Glam Enrico Bartolini

Venice has more famous restaurants than great ones, and only one holds two Michelin stars: Glam, in the garden of Palazzo Venart on the Grand Canal in Santa Croce. The kitchen is a partnership between Enrico Bartolini, Italy's most-decorated chef, and Donato Ascani, who has run the stoves here since the restaurant opened in 2016 and has never left. The cooking reads the lagoon as a larder. The signature acquadelle in salsa, tiny Venetian fish in three tempuras, is the plate to come for. Tasting menus start at €220.

The Kitchen

Donato Ascani, born in Fiuggi in 1987, is the rare resident chef who has held a two-star kitchen steady since opening — Glam has never changed its head chef. He cooks Bartolini's contemporary Italian idiom through a Venetian lens, building menus around lagoon and Veneto produce. The signature is acquadelle in salsa: tiny lagoon fish fried in three separate tempura batters — bay leaf, Senise pepper and cuttlefish ink — and set against four bright gels that read like brushstrokes on the plate. A cuttlefish course captures the same lagoon sensibility, deep and clean at once. Two tasting menus frame the experience: "Arte, orti e laguna," rooted in Venice and its gardens, and "I Classici del Glam," which gathers Bartolini's signature dishes. The wine cellar is long and weighted to Italy, and the sommelier pairs with confidence rather than showmanship. It is a kitchen with the technical command of Milan and the ingredients of the lagoon, which is a combination no other Venice table currently matches.

The Room

Glam occupies a calm, contemporary room inside a fifteenth-century palazzo, opening in warm months onto a private garden terrace that runs down to the Grand Canal — one of the few green spaces in central Venice. The dining room is small, perhaps thirty covers, so the sound stays low and conversation-easy. Lighting is soft and warm against pale walls and modern art. Tables are well spaced and service is formal but unhurried, with a sommelier and a maître d' who pace the room rather than hover. Dress is smart; jackets are usual at dinner. Arrive by water taxi to the palazzo's own dock.

Best for a Milestone in Venice

Book Glam for a milestone because the setting and the kitchen both rise to it. The Grand Canal terrace turns a birthday or an anniversary into something only Venice can stage, the two-star tasting menu gives the evening a clear shape across two to three calm hours, and the small room means the table is genuinely yours rather than one of fifty. Reserve the terrace in warm months, take "Arte, orti e laguna" with the wine pairing, and arrive by water taxi to the palazzo dock at dusk. Few rooms in Italy carry an occasion this completely.