Osteria La Spiga

So. Good. I’d heard a lot of hype about this place, and it totally lived up to it! Came here for lunch with a colleague — surprisingly it was a bit quiet, but it was a weekday. My only complaint, service was a little slow even though we were one of a handful of tables.
We ordered the polenta appetizer, which came with some roasted tomatoes and cheese — it was so flavorful, being fried I was expecting something a bit heavy but it was super light and crispy. I had the bolognese pasta for my main, and it definitely hit the spot. Can’t wait to check this place out for dinner.

La Spiga has historically been a difficult reservation to make, and oftentimes a difficult restaurant to get to. A couple tips: a reservation for later in the evening (9 – 10 pm) is easier to snag, and there are a few parking garages close by if Capitol Hill parking proves particularly challenging.
This restaurant is one of Seattle’s most well-​known Italian spots, and for good reason. The food here is authentic, and the restaurant itself is cozy and romantic. The loft building and wood interiors are truly beautiful. I’ve enjoyed the ambiance here for date nights as well as group dinners. Good company and good food; that’s truly the life. And La Spiga certainly delivers on good, authentic food.
On my last visit, we shared the full board of prosciutto (this is definitely a large enough portion to share for 2). I had the tagliatelle al ragu. The sauce was fresh, tasty, and well-​balanced. The texture of the tagliatelle was perfect: substantive without being too chewy. La Spiga makes all of its pastas in house, and it is certainly apparent when trying the food.
I would highly recommend ordering a pasta dish here, as this is where the menu truly shines.

I came here with a group of friends to have dinner. The dishes are solid, but nothing wowed us to be honest.

Not sure why their overall rating isn’t higher… LOVE the complimentary flat bread, tried a few different pastas and have enjoyed them all, no complaints on anything we’ve ever had here and service is decent too. Nice consistent spot.

A like the ambiance but the service wasn’t the best. It took forever to order and get our drinks. Food was decent. Pasta is handmade in-​house and cooked al dente, just the way I like it. We also ordered the salmon dish, I thought it was a little over cooked. Lasagna was a winner, really flavorful and not too over powered with pasta or cheese, good choice if you like your lasagna that way. Fried cauliflower is a great choice for an appi. Finally — dessert sample, can’t go wrong with that! Overall not my top choice for Italian in Seattle.

I will say, if you’re on a date and looking for a nice romantic spot for dinner, this is a nice restaurant to stop by. With the dim lighting, rustic interior, cute little candles on the table, Spiga does foster that nice and intimate atmosphere. However, food and service was a bit lacking for my first visit here.
Came by this place for a friend’s birthday dinner and overall, it was a so so experience. Service was very slow, not quite sure if it was an off night for our waiter, but it did take quite a bit of hand waving and intense staring to get some attention for our food/​drink orders. Imagine waiting 30 minutes for a virgin Bloody Mary or attempting to wave any of the staff down for a check… that’s the kind of service we had received for our small party of six. As for the food, I ordered the Tortelli, with a great vision in mind that this would be a creamy and tasty ravioli like dish. However, upon tasting the dish, the pasta pieces were rather too dried and hard at the edges. It did have an odd fruity like texture and taste and didn’t seem to go well with the overall dish. A couple of my friends did enjoy some of the pasta dishes, but a couple didn’t. So food quality here is a hit or miss with certain dishes.
Overall, this is a pretty spacious restaurant if you’re with a big group and the atmosphere is nice enough for a romantic date. I believe if service and food quality improved just a wee bit better, Spiga would be a decent Italian restaurant to dine at in Caphill.

Business dinner for 4. the front desk scored points by allowing me to move my reservation back ½ hour. This was much appreciated. The table was in a good part of the house. The food was mostly excellent but my eggplant dish was a bit mushy. The wine service was very poorly handled by our server who brought the wrong bottle to the table and then tried hard to convince us it was the correct bottle. Nevertheless a good experience.

My friend recommended visiting this place for my birthday celebration on a Friday evening. Reservations are a must, she said, especially on a Friday night. It was pretty busy when we arrived around 8 p.m. It’s in Capitol Hill, so we spent at least ten minutes circling the area trying to find a parking spot. Once we arrived, we were promptly seated. The wait staff was very attentive to our needs and helpful when we had questions. The food didn’t take too long to come out. I was concerned that by ordering lasagna, I’d be holding up the table, but the server said they make lasagna ahead of time. I love the venue. It definitely feels very trendy. The restaurant is a little more on the expensive side, but the food was great. The lasagna was so delicious, and everyone else at my table completely cleaned their plates. I’d definitely recommend it as an Italian spot in Capitol Hill and will be returning!

