La Medusa — Restaurant in Seattle

EDITED REVIEW: initial post is below.

I went for the second time after many months, and did not have the same experience that I did over the summer. The people themselves were incredibly nice as always, but the quality of food just felt different. The appetizers of arancino, grandma’s greens, and the olives were all pretty good. However, they brought them out individually one by one and each at least 10 to 15 minutes apart. Given that our reservation was on the later side and app portions are small , we were pretty hungry for the first hour due to the pace of the meal. After the appetizers, it took quite a bit for the main course to come out. We ordered three pastas, the malfadine, the spaghetti, and the Campanelle. They were pretty good, but not nearly the quality that they were when I came here over the summer. They also did not come out until almost 9 PM (our reservation was 730 )The sauces did not feel like they had as much depth as before, although still yummy.

I hope that this is a one off experience, because I really liked it the first time. But for the price and distance to get there from the city, I will put more thought into my decision next time.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: This is one of new favorite restaurants in seattle! I have tried several Italian spots in the city and this is certainly one of my top five! (Other notable spots I love are Il Nido, Spinasse, Machiavelli, tavolata )

First off, the service was incredible. Our waitress was so sweet and knowledgeable of the menu. We got grandmas greens, the croquette, bread, and mafaldine pasta with braised beef shank. Everything was stellar!! Particularly the croquette. They have a rotating menu and all the other dishes I saw also looked good. I need to come back and try everything!

The ambience is quaint and definitely has a local feel. I loved it. I felt like I was in Italy. There are no bells and whistles, just good food, good service, and warm energy. A true...

The food was all excellent except for the meatballs, which are not worth ordering. Arancini are definitely worth ordering. My perciatelli with sardines was wow good. But it took FOREVER for all our food to show up. We were a party of three and the restaurant was crowded but not filled up on a Saturday night. The kitchen was either short-staffed or has a really tough time putting a steak together, because the steak is the reason we were told our meal was so late coming to our table. The time interval between finishing our appetizers and receiving our entrees was easily over 30 minutes. No apology, nothing extra brought out as a mea culpa, nothing reduced from the bill. Also, the two white wines by the glass were not particularly good, particularly the Gewurztraminer, which was especially bad. Service was friendly but an upfront on wait times would have been nice.

If you like excellent pasta and don't mind waiting for it, this is your spot. Plus Molly Moon's is across the street, and since Italian desserts are never worth it, that makes for a good combination. Oh, and the linen towels in the bathroom are...

Really wanted to love this place. Tried to walk-in in the past but they were booked til late, this place must be good!

Made a reservation for tonight only to be greeted with page flipping and confusion upon entry - did we book the wrong day? Make a mistake? Not a great first impression.

Excited to see Lambrusco on the menu! Unlucky, they were fresh out.

Ordered a squid pasta described to have capers and anchovies - both of which we love.. pasta was undercooked (pre-al dente) without a caper or anchovy to be found.

The special entree was an olive oil poached tuna with escarole, capers and Calabrian tomatoes.

This entree was more of a cold salad with quality but seemingly canned tuna and maybe 2 sundried tomatoes. Radicchio and frisée were fresh and crisp. No escarole.. Oh if only there were a caper…

Flavors were good. Service was kind and friendly.

Prices are exorbitant for what you get and menu is oversold and under delivered.

Maybe our experience was a fluke. The atmosphere and menu were charming and did remind us of Italy.

Will try again another time once we’ve eaten through a jar of...