Cellar Bistro

My partner and I found this restaurant a few years ago and loved it so much the first time we ended up going one a week for 5 or 6 weeks straight! Needless to say our dining out budget was broken pretty quickly. That’s not to say that The Cellar (as we call it) is expensive, we just like fine wine a little too much. ;-)
FOOD: I haven’t had an entrée here I didn’t like. Same goes for the appetizers. I would have to recommend the Gorgonzola & Roasted Garlic Crustini. Yum! Of the entrees some of my favorites are the Gnocchi Carbonara, House Lasagna, Sausage Linguini, Veal Parmesan (or Saltambocca), and any of the entrees with pesto sauce. Another thing I would recommend doing is if you don’t mind paying for fine wine, let the owner/​head chef, Ken, recommend a wine paired with whatever you’ve choosing to eat. One I would definitely recommend is the Prunotto Barolo. (His wine markups aren’t nearly as high as others around town.)

We have been to the Cellar Bistro several times and have been consistently pleased. The layout, several small rooms, makes for an intimate setting. But, I have never felt crowded or uncomfortable here.
I’ve enjoyed the various pasta dishes I’ve tried here and really love that they come with a decent-​sized and good quality side salad. There is a great selection of wines by the glass. Prices are reasonable.
We’ve always had very friendly service here.
Yep, we’ll be back.

This place was dim, but not romantic.
The food was okay, but too heavy and made me feel sick.
At least I had a coupon.

Excellent mid-​range upscale Italian, sauces and meats are very fresh and rich. Great for a date or a quiet dinner! The Godfather picture is also just a little detail that makes this place so authentic!!! Great food!

This place is fabulous, old school American Italian. If you’re looking for modern food or environs, this is not the place for you. Someone described the ambiance as kitschy, and I’d say that is dead on. I live in the neighborhood and it’s a must stop when I have company in town or just want to mellow out with a friend over a great and affordable meal. They do impressive things with chicken, and I’ve always found their entrée salads to be fresh and huge. The staff is pleasant and consistent; the restaurant does get busy some nights, and on those evenings you can count on things being a little slower.
I love it and I’m grateful to have it so close.

The Cellar is a nice restaurant with tasty food and a friendly staff. This place is very close to where we work and we like to have dinner there when we can take a break and relax a little. I would not say that I feel at home when I am there :) but their food is better than many other paces in Seattle and the staff is wonderful. In addition to a wide selection of pasta and rice dishes, the Cellar offers also great entrees that are tasty and affordable. A couple of weeks ago, we had a great steak and a great prawn dish.

I love this place. Every time I visit here I get consistently good service, consistently good food and consistently drunk. These are three of my favorite things to get. When I get them all together, I am happy.

Despite some mediocre reviews, we decided to hit this restaurant for dinner, as I was craving good ol’ fashioned pasta with red sauce.
Liz, the server, was awesome. I hear she was the one who waited on previous « Unilocalers» who were there for just drinks… and I agree that if you’re just there for drinks, the server shouldn’t hover. Liz never once «disappeared,» to leave us waiting on anything. My glass was never empty and we had a second basket of the delicious bread and saucer of the amazing olive oil minutes after emptying the first one!
On to the food! And Drinks! The Gin and Tonic was masterfully mixed. The best one we’ve had yet. The food came out Hot, just the way I like it, and was beautiful, as well as delicious. I like the «build your own» pasta dish, and had the Spicy Red Sauce with Italian Sausage. I liked that the sausage was actually diced and mixed in, rather than sitting on top like it often is with these dishes. Justin had the Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken, and didn’t make much more than «yummy» noises throughout the meal.
Dessert was phenomenal. I had Lemon Sorbet that *actually* came in a hollowed out lemon rind. It was the best sorbet I’ve ever had. Justin’s Tiramisu was equally as amazing, with more chocolate than I typically find. It was not bland and overly cakey as we’ve run into in the past. It was moist and perfect. I’m definitely ordering that next time.
I would definitely bring people here if they were new to the area. It’s a great example of what awesome local restaurants should be. The ambiance was great, the music was just the right volume, the decorations were great without being cheesy, and the staff did a great job of seating people so we weren’t packed in like sardines, but there was a good level of ambient volume… if you’re into that sort of thing. :)
PS — This was just the romantic evening my boyfriend and I needed. We’re in the middle of a pretty big move, and being able to walk in all sweaty and dirty from packing, and having an awesome meal that *wasn’t* burgers, and feeling comfortable there was great. Thanks, Liz!

i can’t accurately review the food here since i only went for drinks. i came here completely coincidentally. i was waiting for a table at tidbit and it was going to be awhile, and i noticed this place was open. the ambiance was relatively dark/​potentially romantic and it had an interesting underground feel. above your head there are wooden lattice pieces with fake grapes dangling down. we had a negroni and a mojito, both of which were decent but not great and cost $ 7 each. we arrived at 7:45 and the place was nearly empty. there was one table of people eating and no sign of any staff. our waitress (also the bartender) was very cute and friendly but she completely disappeared so my companion had to leave without me while i waited for the check.
the prices seemed relatively normal… not inexpensive, but not outrageous either. all the descriptions of the food and wine looked good. i might give them a chance to win my heart and try the food later.

