We spent a few days in Venice last summer. We stayed about 10 minutes from the Rialto bridge (in between there and the train station) in an airbnb. Not a particularly touristy area. Most meals we ate around our airbnb. There was a grocery store a few mins away that provided our breakfasts and snacks (fruits, pastries, some sandwich fixings, gelato, mozzarella balls, etc) with prices similar to a nice US grocery store (like whole foods). Not cheap, but rather expensive compared to Aldi/Lidl prices found elsewhere in continental Europe. I noticed the Rialto Market (open air market) sold the exact same fresh fruits as we bought in the grocery store maybe 5-6 minutes away but the prices were 2-3x higher (and produce wasn't as nice since it was hot outside). Tourist tax.
A pizza place 30 seconds from our front door offered huge 18-20" pizzas for $9-11 depending on toppings. 1 wasn't quite enough for the 5 of us and 2 was more than enough. We packed some leftover pizza and snacked on that in St Marks Square instead of elbowing our way into a tourist trap restaurant. That pizza place was our go to for good eats. Having 3 sometimes picky kids with us certainly made the decision to dine on delicious cheap real Italian pizza an easy choice.
Our other restaurant venture was finding some seafood. Nobody sells take out in Venice it seems. Eventually I found a place and got a couple of seafood pasta plates for $25 total and they weren't great but the price is about the same as what you would pay in the US for similar. Gelato was $2-4 depending on size, and pretty consistent with what we paid elsewhere in Europe.
Moral of the story: don't dine right on the tourist strip but a couple blocks away and you'll be fine.
