Artusi — Restaurant in Seattle

Artusi had been one of my Seattle favorite for years. The food and the atmosphere have always been the perfect blend of comfortable and elevated.

A year or 2 ago, I had a terrible experience with the sommelier (who came in from sister restaurant Spinasse). We wanted to try something new but he was rude, condescending, and insisted that all Italian wine is bone dry. Now, I'm not a sommelier, but I know enough about wine + have had a lot of Italian wine in my years and know that it's just not true. He ruined the experience for us so after that, we stayed away.

Fast forward to last weekend and we decided to give it another go. Back to it's former self, had a great experience! Food: still excellent. Service: Lilly was amazing! She was fun to interact with, on top of everything we needed, and went out of her way to bring some extra touches. Cortland helped us with our wine selection and was a complete 180 from the sommelier that turned us off before. Friendly, casually chatted with us about the wine....zero pretention.

So glad that we gave it another shot and will...

Very happy that my fiance took me here! Went on a random Tuesday night, got there kind of early for happy hour and got seated right away by the window. Loved the vibes and light in the restaurant.

We ordered the focaccia, meatballs w/ sourdough, chopped salad, nettle ricotta raviolis, & a cannoli for dessert. Focaccia was amazing - stuffed with cheese, prosciutto had tons of flavor, my favorite part was the kind of hard/chewy edges! Meatballs were very good, not the best I've ever had BUT the marinara?? Definitely some of the best I've had in a while, so good, right up my alley when it comes to red sauce. The chopped salad was fine, nothing super exciting but tasty & crisp/fresh lettuce. The nettle ricotta raviolis were so fun! They looked super plain when they came out so I wasn't expecting much but then I ate one and wow the flavor! It was simple yet complex, a great ravioli. The cannoli was good too - filling was on point, shell could have been a bit crispier/fresher.

Definitely...

Went here because we saw a review in the NYT. Though it was a solid meal, I don’t think it warrants critical acclaim. We went for happy hour, and I don’t think the portions or the taste is worth more than the discounted price.

My boyfriend got an Old-Fashioned which he said was very good. We ordered the Farro Salad, Fry Bread, and Meatballs to start. The portions were all small. The Fry Bread could easily have been skipped—I don’t know what they were going for in regards to taste or appearance—and the Farro Salad was unremarkable. The meatballs were very good and are what I would recommend most. We ordered the Salmon Agnolotti for the main dish (picture has a few bites missing) which was presented very strangely. The broth looked like unstrained pasta water, and the agnolotti definitely delivered a strong fishy taste!

I’m hoping that we ordered wrong, since normally the NYT doesn’t miss. However, while I’m not upset that I went—it was a good enough meal—I wouldn’t go again or recommend...