Description: The centre of Venice in July is not a good venue for a relaxing, quiet and reasonably priced meal. It didn’t take us long to realise we needed to disappear far from the maddening crowds and slipped off on a water taxi to the nearby island of Murano. It turned out to be a good use of the six and a half Euros cost of a single boat trip, particularly as we managed to "stowaway" on the return hop to Venice island (no one approached us for our fare on the busy return leg).

Murano is petty much like a slightly less spectacular Venice, but you can do all of the typical Venice things without having to barge through hordes of people. Once we had our fill of exploring canal streets, bounding over hump back bridges and exploring (cheaper and better quality) Murano Glass shops, we decided it was time to eat.

Unlike the main island of Venice, Murano restaurants do get quiet after the main lunchtime session, and some restaurants close at three. We fell upon one of the larger restaurants in town, the Trattoria Busa Alla Torre, perched on a main square by a clock tower, and found them still serving food at around 3:30.

The restaurant didn’t look particularly promising, as the outside tables consisted of bright yellow cloth clad plastic patio furniture, but we gamely elected to go for the tourist menu at 12.50 a head. This offered three simple choices of starter and main course. Those wanting a more detailed choice can eat from the extensive (and more expensive) main menu. To be fair, the interior of the restaurant looked a lot nicer, and all of it was certainly clean. There is a terrace restaurant area upstairs, which also looked very pleasant (and in fact, was probably a nicer choice to the gardens). Those on a tight budget need to be aware that the restaurant charges two and a half Euro table cover per person, and a rather hefty 12% service charge (although this is fairly ubiquitous throughout Venice).

For our starter, we chose the spaghetti and clams, and I liked my simple, filling, but very fishy tasting dish. I guess they add a good fish stock to the tomato sauce, as there wasn’t too many little clams. The meal came with a couple of very fresh and locally produced bread buns, and balsamic vinegar and olive oil for drizzling.

For our main course, we both chose the calamari, and were rewarded with a small but very fresh dish of deep fried battered calamari and squid, with a small cube of traditional fried salty polenta (semolina). I had chosen a green leaf side salad, and received a very fresh and tasty bowl of lambs lettuce, while my beloved, who isn’t watching her weight, had fries. I loved my main course, and although it wasn’t huge, found it had filled us up adequately for a lunch meal. The only downside appeared to be that our fried fish had been placed on a paper doily, which meant that after a few cuts of the knife, we were eating bits of delicately cut out paper with our meal!

We chose a bottle of the house white wine, a strangely deep coloured, but young and very tasty Pinot Grigio, which was good value (for Venice) at 9 Euros.

Unfortunately, the restaurant doesn’t seem to own any cats, and as we dined and the remaining diners left, we found ourselves surrounded by some rather overeager pigeons, who attempted to hop onto our table while we ate. If you have an aversion to "Hitchcock: The Birds" moments, you might want to insist on dining inside or perhaps upstairs on the terrace. To be fair to the restaurant, they do supply a fresh clean tablecloth for each new dining party.

While the wait service was very effective and friendly, the waiters were obviously keen to pull off their uniforms, and put their feet up in the shade after a busy lunchtime. We found tables being packed away, and our plates removed almost before we had put our cutlery down. Still, our bad for eating so late, I guess.

Overall, we thought the Busa Alla Torre was a reasonable, if not "must do", choice for lunch on Murano; the food and house wine was certainly filling and good. The overall cost of 41.30 Euros for two was probably slightly below average for our Venice dining experience.
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