Tavolata Capitol Hill Reviews

Great happy hour, great deals, great staff! Ca n hardly wait to return! Opened at 5 p.m. got busy within an hour or less

We met family members for dinner on a Monday night. We made last-minute reservations and when we arrived the restaurant was full. The space was relatively small and pretty loud. Our server was great. The place was pretty noisy, we had a family with three small kids behind us. The food was good albeit a bit pricey for the portion size. You add the 20% service charge to the tab and it's an expensive meal. Wine was not as good as we'd hoped either. Probably not a location we'd hurry back to.

Tavolàta adds a West Coast twist to classic Italian dishes and does so well. Their roasted beetroot salad was excellent and their spaghetti with anchovies, garlic and mint will live in the memory for a long time. Their barman is top notch and both mixed and recommended some delicious drinks for our meal. Our server was friendly and helpful. If I lived in Seattle, I’d come here often.

We walked up to Capitol Hill from a day's work at the Convention Center for dinner and had a really nice meal. Arriving before 6, we were seated immediately, opting to skip happy hour only because they don't have table seating in the bar area. Our server was super friendly and helpful with the menu. I wish I had gotten her name to give her proper credit. We shared the beet salad which got rave reviews. My linguine dish featured black squid ink pasta with smoked mussels and lemon. Very tasty. The other two pasta choices were equally good. There is an extensive wine list along with several interesting local craft beer choices and creativity cocktails. This place is definitely worth a try.

Went for restaurant week. Had salmon, small potatoes and lemon donut holes with a chocolate dipping sauce. This restaurant forces a 20% service charge. Ended up being $50. They were busy and the wait staff was super stressed. Value for the money not there

Our entire family gathered in Seattle and Tavolata was one of the anticipated restaurants we chose. We were not disappointed. Service by Asher was professional and attentive and friendly. The highlight for me was the Linguine Nero. Each bite was tastier than the last. We covered the menu from spaghetti and meatballs, to Rigatoni, to Pappardelle, to Zeppole to Bucatiniplus antipasto and great wine. Well worth the visit.

Wonderful vegetable offerings for appetizers. Beets were phenomenal. Pasta was perfectly cooked and inventive. Rabbit ravioli was perfectly seasoned and just the right portion. Good wine menu. Staff knowledge, personable and attentive.

What a disappointment... First off, they charge 20% gratuity automatically. If you are charging that, then make sure it doesn't take 15 minutes to have a drink order taken, staff who knows the menu, and a somewhat professional manner. Overall service was mediocre at best. Food was okay. Ordered two appetizers and two entrees. The appetizers were fresh, but just lacked that extra taste you expect from a small (very small) plate. When a brand named chef can't even make sure his restaurant can cook pasta (way too al dente), its hard to imagine a positive review regarding the entrees. True everything was fresh, but it needed more - a lot more. For being over priced and underserved (not to mention undercooked) I give this restaurant 2/5.

I had dinner on a Friday night with two others. All the staff is helpful and they work as a team vs. just having one waitress the whole time. Everyone was very knowledgable in wine and food selection. Amazing Bruschetta and Brutta boards. I would go again!

We have dined out infrequently during the pandemic, so each time has the weight of a special occasion. Tavolata on Capitol Hill stepped up. The Yorkshire Pig menu was superb! Our server Gabrielle M was terrific: efficient, informative, appropriately friendly and attentive. She did a good job of pacing our multi-course meal with wine parings, even when the kitchen changed the order of the appetizers.

Several years ago I had a killer meal at Tavolata in Belltown. I was hoping for the same, but 3 out of the 4 of us either had problems with our main dishes (*one too salty - Tonnarelli, one not salty enough with bits of shell and sand in the dish - Angel Hair and no salt on the table, and one, just not very tasty). The bruschetta was large, but lacked much in the way of flavor. The roasted beets were very good, but not special or exceptional. The one superior dish was the gnochetti which was off the menu, but the chef had the ingredients so one of us got lucky. The donuts with chocolate sauce were first rate, especially the dipping chocolate. Service was good, but overall not a memorable meal. Given the number of superior restaurants in Seattle (or just down the block for that matter), we won't be going back.

So delicious...and very healthy portions...was able to leave my brother with my leftovers when I went to the airport. Was able to take advantage of the Happy Hour menu by sitting outside. The pasta was so so good.

