Brooklyn Picnic

We’ve traveled to Venice many times. The first time we went, we had a horrible experience. The “hotel with canal view” ended up being a view of one of the alley canals with the only traffic being the garbage boat. We ended up at all of the tourist traps because we just weren’t in the know. We had to go back because of a work trip but then had an amazing time because we were able to spend more time exploring all of Venice. We’ve gone back several times since and finally have a list of restaurants we’d recommend.

You can get exhausted walking around Venice and be inclined to sleep in during the mornings. Don’t do that though! Get your body up and moving and see the locals starting their day, walking their dogs, going to the Rialto Mercato, opening their shops, etc. It gives you a chance to see Venice without the crowds around San Marco and take in a better view of this lovely city.

Rossopomodoro San Marco — Okay, so this is a chain, I get it. But, it’s an Italian chain, we’ve not been to the one in New York yet, it’s close to St. Mark’s Basilica, they had an open table, and we had tickets at a museum shortly, so had to eat. All of that having been said, this was perfect. Beautiful pizzas, quick service, hearty pastas. We’ll be trying the one in New York soon too.

Co Vino — This place is tiny. I mean, really tiny. You will need reservations, and you’ll need to make them with a credit card. But, it’s truly worth it. The menu is 3 courses of an amazingly fresh and local selection. The wine choices are incredible — ask for their help and make sure to enjoy the one you’re drinking because you may not be able to get another bottle of it! The team here works incredibly efficiently and have so much love of food to share. You could go to the famous Al Covo around the corner from Co Vino, or you can go here for a third of the price and an incredibly memorable experience. They are also open on Sundays, which makes me love Co Vino even more!

Oliva Nera — Warm restaurant that has 2 storefronts allowing it to accommodate many people. You need to take a winding path to find this, but it’s worth it. Quiet area out front of the restaurant where you kids can go run around between courses. At the end of the meal, you’re typically sent home with a bottle of their house olive oil.

Taverna San Trovaso — This gem over in the Dorsoduro has beautiful calzones, savory pastas, memorable lasagna bolognese, Tagliata con rucola e parmigiano, and some well-liked fish dishes. You don’t have to stick to the traditional Primi + Secondi, but you’ll be happy if you do. We’ve spent entire afternoons here and have had many local families around us doing the same.

Birraria La Corte — Beautiful al fresco seating in Campo San Polo makes this a wonderful evening setting. If you have small kids, it’s also great for you to be able to have a long lunch while the kids play in the campo — it’s the largest campo in Venice. Our daughter prepared for her track future by doing 8 laps around the campo while we were waiting for our food. Many choices for pizza, and they do takeaway in pizza boxes, so you could order and take your food to go to sit on a quiet canal and have a picnic.

La Zucca — We started out one of our trips with a lunch to La Zucca. Around a quick corner in the San Croce by a photo-worthy bridge, this is a wonderful choice. There is an emphasis on vegetables at this Osteria, but it is not a vegetarian restaurant because there are still many meat dishes, including rabbit when we were there.

Farini — It’s with a bit of a heavy heart that we recommend Farini, as it is a newer chain with locations in Milan and a handful in Venice, and likely many more to come. The colazione can start out your day right, and their focacce and pizze can keep you going during the day. We still got our espresso at smaller and quieter bars where you could still hear the spoons tapping against the saucers. The baked goods here are really a treat and a welcome addition to our experience in Venice.

We had only a few days in Prague but found some restaurants we would recommend.

Deer Prague — This restaurant is in a hotel that looks like it could be in a Wes Anderson movie. We didn’t even realize it was connected to a hotel until we were leaving the restaurant. This was a funky setup with some creative dishes. There are a few other good looking restaurants also close by to this that we would check out the next time. Little Blue Duck (U Modré kachničky in Czech) is one we’d try too.

Restaurace V Laznich, Lázeňská 281/17, 118 00 Praha 1-Malá Strana (no website) — There are a lot of great restaurants in Prague. We headed in here because we were siteseeing and missed the usual lunch hours. They were still serving food, so we popped in. We had really satisfying goulash here and a nice sampling of the 3 types of dumplings typical in Prague.

Lokal — There are several locations for this restaurant. Good thing is that you can make reservations online. Bad thing is that it’s incredibly popular with locals, so you’ll be eating dinner around 4 or 5 o’clock. It’s affordable and authentic food. Worth a visit.

Perníčkův sen — A charming bakery where the smell of gingerbread cookies baking in the oven will knock you off your feet. Buy a bag and munch your way to happiness. Who can have any worries when you’re eating fresh gingerbread?!

La Degustation Boheme Bourgeoise — We didn’t eat here, but were staying close by and saw tourist after tourist wish they had enough $$ to eat here. It’s a Michelin rated restaurant, and you can have fun looking in the windows at night and making silly faces at the diners (like we did). We heard many people say it was the best restaurant in all of the Czech republic.

We had a blast in Munich recently. After the first day, we got the hang of deciphering menus and quickly learned what we really liked. As we tried new things though, our list of “likes” kept growing. Here are some of our favorite places that we hope to try again very soon.

Spatenhaus an der Opera — This restaurant is a bit on the fancier side, but great food, nice lighting and outdoor seating. At lunch, make sure to make a reservation and try for outside if you can with the view of the Opera. For those sensitive to smoke though, and there sadly is a lot of smoking still in Munich, book a seat inside where there is no smoking. Remember to start out with some brezel and obatzda for a typical Munich flavor.

Ella — We had seen several art museums on this certain day. We had already missed the usual lunch hours. We stopped by the Lenbachhaus art museum, home to this wonderful restaurant. If you are in the mood for a break from German food, this is the place to go, as it is the place for great Italian food. Almost immediately after we stepped foot in the restaurant, we were seated. A server came over to tell us the specials of the day. We ended up having an amazing meal, complete with After Eight panna cotta for dessert. The restaurant has a cozy feel, a great staff, and amazing food.

Bratwurstherzl — My husband and I went here about 15 years ago. It took some time to find it on this trip, but we finally did. Even our younger daughter ate the bratwurst here. Go early because it gets filled up. We recommend the sausage sampler that comes out on cast-iron plates. It’s incredibly affordable too. Abundant outside seating here too.

Münchner Stubn — We stayed at the most excellent Aloft hotel. Although you might be put off by it because it is right by the train station, we never felt unsafe. It was instead really convenient for some day trips outside of the city. The other benefit of staying there was being right next to this restaurant. We went here every night for a nightcap of apfelshorle and a helles and always had some great bites to eat.

Chinesischer Turm — This is just plain heaven for parents. A HUGE beer garden with great food and beer choices right next to a playground. Take a stroll through the English Garden during the day and end at the beer garden. There is also a fancy restaurant here, but why go there when you can eat in the garden? You’ll get a token per beer stein that you’ll exchange for a Euro once you return your glass. These are also some of the best park bathrooms we’ve seen.

Augustiner Keller — We’ve been told this is more of a local kind of beer garden. Food was good here, but we did the self-service. We liked the look of the terrace area better where it is menu service. We’ll try that next time. Beer was exceptional, as expected!

We love traveling by train, but it’s sometimes hard to figure out the right route to take. This is a great site that will give you all that you need to know about booking the right tickets and finding picturesque routes to take. https://www.seat61.com/index.html