Chowhound: Otto Enoteca Pizzeria at The Grand Canal Shoppes Las Vegas
Otto Enoteca Pizzeria is a very unassuming restaurant located on the second floor of the Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian Las Vegas in the Piazza San Marco. You can sit inside the restaurant or outside on the patio where you can watch European street performers. Whatever you decide, you'll always have a view of the blue sky with the wonderful ceilings. Plus while you are in Las Vegas, it’s nice to get “lost” for a couple hours in Italy!
Otto Enoteca & Pizzeria is the third addition to the Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich Las Vegas family of restaurants (The others are CARNEVINO at The Palazzo Las Vegas and B & B Ristorante at The Venetian Las Vegas). At its essence Otto Enoteca Pizzeria is the pizzeria it says, but there is more to enjoy here than just pizza. There are 100 bottles of wine under $100 and you can sit and sip samples to create your own personal wine tasting experience by buying a Enomatic card. Otto Enoteca Pizzeria is known almost as much for their wine and antipasti as they are their pizza.
When I go to a steakhouse, I eat steak and when I go to a place with pizza in the name I'm going to eat pizza. Even though I was tempted to try other items, I didn't divert from my plan. I didn't want other items to get in the way of the basic ingredients so I decided to try a simple marinara pizza which is made with tomato, garlic, marinara sauce and fresh mozzarella cheese. I didn't expect to have more than a snack as it was lunch time, but I ended up so happy with the fresh ingredients that I ate the whole thing. On another visit, I decided to add the house-made sausage and roasted peppers to the pizza and thoroughly enjoyed it. My two trips so far have been great and the next time I visit Otto Enoteca & Pizzeria, I will likely sit at the bar and make my own wine flight while snacking on their house made salumi and artisanal cheeses.
In addition to the food being well worth the visit, the vibe of the open air Piazza San Marco where Otto Enoteca Pizzeria is located is a great setting for an indoor/outdoor lunch. If you let your mind free it really does have a feeling of being in Italy. The people watching can be fun, especially if you don't mind the occasional screaming kid who's taken to the mall.
