Da Lorenzo - Al Giardino Segreto: A Table in Venice’s Secret Garden

 

In Venice, finding a garden can feel like discovering another city. Beyond the stone passageways and canal-side façades, there are places where the view opens onto trees, winding paths and unexpected stretches of green. At Da Lorenzo - Al Giardino Segreto, this less familiar Venice becomes the setting for dinner.

The restaurant sits within the NH Collection Venezia Grand Hotel Palazzo dei Dogi, in the residential reaches of Cannaregio. Inside, a dining room accommodating only 18 guests looks through large windows onto one of the city’s oldest private gardens. The scale is intimate; the outlook remarkably expansive.

Occupying the seventeenth-century Palazzo Rizzo Patarol, the hotel retains the architectural richness of a building whose past includes chapters as a noble residence, monastery and embassy. Restored frescoes, historic furnishings and Murano glass chandeliers give it a distinctly Venetian elegance. Yet it is the garden, extending over more than 2,000 square metres, that lends the restaurant its particular sense of place.

Against this backdrop, Argentinian chef Paulo Airaudo has conceived a restaurant rooted in contemporary Italian cooking. Born in Córdoba to a family with Italian heritage, Airaudo brings experience across Latin America, Europe and Asia to his interpretation of the Venetian table. His approach draws on those travels while keeping the identity of the destination close at hand.

The autumn menu makes the kitchen’s intentions clear from the opening bites: Jerusalem artichoke consommé with coffee oil, anchovies in saor and a tuna belly tartlet. A recognisably Venetian preparation sits alongside a more unexpected pairing, introducing an approach that moves comfortably between regional tradition and contemporary ideas. Even the bread service takes in several points on the map, with extra-virgin olive oil, Maldon sea salt and whipped Normandy butter.

Seafood features prominently. Raw amberjack is accompanied by fennel and sea grapes, while fusilloni brings together red prawns, parsley and Sorrento lemon. On the longer tasting menu, a scallop with Champagne sauce adds a French accent. These combinations give substance to the restaurant’s international outlook, with Italian ingredients and preparations remaining central to the meal.

Dinner follows one of two tasting menus, both accompanied by opening bites and petits fours. Sensazioni, a four-course experience, offers a concise introduction to the kitchen’s seasonal direction. Emozioni extends the evening across seven courses, exploring richer, autumnal territory through duck bottoni pasta with mushroom, saffron and balsamic herbs, followed by roe deer with late radicchio and celeriac. The longer menu then turns to prickly pear and orange granité before a dessert shared by both experiences: rum baba with almond ice cream, limoncello custard sauce and basil. 

With only 18 places, the restaurant’s dimensions encourage an evening built around the table, the progression of the meal and the company across from you. For visitors, Da Lorenzo also provides an appealing reason to spend an evening in this part of Cannaregio. A walk past Madonna dell’Orto, home to works by Tintoretto, or through nearby Campo dei Mori brings the neighbourhood into the experience before dinner begins. The restaurant welcomes guests staying elsewhere, making the palazzo and its garden part of a wider exploration of the city.