Ah, Venice! There are certain places around the world that their very name conjures a sense of glitz, glamour, opulence, and luxury. Monte Carlo, New York, St Tropez, Paris, the Amalfi Coast, Birmingham. OK, maybe the last one isn’t true… When we were looking for a venue for somewhere to celebrate the occasion of our 15th wedding anniversary, Venice just felt like a great fit. I was last there in my early 20s as a student backpacking around Europe with some friends, and Isabelle had never visited. Before we arrived at Venice we had packed a lot else into our trip – something that we like to do on our holidays – a week’s hiking in the Dolomites; a few days in Süd-Tyrol / Alto Adige (depending on your linguistic preferences) taking in the wines of this Italo-Germanic enclave. Then we arrived into Venice…
Many place describe themselves as ‘the Venice of [insert country’s name]’ – including Birmingham, which will always remind people that it has more canals than Venice! However, nowhere is really like Venice. Its unique atmosphere. The narrow, windy streets that can feel almost like a north-African souk as you wend your way round them. The unbelievable drama of all of these pretty canals around every corner. We spent three happy days exploring pretty much every corner of this unique and historic city – which appealed tremendously to the historian in me.
However, it was time for the serious business. An anniversary dinner to match the significance of our 15th wedding anniversary. Where to go?
After looking at a few options we decided to go to Oro situated in Hotel Cipriani. One of the reasons that I chose this as the hotel is not actually situated on the main island of Venice. You need to get a boat to Giudecca island (where the hotel is situated) from Piazza San Marco. Arriving to the restaurant by private boat certainly helped with the feeling of being part of the glitterati!
This hotel is legendary and is closely associated with the rich and famous. It was the location that is accredited with creating the Bellini – a tribute by Giuseppe Cipriani to the eponymous 17th century Venetian artist. It has looked after many a celebrity. We happened to be there during the Venice film festival and a quick glance at their Instagram page showed that in the days before we came for dinner the hotel had hosted the Clooneys, Alexander Skarsgard, and Michael Fassbender. Isabelle was very disappointed that we didn’t see any of them whilst we were there! I had a classic Bellini as an aperitif by the hotel pool, whilst we tried to spot celebs. Isabelle had a cocktail which was inspired by Sophia Loren’s stay at the hotel in the 50s – it even featured a pasta shell containing some Amaro, supposedly as a tribute of her deep love of pasta.
When it came to heading to the meal we were really treated. We were the very first to arrive at the restaurant and were then taken to what was clearly the best table in the house. It featured a beautiful view directly looking out over the water. As we were early we were able to enjoy the sights before the sun went down (the restaurant faces East so sadly you don’t get a sunset, but the view is spectacular nonetheless).
We went for the restaurant’s seven course tasting menu. There were options to shorten the menu to four courses, or take an à la carte option – but we were there for gastronomic exploration. It made sense that the menu featured sea food very heavily – as well as direct nods to both the sea itself and Venice’s history.
An ode to the sea…
The first course was called ‘Laguna’ and I think you will be able to see from the photo what they did with this. They cleverly created a lagoon style scene using a set egg flan as a base, then adding blue oysters, caviar, and sea asparagus as accoutrements to make this watery scene – all set in a dainty tea set! They also used a lightly minty oil to add some of the green colour that you see. Overall this was an impressive dish. Obviously from a visual perspective, but also I felt that the mix of textures and flavours gave it a complexity, with a marine vibe clear – however, this wasn’t one of those dishes where you felt like you were consuming a glass of salty seawater, it was subtle but present.
Continuing the ‘fruits de la mere’ theme, next up was roasted cuttlefish with mantis shrimp reduction and oysters. Once more this was visually quite an impactful plate with the colourful sauces on display in a star formation in the centre of the plate. As it happens I’d already had cuttlefish earlier in the day at a Ciccheti bar, but this couldn’t have been more different. There that cuttlefish was tough and chewy, which is what I think most people experience when they have this on a tapas plate. Here though the cuttlefish had been prepared very differently – it was delicate and juicy. A delight to eat. The dish also featured oyster in two ways – as a sauce that was used to give the plate depth of flavour, but also as an ‘Oyster leaf’ astride of the cuttlefish.
