Serafina — Restaurant in Seattle

Couldn't be more disappointed about the way this meal started out so well and quickly ended with us walking out before we planned on it. Having come here since the 1990s, we planned this as a special occasion and arrived to a fairly empty restaurant, asking for a quiet table away from the fray, and seated in an area with almost no one which we were very happy with. Our waitperson started out very personable and energetic, but unfortunately she struggled to explain the terms on the menu, and once we received our food, she never came back to ask us how our food was. The cocktails were good, but the focaccia was cold and the meatballs were very mealy because they were ground incorrectly (My husband is a butcher, which our server knew), and the maiale pork dish was some of the worst pork I've ever tasted, primarily because they seem to have sucked all the fat and flavoring out of it and we ended up with dry, charred meat that was barely edible. The lasagna, on the other hand, was brilliant, but as we were eating that, a couple was seated literally four inches away from our table and suddenly we could no longer hear our conversation and instead got to hear our server chatting them up while never returning to see how our own meal was. By that point because we were no longer at the quiet table away from everything, we decided we were not going to stay anymore, particularly because the $46 meat dish was abhorrent, and when we asked our busser to please see about getting our check, and I had my credit card on the table, our server finally returned and snatched away my card without bothering to even show us the check. When I asked her to please bring the check before running our card, she did, but never asked us how our meal was. So my husband quietly let her know about the meat, and that from a butcher's perspective they really got it wrong, and instead of taking the gentle feedback in the manner intended, she instead got defensive and even with the seating arrangement, did the "I don't have any control over it" excuse instead of trying to make the customer happier. We would have stayed and had port and dessert, but this complete disinterest in making it better after being served almost $50 worth of overcooked, under flavored pork, there was no way we were going to risk anymore. Spending almost $200 there, and seeing that they also add a 4% surcharge because they can't bother simply paying their staff enough based on their menu prices? That was really the last straw, and we will definitely not be back. As respectful customers, we tried to address this before writing this review, but the apathy there was pretty shocking unfortunately. Hopefully Serafina will pay attention to this from both a service and food quality standpoint, because people celebrating special occasions like we were (oh yeah and the server asked the other table inches away from us if they were celebrating anything but definitely did not ask us, even though we had it specifically noted on our reservation!) aren't going to return when they feel ignored and feedback...

Seattle Restaurant Week review

(Edit update: Highly probable that I caught COVID from here the evening of 30 October 2022. Tested positive for COVID on 3 November 2022. This was the last public place I've visited. I haven't left my apartment since Sunday night.)

[Edit update 2: Friend and brother tested positive as well. Everyone works from home and no one had been out in public prior to going out to eat that night. Continue to be safe everyone!]

I went on a Sunday evening with my brother and friend. We decided to try each of the appetizers, entrées, and desserts from the SRW menu. The crostacci took first place with the appetizers, followed by the autunno, and lastly and plainly the ravanello. For the main dish I thought it was a tie between the melanzane and pesce. The eggplant had very good texture and was complimented well with the noodles, cheese, and sauce - very tasty and delicious. A good amount of fish and shrimp came with the pesce and the risotto was well made. The maiale was not impressive at all. I wish there were some redeeming qualities of the dish, but honestly it was just a plain old cooked pork loin. It was supposed to be so tender that you could cut it like butter (server's words), but it was a bit frustrating to cut even with the steak knife I was given.

I thought all of the desserts were great in their own way. The affogato was a really delicious combination of Gelato with hot espresso poured on it and a fresh biscotti to dunk into the mix. The mele was addicting because of the vanilla cream and sugary cinnamon glaze you can smother on the fritter 🤤. The formaggio was the interesting and fun dessert as there were a variety of ways to eat the complex tasting crackers with the toppings.

When the manager asked how our meal was and heard our feedback on the maiale was not good he didn't hesitate to try and make up for the poor experience by taking off the cost of the glass of wine that my brother ordered. Would we have like to have $20 taken off of the price of the meal, yes but it's restaurant week so we were thankful to at least have our concern acknowledged.

The manager and server were friendly and fun individuals to interact with and met our needs with high satisfaction. The regular menu prices look a bit pricey, but I would like to come back to try some of their regular dishes to see how big their...

Location--Corner location, outdoor dining, no view of lake, pets okay--I witnessed a dog patron on the patio with their owner, parking was non-existent.

Service--after FINALLY finding a parking spot, we walked into the restaurant. There was no direction as to how to get a table, the host did not move from her spot to welcome us in, we had to walk in past the bar to be helped. There were only three of us (my husband, daughter, and myself). She asked how many, and I stated 3, then she said it would be a 15-20-minute wait, and we said okay. I noticed that she did not write our name down. We asked for a menu to get an idea of what their dishes and ingredients were and the hostess handed us a paper menu. We proceeded to wait outside. There were many empty tables and yet there was a wait??? Extremely puzzling...

Ambiance--As we drove past, it seemed nice but once we parked, and walked in, the restaurant seemed tired, dark and not fresh.

In a Nutshell--The experience was not great, and it did not feel welcoming for tourists who were exploring Seattle, like us. The entire time we waited, the bartender and waiter stared at us but never offered us an update on our table. After waiting for about 15 minutes, my husband walked in, placed the menu on the counter, and we left to eat elsewhere.

Background: We are from Southern California who were exploring the lake area when we got hungry. I yelped a restaurant with a good rating as we were driving through the area. After our negative experience at this place, we ended up at Johnny Mo's Pizzeria down the street which was a win!!!! They had excellent service and we felt welcome from the moment we stepped foot on the property not to mention that their food...