best pubs in venice

Welcome to the Drink in the Sights guide to the best pubs in Venice. I don't think any of you in your wildest dreams are expecting Venice to be littered with well established drinking holes, selling wide varieties of top class beer. And as long as you accept that you'll be fine. There are dozens of little café/bars dotted around the city selling one or two beers on tap. Some of them are very nice and welcoming, and I even found Brewdogs Jet Black Heart in a couple, which is very much a favourite of mine. But these aren't the kind of Venice pubs I want to write about. We're going to stick to the type of places that are predominantly about the drink and the atmosphere, not the snacks.

Venice Pubs

Il Santo Bevitore

This is beyond any doubt a proper pub, and the best pub in Venice. There's around 20 beers on tap, alongside an even bigger bottle selection, so you wont run out of beers to try. The selection covers both local beers and offerings from around the world, including several from Belgium. There's a couple of gluten free options for the celiacs amongst you, although these are both lagers. The barman is extremely knowledgeable about what he's serving, and for Venice the prices aren't out of this world. There's also an outdoor seating area which is always a bonus if the weathers nice. The only thing weird about the bar is the toilet, which is about 20 centimeters off the ground. It wasn't an issue for me, but it can't be comfy to squat over. Regardless this is the best pub in Venice by a mile and it makes my list of the best pubs in Europe. This isn't one of the best pubs in Venice, it's the best pub in Venice.

Beershop Venezia

Now I wouldn't usually write a review about a shop, but this one is special. And the guy who runs it pretty much runs it as a Venice pub where you can go in, buy your drink, and stay for a chat while sipping away. He really does love to talk about beer, which suited us just fine. Any part of the shop which isn't covered by bottles is covered by photos of people who have visited, holding their beers, and I'm now among them. Each section of the shop is dedicated to a different type of beer, so it's easy to find what you want, and if it wasn't you'd soon be sorted out by the owner. As well as been very knowledgeable he also wants to know what you think of the beers, so he can advise his next customers better. So when we were there he cracked open a new bottle, grabbed a couple of glasses, and shared it with us, which was a nice touch. This place is a must visit for any beer enthusiast in Venice. So there you go one of the best pubs in Venice isn't a bar at all.

Bacaro Jazz

When it comes to beer this place is rubbish. There I said it. I'm recommending a bar that only does a couple of lagers on draft, and they aren't cheap. The reason I think it's worth a visit is it's fun, the music's decent, and the décor is shall we say quirky, with bras of every shape and size imaginable covering the ceiling. Go in for one, take a couple of photos, and then go find a proper beer. I guess this is one of the best pubs in Venice, but it's really not a pub.

I'm afraid the last two in my list of where to drink beer in Venice are both Irish bars, but one of them is the oldest pub in Venice so I think that alone makes it worthy of any list of where to drink in Venice.

Devil's Forest Pub

That's right the oldest pub in Venice isn't Italian, and it was only built in 1991. This gives you an idea of the beer drinking scene in the city. That said though Devil's Forest is an excellent bar, with 6 beers on tap, inevitably including Guinness and Killkenny, as well as one or two lagers. There's also a decent bottle collection including the gluten free Tenants, which seems to be a Venetian favourite for some bizarre reason. The atmosphere was always good, and the beers priced as you'd expect in Venice. This was certainly one of the livelier bars in the city, and the speed of service was always decent. It's the oldest pub in Venice and one of the best pubs in Venice.

Inishark

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this is probably the only shark themed Irish bar in the world. Please feel free to comment below if you've found another one!! Primarily an Irish sports bar, this has a reasonable drinks selection but more importantly it has a huge inflatable shark hanging from the ceiling, which is reason enough to go to any pub. And when there's so few real pubs in the city all it takes is an inflatable shark to make Inishark one of the best pubs in Venice.

I hope you found my guide to the best pubs in Venice useful. I know there aren't many real beer drinker locations here but that's just the nature of the city, now you know where the best places to drink in Venice are though it's time to get yourself over there.

Please also check out my guide to the top Venice sights