An ode to the land…
The next couple of dishes moved away from sea food. First up was ‘a tribute to Carpaccio’. This was one of those dishes that just made you smile when you saw it. The portrait that you see on the dish was called ‘Portrait of a Venetian Nobleman’ by Vittore Carpaccio in the early 16th century and was printed on edible coconut paper. Apparently (thank you to Wikipedia for the info!) when the dish carpaccio was invented in the 1950s it was named after Vittore as there was an exhibit of his art in Venice at the time. As you peaked underneath the portrait you find delicious raw beef, which was served alongside a savoury-style fig sauce and made for a delightful accompaniment.
Time for pasta! We were then served a mezza manica, guinea hen, wild fennel, and lime. This was definitely one of my highlights from the meal. The pasta itself was really al dente – the chef absolutely knew what they were doing here as any less on the cooking and it would have been under, but this was just right, giving the pasta a bit of proper texture. The sauce made from the guinea fowl and red wine was contained within the pasta shells and was divine. That was really lifted with the addition of aniseed notes from the wild fennel and the dusting of cocoa powder spread liberally across the plate.
Are you not thirsty?
Before heading on, probably best to cover now what we did on the wine front. I continued with my policy of not taking the wine flight and going, instead, for a bottle that I was excited about. To that end, I chose a 2024 Gaja ‘Rossj-Bass’ Chardonnay (Langhe, Piedmont). The Gaja estate does another Chardonnay – and this is the more wallet-friendly one! As a Chardonnay this definitely not on the oaky and exuberant end of the spectrum, sitting more on the flinty, mineralic side. It was slightly grassy and savoury with notes of tart lemon working alongside hints of peaches and camomile. It benefitted from warming slightly in the glass as it was kept in an ice-bucket so each pour had to come up a little to open. I’d love to drink more Gaja (especially the Barbarecos!), but in the meantime this was a nice bottle to drink.
Back to the food…
… and back to a couple of more marine-inspired dishes. Starting with a risotto with seaweed and herb broth, cream, and horseradish. This was another clever dish, when it first arrived it looked a little underwhelming. Then as you stirred the dish through the seaweed and herb broth comes through and combines with the risotto to make something a little more interesting. The flavours here were once more very clever – the broth gave the risotto a bit of freshness, the horseradish shavings gave the whole thing a little bit of pep. Once more the rice in the risotto had a little bit of bite to it, which gave the dish some texture.
The last of the savoury courses was sturgeon with Ferrarese caviar sauce. You don’t often get sturgeon on menus – unless it is through its caviar – as it is a big and tough fish (they can weight up-to 80kg apparently!). Here very thin shavings were taken from the caviar and they were quickly flambéed on one side only stop it becoming tough or chewy. The result was delicious! Then you add the rich caviar sauce into the mix (literally!) and a gold leaf, and the whole plate comes to life. Another stunning plate.
Time for something sweet…
What better way could you finish an Italian meal than with the legendary Tiramisu? The restaurant gave its take of the classic dish – it wasn’t quite a ‘deconstructed’ Tiramisu (*shudders from memories of watching Masterchef*), but it was different. Crispy tubes filled with creams that were designed to give the traditional flavours of a Tiramisu – coffee, booze, cream, etc. It was nice enough to eat, but I couldn’t help feel that we would have been better off with something closer to the original. Probably the weakest plate on the menu – it did come with a lovely ‘Buon Anniversario’ message from the kitchen though, which was a lovely touch.
We are lucky to have eaten in many wonderful establishments all around the world and I can definitely say that this will be a meal that we will remember fondly. The food was excellent, the view was stunning, the staff were lovely, and the overall experience – being surrounded by the glitz, glamour, and history, was just fabulous.
I would heartily recommend Oro for a special meal if you are in Venice and are celebrating.
Here’s to 15 years! Here’s to the next 15 years – and hopefully many more beyond!
