Cantinetta

I really want to like this place as we live nearby and choices are slim. Disappointed. The Mista salad was way to wet and the pasta dish, although handmade and nice ingredients, was too dry… just boring and salty. I can do better myself which makes going out so not special! Come on Cantinetta work on some of these details — listen/​read reviews… pretty consistent! 3 stars cuz the wait staff was really pleasant and accommodating.

Had an OK meal at Cantinetta, but nothing special. The appetizers we had were probably the best part of the meal. The grilled octopus was cooked wonderfully and tasted great. The burrata was also really good, especially for something that is usually so vanilla. I had the halibut for my main, which was really underwhelming. I appreciated the fact that it was not just drenched in butter like is so often the case, but the broth that it was served in was really not flavorful and it ended up just being a a piece of fish in some bland stock. No one else at the table really seemed to enjoy their entrees either which included the risotto, ravioli, and the beef. Additionally, I had 3 of the reds available by the glass, none of which were very interested. For desert, the everyone else’s recommendation of the zeppole was spot on. The tiramissu was also one of the better ones I’ve had.

I want to like this place, but I’ve been here twice, and I don’t want to go back. The service is great, the menu is seasonal and fresh, and the cocktails are nice, but the food is really boring.
I went here for my birthday a few years ago with my family because I love traditional Italian food, but most people agreed the food was salty, while everyone agreed the flavors were one note and forgettable.
I tried it again just last week, thinking enough time had passed. We got the burrata appetizer because I love fresh cheese with honey and truffle salt, but my first bite was shockingly salty. My entrée was also very salty, and despite all the ingredients on the plate, it had no other flavors, and I was tired of eating it halfway through. My husband got their popular bolognese pasta, and he also remarked that it was a little boring for being their specialty. We also sucked down our cocktails in record time because the food was so salty and the water glasses are very tiny.
The final straw was the dessert. I decided a nice slice of tiramisu would save the meal, but that was the densest mascarpone filling I have ever had in a tiramisu, and it wasn’t pleasant. The lady fingers were also soggy. Tiramisu by its name is meant to lift you up and raise your spirits, and that’s not because of its caffeine content. It should be light and fluffy, not layers of soggy and dense.
Overall, the food is well prepared, but it’s boring. The prices make sense for the ingredients and time they put into their food, but I can make mediocre food at home for less. I can forgive a lot of things in a restaurant experience, but if the food doesn’t make you want to come back, then it’s not a good restaurant. I’d much rather travel out to Seattle to get my traditional Italian fix.

Came here for the first time with two other couples. Great food but a tad slow on delivery of drinks and the main courses. Nonetheless very good! Recommend the Mista salad.

It’s your typical fancy restaurant with a pricey menu and small portions. The menu items do not come with a description, so I did not know what most of the items were. The food was okay… I didn’t think there was anything extraordinary about it. The place is very loud, so it’s very hard to have a conversation. The service is a bit slow and you may stay longer than desired. I enjoy a fancy restaurant, but its reputation has to fit the bill. Overall, it was just for the experience. But I think I’ll pass on another visit.

Overall, very good food and excellent service. The Burrata as appetizer is awesome, very special. The Pesce di Giorno we had was Halibut served over soup-​like gravy; very tasty. The Gnudi was fine, but not spectacular. The only weak part was the tiramisu dessert — it seemed like it wasn’t fresh, perhaps a consequence of staying in the fridge for too long. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our dinner and we’ll be back.

Service was great and food was great. I’m stingy with five stars for those really special places. We had the kale salad, papadellli, ravioli.
Angelo made us done great drinks. He makes a special Manhattan that you have to try!

Bad service, way overpriced, small menu selection, drink pours are weak especially when you consider the cost. I will not return!

Awesome staff. Great room. Design is very welcoming. Food not perfect but good enough. The service and room make up for it. !

We live local, came in a bit late in the evening (about 10pm) excited for a well deserved desert after a movie with my young daughter and was SOURLY DISAPPOINTED by the IMPERSONAL /​IMPATIENT /​RUDE ATTITUDE of the waitress ‘assigned’ to serve us. I purposefully chose a seat that was out of the way and respectfully stated that we were only here for a quick treat for my young daughter. … I completely understand people have mood/​moments that influence their lives which is why I specifically stated our purpose as soon as we walked in. The ‘waitress was so RUDE to the point of us simply walking OUT right then and there.
Sooooo disappointing and sad to explain to a child…

One question: Would you feel comfortable eating off a table that the owner let his diapered son scoot around on while also allowing his young daughter to empty the salt shakers so she could draw pictures in it with her wet fingers?
I used to eat there until I witnessed that.

I’m a huge fan. Great food, friendly servers, nice wine list and a rotating menu. Just a heads up, they aren’t open for lunch and aren’t open on Mondays at all.
Insider tip: If they are serving the grilled octopus appetizer, order it (maybe twice) then enjoy. It’s one of the more delicious preparations of the eight legged critter I’ve ever had.
Insider tip 2: (As if you wouldn’t already) Be sure to check in on Unilocal to take advantage of their free dessert offer.