I had high expectations for this restaurant on our first night in Seattle, and we were disappointed from the start. Walked in, sat down, and 30 seconds later our server comes by and says "What will you have?" No hello, how are you, but what will you have. We told her we had just sat down and would look. Didn't see her for 10-15 minutes. Finally got drinks ordered. Took awhile before we saw her to order. Food was very good when it came. Never saw our server after the food was delivered until I finally flagged her down 40 minutes later to ask for the check. I can't say how disappointed I was, as the poor service ruined the meal. I should have told the management and sorry I didn't.

Enjoyed a very quick meal here before walking down to the Paramount for a show. Very good gnocchi, butternut squash ravioli and pappardelle pasta. Nice wine selection. Friendly servers.

Tavolata has reliably excellent food and great service. Bartenders and wait staff alike are friendly and attentive. They usually have a fun cocktail or two and the good portions are hearty. The only problem is they are so popular if you don’t arrive at the beginning of happy hour you are likely yo have to wait at least 20 minutes.

We eat at Tavolsta’s happy hour nearly every week and love it. Great value for superb food. We love the spaghetti with chicken meatballs and gnocchi ala romana.

One of my favourite places in Seattle for great food and awesome cocktails. I've had about for different or data dishes that were all exceptional, great starters and a variety of their cocktails. All at a reasonable price and casual bit mid-scale setting. My wife and I usually come here after going to plays at the ACT when it isnt very crowded. The service is always friendly and attentive.

We were quite disappointed in the food given the reviews. We felt it was under seasoned, uninteresting and overpriced. Our group will not give it a second try. Staff is nice and the restaurant design is good.

This place sounded good. Made a dinner reservation for 2 on Sunday evening. The food was good and the service was pleasant & efficient. I was not please to see a 20% service charge added to my bill.

How wonderful to find a clean, bright and not so crowded Italian restaurant with fresh pasta and sensible portions. My husband loved his Cacio e pepe and I thought the Summer Parmigiana was one of the finest things I have ever eaten. The care that went into that conceptually simple dish was impressive. Layers of flavor for what was essentially vegetables and ricotta with lovely add ons. We even had room for some delicious raspberry sorbet to end our meal. Our server, Charlotte, was a gem and it was fun to watch the lively staff who clearly were enjoying their work. I can't wait to come back my next trip to Seattle.

Had a pleasant work dinner - great wine and a tasty pasta dish similar to a cacio e pepe. The pasta had great chew and the dish was generous in size. I could have used a bit more spice, but overall the dish was good. The kale salad, on the other hand, was underwhelming. Prices were typical for Seattle.

This place is pricey! Great tasty salad with the chicken added. I asked for some bread to go with dinner, and they were happy to add $9 for a mini loaf of foccacia to the bill. Everything you add to your dining experience will incur a 20% surchage whether you like it or not. Oh, if you're single don't expect a small table because they said they were all reserved. Good luck and hope you make it until the end of 2025! Plenty of open seating when I departed at 7PM.

When I dined, it was after their first full week of service. I always expect there to be kinks that need to be worked out. No matter how experienced you are working in a restaurant, there are always going to be issues when you start. Having said that, the end result was nothing short of a collective "WOW". The vast majority of my guests ate the rigatoni and we all could not stop commenting how delicious it was. Even though we waited a long time for our food, our waitress made sure to communicate with us and provided us with bread to tide us over. There are plenty of great choices on the menu and you can tell they make everything from scratch. This is one of the few places I would actually consider eating at the bar by myself. It feels that comfortable.

Attentive service. Delicious food: gnocchi that melts in your mouth and tastes like chicken parmigiana, sunchokes soooo good, chocolate cremeux. We would order all three again!

My husband and I went for our 26th wedding anniversary. I had heard so many good things about it since it opened. Plus, it's an Ethan Stowell restaurant, why wouldn't it be great? I was utterly disappointed it did not live up to the hype. The location was nothing to speak about and the dishes were just kind of average. I now believe that there is some halo effect from the fact that it's an Ethan Stowell restaurant so people rate it higher. I ordered the Paccheri. It needed more salt and could have used a little more kick. The portion was fine (enough for a take-home box). The redeeming quality was that the prawns were perfectly cooked. The pasta in both of our dishes was al dente, but almost too much so. I'd rather have it a little more tender as al dente takes away from the freshness imho. I give a big thumbs up to the burrata with strawberry compote appetizer. It was very tasty and actually could have been a great recommendation for an after dinner palate cleanser. That said, we had to ask for more crostini as we got a meager 6 slices with a huge burrata ball. We also ordered the lemon donut holes with chocolate sauce (you'll see I'm a bit of donut snob from other posts). Great combo idea, and they were better than most donuts. On my donut scale, I give it a 4/5 star. One could say that the service was good, but we found it a little confusing and a little bit of extra work on our part. They definitely had a team style service going, which is nice, but we literally had two different servers come to our table to tell us they were our server and as if we wanted to order a drink and appy to start. The first guy had our drink order. Then the second guy came up and we explained we ordered drinks from the other waiter, but would love to have the burrata. He looked a little put out. But, then the first guy came up again and we had to explain we ordered the burrata from the second guy. Then we had a third person who delivered our drinks take our dinner order. Each time I was compelled to make sure who had taken which part of our order...in the end it was our first waiter that finished. There are many other better restaurants that I'd recommend over this one in Seattle. Don't waste your time.

We were two families on our first visit to Seattle and looking forward to dinner at Capitol Hill’s Travolata. Once we were seated, our waitress came over and looked as if she couldn’t be bothered with any of us. Our questions about the menu seemed to put her in an ill humor. The hand on hip and rolling of the eyes should have tipped us off that this was not going to be a good night, but we were so happy to be together that we chose to be optimistic. She took our order which was delivered by a different waitress who said she would take care of us the rest of the evening – things were looking up. Surprisingly, our appetizers were delivered by the original waitress who was crankier than before and just walked away when we asked for salt and pepper. Evidently, the notion of stopping by a table to see if everything is fine (which it wasn’t) is more than should be expected at this establishment. Tired of the rude and absentee service from both waitresses, we cancelled our plans for ordering entrees, paid for what we had consumed and left very disappointed at the way our evening turned out! At our hotel, we mentioned our experience to the concierge and, shaking his head, he told us that they have heard so many stories of people receiving awful service at Travolata that they steer people away from eating there. I have since re-read their reviews and noticed that awful service seems to come up quite a bit, so be forewarned! Ethan Stowell may be a great chef, but if you want to be sure that you will have an enjoyable evening – this is not the place!!!!

Great authentic food great service but expensive. Had to wait a few minutes but that’s to be expected. Will return!!

We visited Tavolata for dinner and enjoyed much of the Happy Hour menu. The portions of pasta were huge and very tasty. The location is easy to find and walkable from downtown. The decor is very nice as it opened fairly recently. The one disappointment was not so much the service but the 20% set gratuity. There were many servers attending to us but as soon as the bill arrived we couldn't flag anyone down to take payment. Didn't feel like they appreciated our visit by the end of the evening. We will still return.

We made reservations here, but being unfamiliar with the place, decided not to stay when we saw the upscale menu. Explained to the host staff there didn’t seem to be anything for our kids to eat, but she encouraged us to stay, offering to accommodate our kids’ tastes with alterations. We decided to stay—and loved it! One of the kids says this was the best meal of our trip. Food was delicious, atmosphere cozy and spacious at the same time. Really nice place and the staff are friendly, professional, and helpful. Know ahead of time that they will charge you a fee if you break your reservation too late, as we almost did, but we are so glad we stayed!

We were staying nearby and this was recommended to us by the Property Manager. What a fantastic dinner! We arrived during Happy Hour had some small plates and some pasta. The Grilled Octopus Salad was so fantastic, we ordered another one. We had Bruscheta Smoked Salmon, Salumi platter, Arugla Salad, Olives, Rigatoni and Sausage and Orichetti with Mushrooms. We sat outside on a beautiful night and had some fun cocktails, too. I highly recommend eating here!

They didn't have outdoor seating available, but most of the indoor tables were by the big windows that were all open. We sat at a booth by one of them. Service was fast and friendly. We ordered something to take with us, too, and they handled it all very well. Loved the peach iced tea!

Had dinner with another couple and thought it was very good but did not live up to its hype. Very nice decor in a trendy part of Seattle. Service was excellent. Appetizers were better than mains. The pasta was good, but seemed heavier than the normal pasta, and the sauces were a little over sauced. My take is that this is a place targeting Millennials, which most of the patrons are, and their food is less the traditional Italian. We found this particularly true of the deserts. I had the crunchiest cannoli I ever ate. Despite this, I fully enjoyed my dinner.