The papardelle was to die for. I love homemade pasta. My friend had the pesto gnocchi special and that wasn’t nearly as good though… less flavor.
The highlight however, was the ciabatta bread. So fluffy! Everything else that we ate that weekend (friend was from out of town) we found ourselves saying «this would be better with la spiga’s ciabatta…»

With just a VERY small handful of good Italian restaurants here on Oahu, I made it a point to have Italian food when we were in Seattle. We spent a day with a Seattleite photographer friend and toured around the city. He’s another foodie so when I asked him what he recommended for Italian, this was the place he pointed us to. Chuck, you were definitely right!
For starters, we ordered the Crispy fried polenta with braised duck ragu, very delicious. The polenta was nice and crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. The duck ragu had a lot of flavor.
For our entrees, I ordered one of their specials, the Prosciutto stuffed capelletti in a butter-​wine sauce with aged balsamic and Mark H got the Lasagna verdi. Both dishes where excellent. My capelletti had a very nice balance of creamy from the sauce and the saltiness of the prosciutto filling. The pasta had a nice «chew» to it as well. Mark H’s lasagna was also top notch. The home-​made pasta sheets were so thin and had just the right delicate texture. Just like how I make my lasagna, La Spiga’s had a rich bechamel as well a rich tomato sauce.
We both got dessert as well (you only live once right!) I got the Apple crostata with sweet cream gelato, very yummy. The filling wasn’t overly sweet which is what I like. The tart shell had a nice cookie texture while the gelato was rich and creamy. Mark H got the Tiramisu which was also good. Just the right amount of espresso soaked into the lady fingers so they’re not soggy and the marscarpone was just sweet enough so instead of being hit with sweet, you instead got the creaminess.
They have a pretty extensive menu so the next time we’re in Seattle, we’ll definitely be hitting this place up again.

A beautiful restaurant with a wonderful northern Italian menu. My only feedback is that we felt rushed to complete our meal. First, the pasta arrived while we were still eating our appetizer, and then the waiter whipped away my Martini before I had finished it. Are they concerned that they would not turn over the table fast enough? It was 6:30 on a Wednesday and the restaurant was not full.
Anyway, not to take away from a lovely meal with fresh pasta made on the premises. I will definitely be back.

I went here yesterday for a friends birthday, and would not recommend this place to anyone, nor would I visit again. I’m only giving two stars as opposed to one because the ambiance was delightful, it was clean, and the décor was lovely (so, cheers to the interior decorator and maintenance staff).
First off, there wasn’t a hostess (or anyone for that matter) at the front to tell me where to go to meet my group. Then, the service left much to be desired. Not only my waiter, but also the other servers/​bus boys had an attitude and seemed as though they’d rather be anywhere else. We had to ask for a soup spoon, and silverware/​dish-​ware for a late arrival.
The bread appetizer was lukewarm as though the heating lamp under which they put it burned out along the way, and they forgot to bring out oil and vinegar with it. My pasta dish was dry, and was alone standing if I didn’t wish to fork up another $ 3 – 4 for a side. My friends gave good reports for their beef and lasagna, so maybe those are at least worth the $ 32 and $ 20 (respectively).
To be fair, I’ll also add that the dessert was delicious (we had the sampler with a ring-​box-​sized piece of tiramisu, flan, and a golf ball size scoop of gelato — $ 14).

First time the service was slow, second time went better especially with service, but we had a little hiccup. I’ve given this place 2 tries.
Food is good if you do stick with the prosciutto (pricy at $ 16 for about 7 slices), tagliatelle with truffle butter or the lasagna Verdi is the best in Seattle, the other dishes are forgettable. They do charge for bread.
They don’t separate the bills for everyone, and only accept 2 credit cards per group. On top of that, this time, they completely forgot to automatically include the 18% gratuity, which caused drama among the bachelorette party yesterday.
First time I came here was for SRW. Just like other elites, the service was very slow, but coming from the retail setting, I tried to calm down one of my group members who was super pissed that his beer took over 30 min to get. Feeling bad out of pity for possible bad staffing due to SRW, I did tip 20%.
However, this second time, I came here with a bachelorette party because the Maid of Honor chose the place since she thought 20 people would come (only 14 showed up). Service seemed better this time or maybe it was because we were distracted by each other’s convo. Food was good. They kept refilling my water. Loved the crostada which had an apricot jam and loved the sweet and somewhat crispy texture and also the taglitatelle with truffle butter.

We walked in and the manager (owner?) was so welcoming. He sat us by the window and made us feel right at home.
Drink menus came and my friend ordered a sazerac while I ordered a custom drink made with their chili vodka. I’ll interject here to say how awesome it was the bartender came over and asked me questions so he could make the perfect drink for me, off-​menu.
We selected a cheese plate as an appetizer, and this is a must get if you like cheese. Every cheese was delicious and it came with warm flat bread and tasty jam made in house.
As our main courses, I ordered the truffle pasta and my friend ordered a pasta that used in interesting ingredient — rabbit. Both pastas were amazing. Seriously, you can’t go wrong with other of these, unless of course you’re allergic to rabbit.
Overall, I’m so impressed with the level of patience they had with us as we did more talking than actual ordering so it probably took them an hour and a half just to get us to order. Oops.
Highly recommended.