The stars I gave them has nothing to do with the food. 1 star for the most charming, old-​world, Italian countryside atmosphere, 1 star for their helpful service, and 1 more star because even the most awful restaurants get 1 star.
My husband took me here for my birthday and the staff gave us the royal treatment with a corner booth. I felt like Ray Liotta’s wife on a date in Goodfellas. Expectations were high from that moment on.
But then the food took forever. I know damn well that gnocchi takes only 3 minutes to boil. When it finally came out, I’m sad to say it was too salty and otherwise flavorless. There was no flavor in the sauce or was it just olive oil? Since then I’ve made better home-​cooked gnocchi with the help of QFC’s pasta section.
Overall, I liked the experience though, especially because we sat next to 2 old, rich Bellevue women. The entire time they talked about investments, and one had more Cartier bracelets on than Kylie Jenner. I looked at my one lonely Cartier bracelet and imagined one day, I will be an old, rich Bellevue woman with stacks of Cartier bracelets.
The restaurant left me feeling like I’m doing well in life and going places as another year passes.

Ambiance was wonderful; Tuscany and cozy, warm and inviting.
Our server had no opinion over the pasta dishes and no personality to boot. I would have appreciated more enthusiastic, personable advice on what Cantinetta’s best dishes are.
The food quality meet my expectations of fresh and cooked perfectly.
House red wine — surprisingly good for $ 6.5
Smoked Mozzarella — portion for 2 person appetizer; extremely yummy!
Salmon w/​corn purée and rainbow chard entrée — salmon was perfectly cooked, corn purée added nothing to the dish, rainbow chard was probably in 3 oz. serving size or less; this dish had no competing flavors and outside of the salmon serving, the rest of the dish did not complete the entrée
Bologanese — super fresh pasta, great flavors in meat and just enough tomato. However, pasta dishes are supposed to fill people up, no? I was HIGHLY disappointed in the serving size.
Overall I would go back, but in this price point, and it NOT being a small plates restaurant, I would like to see pasta portion sizes be larger.
Cheers!

Sorry. I was very disappointed with my dining experience here. My husband and I came in for dinner on Friday night 730 and they were out of two of the pasta dishes. I did look at their menu prior to arriving and had my dish all picked out. Out of Gnocchi? Wow! They offered no replacement dishes.
The service was good and the wine selection was great! The ambiance was very nice, dim lighting and nicely decorated.
Sorry if you make fresh pasta daily make enough for emergencies or have a back up plan. They ran out of two before 8pm on Friday night:(

Best. Bar. Ever.
Go see Angelo.
Hands down my favorite bartender ever.
I don’t care how busy you are. How pretentious you are. How picky you are.
Go. Sit back. And enjoy. He’ll take care of you and show you what true Seattle hospitality is about.
Food is phenomenal. The Zeppole for dessert might be the highlight of everything for me.
This isn’t a place you just stumble upon, it’s a place you hear about through someone… you won’t regret it. I promise.

I’ll start with the positive, location and atmosphere were great! However, the limited menu was disappointing. Follow that up with little to no flexibility when it came making menu exceptions… it was not what I’d hoped for. The service was really just so so…
Overall, I don’t think I would go out of my way to go there again.

I will say that everyone (4 of us) wanted to love this place, it looks so cool and inviting from the outside but it was anything but a pleasurable experience. Let’s go with the good first
–very cool look outside and in
–loved the low lighting
Okay, good is over sadly, now to the brutal bad truth
–1 bathroom… wtf?
–I’ve seen more words on a .99 Hallmark Card than their menu, I asked if it was a chef special card, no it was the menu and the variety sucked
–service…we nearly needed to check the pulse of our waitress to ensure she was alive
–portion size… we all ate after we left, not kidding. I’ve had larger portions in a lunchable
–extremely overpriced
–wine list was very short and left you wanting everything and anything that they did not offer
Most of this is repairable, and hopefully they can bounce back, doesn’t seem like they have been impressing many over the past few months.

Our first time here and both the service and the food were excellent. To a small restaurant with what seems to be a truly Italian menu.
The chestnut soup and baby best salad were both outstanding and presentation of the beet salad was excellent.
For dinner we had the halibut with mushrooms and the cheese ravioli with a light and earthy Marsala mushroom sauce. Both were delicious and my husband said its one of the best (and largest) halibut dishes he’s ever had.
For dessert we opted for the complimentary Unilocal check in dessert which is four fresh Italian donuts filled with Nutella.
A cure place with great food that is presented very well. What more can you ask for really?

Went with a group of 8 people for my husband’s birthday dinner. Found this place online because of their reviews and the location was good for our group. We made reservations which was good cause it was busy for a Wednesday night.
After we were seated it took over 15 minutes to get water. We brought in our own wine so we had drinks but the kids we were with didn’t even get asked if they wanted anything else to drink. The bread appetizer was good but nothing too special. We all ordered different things (gnocchi, risotto, salmon etc) so I got to try almost everything on the menu (the menu only had a handful of items).
Overall the food was good but nothing I would want to go again. I have had much better pasta at other places in the city. The service wasn’t that great either, as others have mentioned before, and r food wasn’t great enough to cancel out the poor service.