Menus and the wine
The dinner and the drinks at Avanspettacolo Venezia
Three set menus, a multi-course structure timed to the acts, and what's actually poured — what to expect from the Gala Dinner itself, and what to sort out before the night rather than at the table.
Check availability ↗The three menus
| Menu | Built around |
|---|---|
| Land | A meat-based multi-course dinner |
| Seafood | A seafood-based multi-course dinner |
| Vegetarian | A vegetarian multi-course dinner |
One dinner, three menu choices
Rather than a single fixed plate for the whole room, Avanspettacolo Venezia offers three set menus — Land (meat), Seafood, and Vegetarian — and you choose one when you book. The kitchen prepares to that choice for the table, so it's worth deciding before the night rather than turning up and hoping to pick at the door; a banquet kitchen serving a full theatre hall isn't set up for on-the-spot changes the way an à-la-carte restaurant is. If your party can't agree on one menu, that's fine — the three options are chosen per person at booking, not per table, so a mixed group can order Land, Seafood and Vegetarian at the same table without any issue.
The structure is a full multi-course dinner
Whichever menu you pick, the Gala Dinner runs the same shape: a starter, a first course, a main course, dessert and coffee. It's a served, plated dinner rather than a buffet — courses arrive at the table through the show, not from a self-serve line, which also means the pacing of your meal is set by the kitchen and the stage together rather than by how quickly you personally want to eat. Portion sizes and exact dish names for each course weren't published in enough detail to repeat here reliably — what's confirmed is the five-part structure and the choice of three menus, not a specific dish-by-dish breakdown.
Wine and water are already in the price
A half bottle of selected wine per person, plus mineral water, comes with the dinner. Neither is an optional extra to add at checkout — they're part of the standard package, which is worth knowing if you were mentally budgeting a separate drinks tab on top of the ticket price the way you might at an ordinary restaurant. If you'd rather not drink the included wine, there's no indication the price adjusts either way — treat the half bottle as part of the standard package rather than an add-on you can decline for a discount.
Courses are timed to the acts, not the other way around
The kitchen and the stage work off the same clock: the starter lands as the curtain goes up, the main course is served through the dance numbers, and dessert and coffee arrive as the acrobatics give way to the singers. If you eat quickly, expect a short wait between courses rather than a rushed kitchen — the show, not your plate, sets the overall pace of the evening, and that's by design rather than an oversight. This also means a very fast-eating table won't meaningfully speed up their evening — the next course simply won't arrive until its cue in the programme, regardless of how quickly the previous plates were cleared.
Flag dietary needs before the night, not at the table
Because the menus are fixed once chosen and prepared in advance for the whole room, any allergy or dietary requirement needs to be noted when you book. A table-side substitution on a set banquet menu is much harder for a kitchen to arrange on the night than a heads-up given days in advance — treat the booking form as the only reliable place to raise it. The booking form is also the right place to mention a large-party seating request, if you have one, for the same reason: changes made after the kitchen has planned for the room are far harder to accommodate.
Dessert and coffee close the meal as the singers open
The dinner's final act — dessert and coffee — lands as the programme shifts from acrobatics to live vocal numbers, giving the meal a natural wind-down that lines up with the show's own change of pace ahead of the full-cast finale. It's a reasonable point in the evening to settle in rather than expect more courses; from here the night is mostly about the stage. From here, the rest of the night belongs to the stage rather than the table — there's no expectation of further food once dessert and coffee have been cleared.