We came in here for happy hour after realizing that Plum was closed for some renovations. I love the atmosphere and the location but the food was mediocre and the service slow even though there appeared to be only a few other tables full.
All in all it is an okay meal for the price, but there are a lot of Italian places on the hill that I would choose to eat at first.

Eat here if you have all the time in the world! Food takes forever especially if you are ordering from one of their 3, 4, or 5 course dinner menus. Yeah, the ambiance is nice and all, but I’ve got places to go, and other things to see. Twice I came here, once on a date, and once to meet up with a group AFTER their dinner.
The date was nice at first, we really enjoyed the space and the wine. Our waitress was professional and friendly. We had a bottle of wine, but after the first pour, it took forever for our first course to come out, and since it was like a 5 course meal or something, everything came out 30 minutes from each other. Food was just okay. It wasn’t outstanding, but fairly good.
Second time when I met up with a group, I came after their dinner that started two and a half hours before I got there and they were just getting their desserts. WTF? We had to be somewhere too. So we ended up being late to our second function and closing the tab was just a mess.
I can’t really blame the servers, maybe it’s the cooks. I’m not sure. If you dine here, maybe just stick to ordering off the menu instead of their specials. I’m really not sure why it took so long both times when the restaurant didn’t seem overly busy.
They do have a nice loft with additional seating that would be great for parties. Again, just don’t order the course meals! haha

In my years of Unilocal-​ing, this is one of the clearest cases of «deserves 5 stars.» Its all been said before, but the lasagne is the best in the city. Save room for a generous portion /​slice of dessert. Excellent, knowledgeable staff makes a great place even more so.
Will def return.

Three five-​star nights in a row for our Seattle trip. La Spiga is an incredible Italian restaurant, and we loved every moment, from the aperitifs to the desserts.
We started with a variety of drinks, including the spritz – nicely bitter and dry – , the paper airplane, and a glass of Jeio sparkling. We also shared the Crostini del Poggio Rosso – holy tasty! Melt-​on-​the-​tongue tasty! Wonderful beefy pâté tasty! A must have. The Fritto Misto di Pesce was a perfect compliment with the fresh seafood perfectly fried, light, not greasy, and a flavorful and slightly spicy sauce that was mellow enough to go well with the drinks.
We did dinner family style, with Tagliatelle al Tartufo (mmmm, buttery pasta), the Capesante (fresh scallops with delicious sauce), my second favorite, the Guancia di Maiale (tender pork cheeks), and my favorite, the Gnocchetti (the cream and the sausage a perfect compliment). These were all accompanied by a Sangiovese recommendation from our server that was perfect for the mix of food we shared. Overall, he did a very good job.
What better way to finish a pasta bomb than with a dessert bomb? The passion fruit sorbet was so tart and sweet and wonderful, and it went great with the panne cotta. We also had a chocolate dish that I can’t remember the name of but was rich, creamy, and yum.
One of the really lovely things about this place was that even though the dining room was large, the space felt close and fairly intimate. We could hear each other – it wasn’t loud like big rooms can be. Our table wasn’t too close to those around us. Nice and cozy but spacious and open.
This place gave us a great finale for our vacation.

Difficult to rate La Spiga. It was 3^rd down my list of Italian restaurants; but it was a Monday and all my other places were closed on Mondays. I love the décor and atmosphere of La Spiga; it’s very relaxing here and I can see spending time here not being a problem.
The service is really good and I found it to be top notch. The list of possible drinks from the menu and the food was very large so you’d think finding something would be easy. But, I just couldn’t find anything that just jumped out so I searched the Unilocal photos to find something to suit me.
This is a place where the food and service is really good. Just not inspiring nor justifying the prices where you come way saying it was worth it. I can’t say anything was bad and I actually really enjoyed the appetizer, entrees and drinks. My only surprise was not served bread with an Italian meal.
I can see coming back again. But only when my other alternatives are closed and I’ve got to have Italian.

I went here for Seattle Restaurant Week for lunch and let’s say that I had my hopes too high. The ambience was really nice with the display of all of their liquor at the bar. They served us pita bread and it was kind of dry. I wish there was something to dip it with. I got the salad for my appetizer and it wasn’t anything too special. It had some vinaigrette on it, but other than that, it’s just salad you can get from a grocery bag. My friend ordered her salad with the dressing on the side, but it didn’t come that way.
We all ordered a panini for our entrée. I got the porchetta and onion panini and it was kind of dry. It was served with some pickled veggies. a little too much vinegar for my liking. The sandwich was kind of dry and I wish there was a little bit more to it. I ended up just taking off the top of the sandwich because I felt like I was just eating bread.
Here comes the worst part. We waited 30 minutes for our desserts. They also took quite a while to refill our waters… which only happened once :/​We also had to repay for our parking TWICE. Given that our server did apologize, it looked like the restaurant was getting quite crowded. but still. 30 minutes for dessert?! We weren’t too happy. At least the dessert was better than the rest of our food. We each got something from their SRW menu. The sorbet had a really bold, tart flavor.
I guess I’m glad I had the opportunity to try this place. Will I be back? Highly unlikely. maybe for drinks?