The Best Seafood Near La Zanzara, by the Record

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.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

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.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
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1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

The terrace sits right over the canal, close enough that you could theoretically dip a hand in, which is either charming or alarming depending on your relationship with water. This Michelin-starred seafood restaurant in Cesenatico focuses almost entirely on fish, from unfussy raw starters to more composed plates where pickled fruit and citrus show up alongside the catch. The wine list leans heavily into Champagne, which nobody seems to mind.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A seafood restaurant tucked inside a private beach club on the Adriatic, where the dining room opens straight onto the sand and the umbrella rows stretch to the horizon. The cooking is careful and occasionally inventive, leaning into the catch with fresh egg pasta that mimics a risotto in the best way. The wine list leans heavily into Champagne, which, given the setting, feels like exactly the right call.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A glass-enclosed veranda on Cesenatico's main avenue, busy with summer promenaders just outside the windows, while inside the focus stays firmly on the Adriatic. This is a seafood restaurant in the straightforward sense: raw catches, gratins, pasta, risotto, grilled and baked fish, the daily specials announced aloud at the table. Alberto Faccani, the name behind Magnolia, oversees the kitchen, keeping things rooted in local maritime tradition rather than reaching for the clever.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Tucked into one of San Polo's quieter backstreets, this old-school seafood trattoria has the kind of worn floors and familiar wall clutter that take decades to get right. The menu is Venetian and unapologetic about it, but the real action arrives verbally, when the server rattles off the day's specials with the confidence of someone who already knows what you should order. The wine list runs Italian and French, and leans generous on value.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The dining room seems to grow straight out of the beach, with big windows framing the Adriatic and a room that's noticeably more polished than the setting suggests. This is a proper seafood restaurant built around the day's catch, with classic dishes from the Adriatic coast and daily specials that follow the market wherever it goes. The wine list reaches well into France, which is a quiet flex for a place this close to the sand.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant