Dining: Little Italy
By Allison Austin Scheff January 16, 2014
This article originally appeared in the February 2014 issue of Seattle magazine.
The depth and breadth of Seattles restaurants are best judged by the quality of our everyday bistros, the places we frequent so often, we sometimes dont give them quite enough thought. The new Bar Cantinetta in Madison Valley the small sibling of the Cantinetta restaurants in Bellevue and Wallingford is a perfect example. Every dish on the concise Italian menu sounds and tastes good, the service is expert and easy to engage, the cozy room is comfortable and superbly lit, and the price points are in that sweet spot not cheap, but not expensive. One evening, an excellent version of steak tartare ($13), aggressively seasoned and topped with a quail egg, arrived first. Then we happily lost ourselves in a shallow bowl of tagliatelle ($14), given the cacio e pepe (cheese and black pepper) treatment but made creamy with an egg yolk and creme fraiche. There were seasonal starters figs wrapped in speck and then roasted, with fresh mozzarella and arugula ($10.50) in autumn and a meat or fish entree on offer, but do leave room for sophisticated, scrumptious sweets by pastry chef Karen Krol, formerly of Ba Bar and recently featured as a 2013 Tastemaker in Seattle magazines Best New Restaurants issue.
Lunch TuesdayFriday, dinner TuesdaySunday. 2811 E. Madison St., Seattle; 206.329.1501; barcantinetta.com.