I love the Cellar Bistro for the basic Italian meal. The owner has quite a few regulars and if you get to be one, you are always in for a treat. He is always bringing by some new wine to taste, an appetizer he has on special, a port or the famous sparkling shiraz…
This place will not break your bank, has attentive service, consistently good food (take it from me– order the meat lasagna and wedge salad) and a great selection of not too expensive wines. This is my favorite place to go with about 4 – 6 people and stay for a couple of hours and order as much as we can eat and drink.

There is a special place in my heart for this place. They make a great special order for me… I’m pretty bland, but I love their linguine with a garlic cream sauce. SO good…
Definitely a place where the owner/​cook (bald guy) knows who you are if you come a couple times, and will give you free alcohol on special occasions.
Very great place with quirky décor.

oh, come ON, Italian restaurant. Is it that hard to make a real caesar salad?
I had the Italian Sausage and mushroom risotto, which was rich and delicious, if a little on the dry side.
The service was great, thanks to our cutie waitress. She recommended the risotto, so I have her to thank for tonight and tomorrow’s dinner– it was humongous.
Big negative ‘green’ points though– styrofoam to-​go containers. sheesh people, it’s 2008.
Go there if you want good food in gigantic quantity.

The Cellar Bistro in Seattle had a kitschy Italian romantic feel.
There weren’t many low-​fat, healthy items on the menu, but the December specials were great! The minestrone was a bit limp (thin & watery, the veggies & pasta mushy), but our pear salad was divine. The black pepper shrimp tasted great but wasn’t much on presentation. The stuffed chicken was the piece de resistance of the meal, & was FANTASTIC! The veggies & pasta that accompanied it were phenomenal as well.
We split the red velvet cake for dessert, and while it is spelled out on the dessert menu be prepared as this is not a true red velvet cake. It was a plain brown devil’s food cake with red frosting ~ but, it still tasted homemade and terrific, I took the leftovers home with me! We’ll be back to try again, we enjoyed the cozy neighborhood feel.

This is the Ragu of Italian restaurants in Seattle. Maybe even the Chef Boy-​ar-​Dee…
«Cellar» certainly describes the musty, low-​ceilinged interior. The campy Italian décor is exactly the right match for the campy Italian food. This food seems to be what an American in 1950 may have thought Italian food is. Everything saturated with cheese and Marinara… oh my burning heart.
We ordered Bruschetta and a couple of pasta dishes. Appallingly, the Bruschetta was served with MARINARA SAUCE on it. Nary a fresh tomato. It basically was french bread pizza without the french bread. I think it may even have had cheese on it. Don’t remember for sure — I’m trying to block it out.
The pasta dishes were OK, but certainly nothing special.
Why is this restaurant so crowded on weekends?

I can’t believe this place isn’t on Unilocal yet! It’s been open for a couple of years now.
The perfect restuarant for — a date, a family dinner, out of town guests, old friends. It’s not cheap but you won’t have to take out a loan either. Maybe $ 30/​person, if you each get a glass of wine, more if you start ordering bottles. The food is really wonderful. It’s fairly traditional italian, with a few new items on the menu every now and then. Risotto was great, chicken piccata was too. But honestly, I can barely bring myself to order anything besides the lasagna, because it’s THAT GOOD. comes with three different sauces, a red, a pesto, and an alfredo. So creamy. so rich… sigh.
Dessert: for a while they had profiteroles (kind of like tiny eclairs), then this delicious chocolatey volcano torte thingie (my table ordered one, then a second, after we tasted the first one). Skip the red velvet cake though, it’s not good.
Ambiance? this place has sort of an underground feel, it actually used to be a parking garage so there are all these little stalls which gives the effect of having dinner in a small room rather than a crowded restaurant. Traditional italian-​restaurant décor, cozy and nice but not pretentious. I’ve seen prom parties here all dressed up, but you’d also be fine in jeans.
Basically — perfect for a nice, no-​hassle, delicous meal.

