QUINTESSENTIALLY | Insider | world class

Cuisine in Venice tends towards the predictable; hideously expensive, formal and often somewhat prosaic. Therefore, it comes as a pleasure to head somewhere as ambitious and successful as the Met restaurant, where the chef, Corrado Fasolato, has used his El Bulli training to great effect.

Dishes play on traditional ideas of Italian cuisine with wit and intelligence, whether it involves using cuttlefish strips in spaghetti to create carbonara, or serving up beef cheek with horseradish ice cream. Fasolato’s cooking is never heavy with self-importance or pomposity, but instead ensures that a variety of tastes and sensations jostle with one another for effect. The service is charming and polite, ever-ready to suggest a variety of options, such as pairing dessert with some excellent rum, rather than the omnipresent vin de santo, and mention must be made of the spectacular room, which elegantly combines Renaissance portraiture with modern comforts. One of only two Michelin-starred restaurants in the city, its acclaim amongst gastronomes in the know can only increase.

Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice 30122, Italy. www.hotelmetropole.com