Times Cafe

11÷6÷2013
On our last night in Venice, we were struggling to find a place to grab a hearty meal to eat near our hotel. It was cold outside and we walked to various restaurants in the area of the train station to find a restaurant that would serve tomato soup or some other variation of soup! Almost every restaurant either didn’t serve soup, or they only served «vegetable or minestrone soup». I mean — come on here?! How can Italians NOT eat any soup other than minestrone?! I was baffled by this and rather annoyed.
Anyways…so we finally came across this restaurant called «Times Café» where an Asian lady convinced us to come inside, since they serve «seafood risotto» which is similar to «soup». So fine, we took the bait.
We sat inside, and let me tell you — the place smelled like urine. I’m thinking it’s because the toilet was right next to the indoor dining area, and the door wasn’t closed. UGH.
So we proceeded to order:
(1) Risotto frutti de mare — my husband was the one craving soup, and he said it was decent. You’ve gotta believe me here — this risotto was mediocre at best. I was not impressed, especially given all the wonderful food we had tried across Italy in the 2 weeks we were vacationing in the country. 2 stars.
(2) penne Arribatta — I am not sure why he ordered this dish, but it wasn’t that great either. I could have made this back in the USA with just grocery store sauce and penne pasta! I mean… seriously?! :(
Sigh — so the food here was a disappointment. Don’t be deceived by the nice pretty photos on their menu. haha…
The staff was very friendly and nice though. We were happy with their service. It’s just the food that wasn’t really up to par, so I was rather disappointed by this Venice restaurant. I’m sure there are other spots in town that are better, but since we were on a soup-hunt…we resorted to coming here, and ended up feeling «full» but shaking our heads as we left thinking why the heck did we come again? haha… guess the cold weather made us forget our expectations!