Food, Drinks & Nightlife
Food
If you fancy a local meal (i.e., regional recipes) with vegetarian options as well, we recommend the following places with 20-30 Euro price range:
Osteria L’Anfora: A typical tavern in Padua, perfect for trying traditional cuisine, featuring dishes like sarde in saor, baccalà mantecato, herb meatballs, pasta and beans, bigoli with clams and Venetian-style liver. Along with your meal, there is a carefully selected range of wines.
Trattoria Nane della Giulia: The oldest trattoria in Padua, it recreates a timeless atmosphere, complete with original furniture and tables from the early 19th century. It offers seasonally authentic flavours of Venetian tradition, with fresh, locally sourced ingredients.
Osteria la Ruta: An ideal place to immerse yourself in the local regional dishes, but also some typical flavours of Central America. One can find a variety of homemade pasta dishes, such as ravioli and bigoli, while the main courses are based on meat or fish.
Trattoria San Pietro: Depending on the season, one can enjoy typical regional dishes such as Venetian-style liver, baccalà with polenta or the Ambrosiana cutlet, as well as delighting in artisanal desserts like hazelnut cake and chocolate mousse.
If you feel like a night in and prefer an order to be delivered, you can rely on very convenient food delivery services like Glovo, Mymenu, Just Eat or Deliveroo!
Drinks and Coffee
The city center is full of bars, especially where you can enjoy an aperitif (after all, Padua is the home of the Aperol Spritz!). Here are some great places to have a drink before dinner and nibble on some “cicchetti” or just enjoy an evening drink: “All’ombra della piazza”, the wine bar “Straße”, “Otivm” and “La cantina del gufo”. Alternatively, if you’d rather stay near the university and join the student nightlife, we recommend stopping by “DìVi Coffee & Co.”, a popular spot for students to kick off every Wednesday evening!
If you really want to have a good Italian coffee, we recommend two places: the “Caffetteria Manin” and the “Bar Santa Lucia”. In both places you will find no seats or tables. Just have your coffee the Italian way: standing at the bar. Finally, if you’re a fan of slow living and want to start your day with a cappuccino and a freshly baked croissant, we recommend the pastry shop “Manzato” near the psychology faculty.
Tips
In Italy you don’t have to give tips. You can, if you want to, but it is perfectly polite to leave a restaurant without tips. Instead, restaurants usually charge you a little fee (called “coperto”), often reported in the menu.
Nightlife and Events
Being a famous university city populated by students, many places in Padua come alive in the evening, both on weekends and during the week. You’ll see this is especially true on Wednesdays, as it’s traditionally the day when young people go out! We recommend keeping an eye on this Instagram page to stay updated on events happening throughout the week: https://www.instagram.com/padovaevents?igsh=NzE5ZnQ2am9ueDZ3