an Italian-language menu, it does provide you with a list of food words in English and their translations into Italian. So for a break from the typical seafood-heavy Venetian meal, and to brush up on my Italian food vocabulary, we went to La Zucca for lunch on a brisk, November day.
The Order – Peperonata Con Melanzane, Gratin di Patate e Zucca, Porri Gratinati Al Gorgonzola, Lasagna Al Forno con Funghi, Pollo Al Curry, and a Panna Cotta.
The Fantastic - Though it is technically a side dish, the Peperonata Con Melanzane was a wonderful way to start the meal. The eggplant and red peppers were stewed together with onions and a fantastic olive oil to create a really lovely combination of flavors out of the soaked, soft vegetables. This modified classic Southern Italian dish was done exceptionally well.
For those that say that vegetarian dishes don’t fill them up, there’s the Gratin di Patate e Zucca. Think of a two-layered cake with a layer of somewhat traditional potatoes au gratin with parmesan cheese instead of gruyere on top with a layer of cooked pumpkin below it. It’s a solid, heavy side dish that is sure to satisfy with its incredible taste and flavor. We think the peperonata and the gratin, two of La Zucca’s signature side dishes that can easily be ordered as appetizers, should be ordered on every trip to the restaurant.
The Great - While it didn’t rise to the level of the peperonata or the gratin, the final side that we ordered as an appetizer was the Porri Gratinati al Gorgonzola and it was very tasty. In this dish, shredded pieces of gorgonzola lie atop cooked leeks to make for a more untraditional gratin. The result was a non-overpowering blue cheese flavor with delicious leeks and the combination was greatly enjoyed; it was a great way to end the first stage of the meal.
For the meal’s main course, we ordered two dishes - Lasagna Al Forno con Funghi and Pollo Al Curry - and both also earned Great ratings. While there is pasta in the lasagna, all you see when you look at this dish are layers of mushrooms, which certainly isn’t a bad thing if you enjoy them; this is not the dish for you if you don’t. The lasagna has a cream sauce that is not light but that tastes great. It also comes with some radicchio and an herb oil drizzled on the plate. It was yet another nicely done vegetarian dish that I would order again in a heartbeat.
For the other main course, we decided to break with the all-vegetarian meal and went with the Pollo al Curry which came with sides of cooked lentils and white rice. While this is certainly not a typical Venetian or Italian dish, the curry was surprisingly good, and the dish not only offered flavors that are not easy to come by in Italy but also the opportunity to get some meat into the meal. The lentils were also prepared nicely and while it is not typical to have lentils on a plate of Thai-style curry, I enjoyed them.
While we were absolutely stuffed by the time we finished the main courses, we still went on and ordered the Panna Cotta, because when I have a meal that good from beginning to end, I would have serious FOMO if I did not order dessert. The panna cotta came with a salted caramel drizzle, two slices of green apple, and a mint leaf on the side. It was very silky and smooth and had a nice flavor to it but the star of the show here was the salted caramel drizzle which was excellent. Would we have walked away from La Zucca completely satisfied if we hadn’t ordered dessert? Yes. Do I regret ordering a relatively light dessert to end the meal? No.
The Verdict – La Zucca may be the best spot for a vegetarian meal in Venice but that certainly doesn’t mean it isn’t a wonderful place for a meat eater to enjoy excellent vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. The reasonably priced, nicely decorated, centrally located osteria should absolutely be on your list of spots to eat at for lunch or dinner – just make sure to book in advance or you may not get that chance.