Valentine’s Day. You, me, and the velvet Sinatra.
Not too sure why a velvet Frank Sinatra portrait graces restrooms at Cellar Bistro. The wink of humor is an appreciated gesture from this cavernous establishment. The image of the chairman of the board could be viewed as comforting. Patrons who may wonder just where exactly they were can look to the Sinatra and be assured that someone, somewhere along the lines of this restaurant, isn’t taking things too seriously. Unfortunately, the fellow diners of this establishment have another agenda and its staff can’t seem to get over themselves.
Think Sicilian catacombs when navigating the spatial relationships of this restaurant. Tables are nudged into corpse quarters, hidden off track enough for the staff to have lapses in consciousness. I don’t mean that in a rude way but for some, out of sight out of mind is affective. This is where that dream of becoming a wildlife expert can be lived out. The staff offers up strangers a glimpse into their dressing rituals. I couldn’t help but watch the dazed and confused rove the floor plan tugging at tendrils and apron strings, shifting and adjusting, and thinking to myself «I bet this is what they do at home». The moment a member of staff touches their hair accept that that third plea for parmesan cheese has been forgotten. Oh along with water, the salad ordered thirty minutes ago, and place settings.
Bounced off the main drag of 10^th, one is greeted with a complicated, if not insufficient, parking lot. Once inside, the hallway from the door to the host station is long enough to utter «I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore Toto». Cellar might be on Capitol Hill but it is North Capitol Hill. Far removed from the subcultures of Broadway, North Capitol Hill insinuates its differences at Aloha and continues to assert them all the further north one goes. A wealthy and stodgy part of town, one may get the general impression that residents of this area were hoping they could have just one spot to themselves.
Aside from feeling like one entered vanilla hell, the food suggested to me that a trademark war exists in Cellar Bistro’s past. The little guy is always getting steamrolled by the major corporations and Cellar Bistro is a perfect example of this. Poor Cellar Bistro, Olive Garden is the one who proudly proclaims «When you’re here, you’re family». I bet it hurts every time the phrase is mentioned.

If there’s anything I hate it’s having to ask for things more than once. The food here is okay. The anitpasti was pretty good and my chicken parmesiano wasn’t too bad. But the Caesar salads tasted frozen.
But for me it’s the service that’s the deal breaker. The staff was all really young and really, really confused. Our waiter seemed to be in charge but would disappear for long periods of time. The busgirl kept trying to take our bruschetta because she said we didn’t need two breads (I didn’t even begin to try to explain it to her. But for me, the worst part was having to ask for a second glass of wine from two different people until it finally came. There’s really no excuse for that, especially in an Italian restaurant where wine is a big feature of the meal.

I love this place, and I’ve been going for years — since it was Spaghetti Red’s — and through the unfortunate Vicino phase of recent history. Luckily, Cellar Bistro captures those things I loved about Spaghetti Red’s and keeps them alive: great food (especially the cream pesto dishes!), great winelist, good prices, and a nice, accommodating waitstaff.
Best of all, they’ve brought back the pineapple coconut cake, which is sublime. I’m not a fan of pineapple anything, and wary of coconut in general — but there is something about this cake that has made me a fanatic. Sadly, it’s not an everyday thing; you have to catch them on the right night, when they’ve made the cake, and hope that there’s some left.
Overall, a great experience — and while I’m happy that they’re being (re)discovered, I’m sad it’s so busy all the time now. That, and the inconsistent availability of the best cake I’ve ever tasted are the only things keeping this from being a «five».

Weird how I keep coming back to this place… Below Jeff L says that it was called the Cassas Bistro, I was going to this location years ago when it was called «Vicino». The place is pretty weirdly cool as far as décor goes… The framed naked women on velvet have been replaced with Don Vito Corleone (on velvet). The service was pretty good although one of the guys serving us was on another planet, the other one was sharp. I had to get up and find the music dial because it was so quite in the back that we noticed it… so I turned on the music (which was what you would expect in an Italian place.)
I thought the food was fantastic! I had the veggie Lasagna and it was one of the best I’ve ever had, some of our group thought their dishes were to spicy… YMMV. The prices were higher than the were but not too high: $ 12 to $ 18…
This place is very close to the Roanoke Tavern… that’s how I found it years ago… It is also quick and easy to get to after any event at UW.

The Cellar is a place I stumbled upon a little over a year ago after it had been renovated from the Cassis Bistro. Tucked behind the XO Bistro on the corner of 10^th and Miller, the Cellar offers phenomenal food (I might stretch to say some of the best Italian you can get in Seattle), reasonable prices, prompt and friendly service, and a great atmosphere.
It’s the type of place that will make a regular out of you. Even after moving out of Northern Capitol Hill, my girlfriend and I still make frequent trips there.