La Fontana Siciliana — Restaurant in Seattle

Given the number of five-staat reviews, we were shocked at just how remarkably mediocre the food was. The staff was wonderful, and the atmosphere likewise. The experience was accented by lovely, live piano music feet from our table. It seemed like the perfect evening until we tried our food. Four hours later, it's heartburn for me, which I haven't experienced in perhaps more than a decade.

I'm still giving it three stars, though the food itself would have gotten a two. It pangs me to be so critical of the food, but I'm baffled by the high marks they've received considering our meals. This feels especially harsh because I realize how difficult it is to run a restaurant right now, plus the people were extremely friendly and put forward their best effort. Perhaps their usual chef was out sick, or supply costs and availability ruined the quality. What it is, I can't say. I just know that I wouldn't recommend anyone eat here based on this one experience.

It's worth noting that I really do appreciate quality, authentic Italian food. I speak the language passably and have made every effort to try the best of each region while traveling there. I'll admit some bias toward Lazio and Toscana, but this place still should have been a slam-dunk with me.

Regarding our order:

Tortellini Cefalù The pistachio lemon cream sauce is what drew my girlfriend into recommending this place. It's a lovely idea and an excellent nod to the pistachio-filled heritage to be found in the Sicilian city of Cefalù. The freshness of lemon was nowhere to be found, and the pistachio, though detectable because we knew it was there, was not the highlight. The "highlight" was something almost bitter in the sauce. The tortellini themselves were perfect, but they were bathed in that flavor. The sauce was rather thick, didn't taste of parmesan, let alone something lighter like pecorino, so perhaps it was a thickening agent or a poor choice in cheese that ruined it. My girlfriend quit before getting halfway through.

Cannelloni di Vitello The pasta itself was beautifully delicate and the tri-color presentation was top-notch. I'd sadly compare the veal filling to cat food.

The cream sauce suffered the same issues as in the other dish, but was more bland in the absence of lemon and pistachio.

The red sauce was just sweet and oily. I suspect it's the culprit behind heartburn, though it's hard to imagine how that could be the case given how bland it was. You can almost make out a bit of the separation of this sauce in the attached image, meaning something didn't go quite right.

The green sauce was more of a basil cream, not the pesto most of us know from Genoa, but "Siciliana" is in the restaurant's name, not "Genovese." Adding pine nuts and lots of garlic would have helped, but ultimately it was plagued by whatever was going on with their cream sauces.

The cheese on top, as you can see in the photo, has a grainier texture as though they took the cost-saving measure of some low-quality, pre-grated variety instead of breaking out the microplane with a...

We ate there last evening using a Groupon. Let me first say that we have been to Italy and throughout the Mediterranean several times and we do know how great good Italian food can be. We were very disappointed, First of all it is a very quaint establishment and our expectations were high. The entry courtyard and fountain are beautiful and would be a truly unique setting for a summer evening meal. Once seated we were served their seasoned balsamic/oil dipping sauce and bread. The balsamic was excellent but the bread was quite ordinary. Perhaps if it had been heated up it may have gone well with the dipping sauce. We started off our meal with the crème of mushroom soup. What a disappointment! It was crème soup with a hint of overly bland and blended mushrooms. This was not a mushroom soup. For the entre' my wife ordered the tricolor sauce cannelloni and I had the seafood special. We were both terribly disappointed. The cannelloni was tough and the sauces were, well quite frankly, not very good. The white sauce was probably the same stuff they called crème of mushroom soup, the green "pesto" sauce tasted like it came fresh out of a can and the red sauce was the same bland tomato-like substance I had on my seafood special. Speaking of which was very poor at best! The scallops were way over cooked and therefor very tough and tasteless rather than sweet and tender, the mussels were very strong and I think not very fresh at all but the clams (those that were actually open!) were quite good. Again the tomato sauce was disappointing. Also, the spaghetti was tough and the entire dish was just not good. I will say the service was acceptable. All in all a fairly disappointing evening. We live in the south Sound and dine in Seattle once or twice a month. Whenever we venture north and do decide to invest the money and time to dine there we have very high expectations. There are so many really great restaurants to choose from in the city. For the value, even with the Groupon this was not a good deal. For our money and enjoyment we will probably never give this place a second chance. Especially when we know we can got to Il Fornaio or Wild Ginger and get an excellent meal every time. All I can say is too bad La Fontana Sicilana..........you...

First time coming here and my mom and I were super impressed! We’ve been hearing about this place for months because of all the Seattle foodies and influencers visiting. We came around 8pm on a random Wednesday night, we also called beforehand and they gladly made a reservation for us for a party of two which was sweet!

Parking is super tricky here so keep that in mind, it is smack down in the middle of the city so we were prepared for that. You can either park near a parking lot or parallel park on streeet parking for free.

Outside it looks small but once you walk in it’s absolutely gorgeous. I believe they have outdoor seating when it’s nice and sunny out but we came when it was cold and wet outside.

The food was phenomenal! Definitely coming back here for more to try the other things on the menu. If you are a RISOTTO lover this place is for you.

What we ordered: burrata (fresh Italian cheese made from an outer shell of mozzarella filled with a creamy center of fresh mozzarella curds) 4 pieces of garlic bread ( best side topped with Parmesan cheese )

Risotto ai Funghi (topped with truffle oil) super flavorful! If you like meat you can add protein like chicken

Linguini di mare (showstopper!) black ink pasta with loads of seafood

One thing I want to comment on, our server, he was nice however he seemed like he was in a rush. When he was taking our order, I told him our entrees and he grabbed the menu from me (didn’t even ask if he could grab the menu, like what) then I had to ask the menu from him back cause I just wasn’t done ordering. Another thing that caught me off guard is he was coughing loudly in the corner.

Another thing is the main dishes took 30 minutes to come out (it was worth the wait though!) however if you’re in a rush I don’t recommend coming here as it’s a fancy dine in sit down restaurant. After like 30 minutes of waiting I asked our server if the food was coming and he said it is I’m just waiting for you to finish your appetizer (not sure if that’s the norm here but it was...