Expensive, noisy, poor food. I asked for the chicken (US$30 dollars), 4 olives, a lot of onion, and 2 tiny pieces of chicken with bones, totally tasteless! Service was also poor.

We started with the Bruschetta as an appetizer. Some had salmon & pickled onion, and others had chicken liver mousse. Both were good. My friends had the pasta special of the day, which was good. I had Gnocchi alla Romana,which was good but had a bit to much salt. It's a large open space and a combination of booths and large table. Our server was very nice.

Loved the food! Service was perfect as well. We had bruschetta, paparedelle and spaghetti. Great beer and wine list too.

Very good pasta, home made and al denté. Efficient service. I recommend. Dessert, a panna cota was also good. A very nice experience.

Great for solo dining at bar.. often interesting people and friendly but the food is rather flavorless...as an italianphile, I like perfect pasta with a light but flavorful sauce but the sauces are underwhelming here.. many of the pasta dishes have disappointed, esp. the carbonara. Wines by the glass could be a bit better.

A dim ambiance and hearty portions make Tavolata a place to take someone you know well and don't expect much of later that night. Tavolata is a large location offering fresh pasta with thick, delicious sauces and fillings next to drinkable wines. Italian food doesn't stand on fancy plating or delicacy, it is filling and sturdy. They do it well here.

WOW!! We arrived not long after the restaurant opened at 5pm.... and snagged the last two seats at the bar.... We shared a salumi plate, the green beans with lemon ricotta, the rigatoni (dinner portion for happy hour) and a serving of the gelato. Great meal for a senior appetite!!! By the time we departed the bar and patio were packed!!

Food is very good, service excellent. Attractive restaurant. But I will not return. The customers are younger people, but I am a bit older. The staff doesn't like older customers -- condescending and patronizing attitude, especially a server named Keith. So many other places for us older folks.

We live in the building for this restaurant and it's so wonderful knowing that we only have to go a few feet for a great meal! We almost always go to happy hour, because it's an incredible deal. This restaurant is all-inclusive pricing which is also handy, no tipping at the end, it's all included. Just sign the receipt and off you go! Great gnocchi and ragu. The house wines are also well-selected.

Went here for dinner during our trip. We had the ribs appetizer and they were amazing!!! I got the rigatoni for dinner and it was fine, but not my favorite pasta dish. After all that I had heard about it, I think I expected more. My boyfriend got the whole grilled branzino and really enjoyed it. It was a whole fish that they de-boned at the table. The service was good too. Overall a fine place.

I want to sample everything on this menu! Unable to do that, even with a party of six, we each opted for what midst attracted us, and shared bites. We start Ed with charred rapini, with the char adding a wonderful complexity, and a pear and pecorino appetizer that reminded us of one we’d enjoyed in Florence. For entrees, I ordered the special carbonara, topped with a poached egg that lent a richness to an already lovely sauce. My son’s whole branzino was perfectly prepared, with a good dosing of capers and herbs. Two of us ordered orecchiette, which was perfectly cooked. The rigatoni has a great “kick” to it from the spicy sausage. The mint and orange highlights in he pappardelle added an interesting touch. We opted for individual glasses of wine, since our tastes varied, and found the selection to be very good. We could nit have asked for a more delicious meal. The restaurant is also lovely, well laid out and comfortable. Our server was knowledgeable, and service was prompt. We’ll definitely return!

We were told this was "the place" to eat on Capital Hill. It had the prerequisite, Edison bulb, mood lighting, but that helped only to hide the included 20% gratuity. I wanted to try one of their specialty drinks, but was told it was not a martini, so I ordered a Cosmopolitan which was just O.K. (too much lime) When my friend arrived, she ordered the drink and it WAS a martini. Oh well. We ordered the Salmon Baguette for an appetizer which was tasty and thankfully came in 4 pieces so we each had one. We ordered 4 dishes and shared Family Style, which was recommended. The Clam Linguine was very good I thought, the Pappadelle (sp) sheet pasta, very average we all agreed. The whole fish was outstanding, but was the size of a small trout. The Pumpkln Ravioli was excellent, but they were tiny, which was enough for a taste. If it was my entree I would have walked away hungry. Our meal ended up about $70 per person, which in reflection did not include a salad, a vegtable, or bread. Just not worth it for me!