The Best Seafood Near L'Antico Giardino, by the Record
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Rank 1. Makorè
Italian Contemporary Seafood
The kitchen has a window onto the pass, so you can watch the brigade work while the sommelier talks you through the pairings. This is a contemporary seafood restaurant grown out of a partnership with the fishmonger next door, and the menu stays loyal to that origin: fish, shellfish, and vegetables, with quiet nods toward Japan in the marinades and fresh pasta. The room is elegant without being stiff.
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Rank 2. Quel Fantastico Giovedì
Modern Seafood
A seafood-forward restaurant that has been around forever and still books out well ahead, which tells you most of what you need to know. The intimate dining rooms feel genuinely warm rather than fussy, and the service matches. Fish comes prepared with a classic sensibility and lighter modern instincts, while a few Ferrarese meat dishes, salama da sugo among them, hold their own on a menu that is otherwise happily pointed at the sea.
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Rank 3. Trattoria Lanzagallo
Seafood
A seafood trattoria in the flatlands outside Ferrara that has been a local fixture long enough to count as furniture. The room has been freshened up without losing its unfussy bones, and the kitchen stays loyal to the classics, raw scampi lightly kissed with lemon zest, turbot under a potato crust. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks: this is the kind of cooking where the fish does the talking.
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Rank 4. Ensama Pesce
Puglia Seafood
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Rank 5. Locanda dell'Arcimboldo
Seafood
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Rank 6. Osteria Bartolini
Mediterranean Seafood
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Rank 7. Acqua Pazza
Mediterranean Seafood
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Rank 8. Momento al 25
Italian Seafood
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Rank 9. Il Baretto
Venetian Seafood
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Rank 10. La Zanzara
Seafood
A Michelin-starred seafood restaurant on a tiny islet in the Po Delta, reached by a farmhouse that sits in near-total silence broken only by lagoon birds. The kitchen leans classic, which here means golden-fried seafood, steamed fish salad with house-made squid-ink mayonnaise, and eel cooked over embers the way it's been done in this corner of Emilia-Romagna forever. The caramelized beignets with mandarin sauce are a quiet nod to local pastry legend.
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Rank 11. Claudio Ristorante
Mediterranean Seafood
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Rank 12. Osteria FraSe
Venetian Seafood
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Rank 13. Antica Osteria Cera
Modern Seafood
Raw seafood and charcoal-grilled fish are the spine of the menu at this two-Michelin-star seafood restaurant tucked into a quiet Venetian village. The room is elegant and minimalist, the name "osteria" kept mostly for nostalgia's sake. The kitchen leans hard into lagoon identity, from raw cicchetti to seasonal fried green crabs, with a dedicated vegetarian section for anyone who wandered in from the wrong coastline.
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Rank 14. Enotavola Pino
Seafood
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Rank 15. Belle Parti
Seafood
Up a floor in a palazzo along a porticoed alley in the pedestrian center, Belle Parti is the kind of classic seafood restaurant that makes you feel you've wandered into someone's very tasteful dining room. Exposed beams, paintings, and mirrors compete handsomely for your attention, and the seasonal menu leans toward the Adriatic, with a few good meat options for the table's dissenter.
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Rank 16. MikEle
Modern Seafood
Portholes punctuate the walls of this sleek seafood restaurant in Ferrari country, which is either a bold design statement or a gentle reminder that you're nowhere near the coast. The kitchen leans modern but stays honest, letting the catch carry the meal. A daily selection of raw and simply prepared fish anchors the menu, and the tagliolini with langoustine, caviar, and a Martini-spiked cabbage purée shows where the chef's ambitions surface.
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Rank 17. El Gato
Adriatic Seafood
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Rank 18. Vecio Macello
Seafood
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Rank 19. Al Capitan della Cittadella
Italian Seafood
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Rank 20. L'Oste Scuro
Seafood
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Rank 21. Trattoria dall'Antonia
Seafood
A 19th-century mansion on the Brenta canal, just outside Venice where the villas outnumber the tourists, houses this classic seafood trattoria. The dining room is simple and welcoming, the kind that lets the fish do the talking: Adriatic scampi, lightly seared octopus, and mixed fried fish from the same waters that have been feeding this corner of the Veneto forever.