Cascina Spinasse

When you ask people which Italian restaurant is a must visit in Seattle, many might say Spinasse, so I immediately added it to my list. Unfortunately, we enjoyed maybe half of the items that we ordered. They are known for their pasta and cuisine from Northern Italy so it was definitely different from what I was used to. Spinasse is more focused on butter and cream for their flavors, so many things were a little on the blander side.

For three people, we went with the tasting menu for dinner which was $115/pp for all of the courses. We wanted to try everything and couldn't decide on what we wanted so this was kind of the perfect way for us to explore.

We started off with the appetizer which was salami with a balsamic glaze and a crostini of some sort. Both were delicious.

- A N T I P A S T I -
- Insalata verde : nice and crisp, refreshing, dressing was tasty
- Porcetta Tonnata : poached pork loin with tuna salad, one of our favorites surprisingly. Kind of tasted like a deli sandwich.
- Insalata di Cavolo Rapa : the parmigiano slices overwhelmed the radish part so the cheese was all I could taste, still good though, high quality Parmigiano
- Prosciutto Di Parma : delicious, the apples added a nice touch of sweet and crunchy to the saltiness of the prosciutto. Freshly sliced prosciutto is the best.

- P R I M I -
- Tajarin con burro e salvia : one of their most popular items. I didn't love the thin angel hair style pasta personally because it clumped together. I honestly didn't get much of the sage flavor when I mixed it but my friend said she got too much sage and it was overpowering. Mix it well, but honestly felt a little bland, just very buttery
- Tajarin Al Ragù : the better of the two thin pastas. The beef sauce was good and I love that the pasta is hand cut and made in house, but I'm a thick pasta girl through and through. I just love the bite of Al dente pastas. Again, it might just be the region of Italian food that I'm not used to
- Risotto di agnello : love risotto in general and the lamb was the perfect meat to pair with it. This dish was just overwhelmed with olives. There were way too many and it was just too salty. If you pick out the olives, the risotto was a 5/5.
- Gnocchi di Formaggio di Capra con ortiche : very tender gnocchi, loved the sauce and the greens, too many potatoes though. If you pick out the potatoes, 4/5 for this one.

- S E C O N D I -
- Bistecca con Maionese di Cipolle Carmellete : probably the best dish of the night. Perfectly cooked New York steak with the most delicious garlicky and onion sauce, I wanted to put that ish on everything. The grilled onions on the plate were sweet and I thoroughly enjoyed this dish.
- Halibut : butter poached halibut was tender, but needed more seasoning. The fish itself was very plain although cooked perfectly. The fava bean purée was interesting, I never had fava beans before. I enjoyed the onion sauce from the steak dish on the halibut over the fava purée that it came with.
- Anatra Brasata con Polenta : I love polenta and it's usually done very well so no surprise that Spinasse did a good job. With the braised duck leg, it was our second favorite dish of the night. The mushrooms with the braised duck complemented each other perfectly.

Overall, I think most of the dishes were good, but again, I'm not used to this style of Italian food so maybe things like the olives or the potatoes were very common in this region of Italy. Personally, if you took out the olives, the potatoes and added some more seasoning to certain dishes instead of only butter as the flavor, I'd be over the moon and easily give this place 5 stars. Some of the dishes fell short, but there were some great contenders : the duck, the steak and the ragu pasta. I do love that they make pasta in house and you get to observe them making it fresh by the window, but some of the pasta I saw them make was not available to order that night unfortunately. Would have loved to try the cheese filled candy drop looking ones for sure.

I can see why this place is highly recommended and I enjoyed the tasting menu they had because it was perfect for indecisive people like me. But just be aware that you might walk away enjoying only half of the items on the menu. If I do visit Seattle again, I'll just go ahead and order my favorites.

Really enjoyed spinasse!

Location: in Capitol Hill - we walked there, but street parking is available. No designated lot as far as I could tell.

Food: Excellent food! We ordered prosciutto, Ragu, and lamb. The lamb was especially tender and fell straight off the bone. Everything was honestly just delicious.

Service: service was good, attentive and fast.

Atmosphere: a little more intimate, not too noisy. Perfect for a date night or group catch up. If you sit at the bar, you can watch them make the pasta in house.

I read that this is the best (?) Italian restaurant in Seattle so we gave it a try.

- Burrata toast with braised brisket: my boyfriend went crazy over this dish. He's mostly pescatarian but he devoured the whole thing and said it was the best brisket he's ever had. The dish was great but didn't blow me away
- Squash salad: it's simple but they did a great job mixing the texture of all ingredients together. I love this

- Tajarin with butter and sage: creamy and yet light. It's good to have a bite with the sage leaf in it. The first bite was great but it got a little boring after.

- Cavatelli: I prefer this pasta over their famous Tajarin but it's a tad salty to me.

Overall, it's a decent Italian restaurant. 3.8/5 to me.

We ate at Spinasse tonight and it was so much more than we expected. The food and service were spectacular. We watched Duke make cavatelli while our table was set. The chef's starters were lovely. We sampled the prosciutto, English peas and whipped ricotta, and baby artichokes and could have made a meal of just those things! We ordered the butter and sage pasta and the cavatelli with morel mushroom ragu and both were oh-so-rich and delicious. The sautéed asparagus was a nice foil to the lavish pastas.

Joshua, our server, was friendly, attentive, and professional and made the whole experience that much more enjoyable.

We will be back!

Super taster here:

Food: Had every pasta on the menu and majority of the appetizers. Menu does change. Overall, appetizers are okay and not worth the price or a wow factor, I would order only the pastas here. All pastas were over 4/5. The tarajin (thin yellow noodle) pasta and risotto is 5/5.

Service: nice and friendly, water is refilled, no complaints.

Other: reservation is usually recommended unless you walk in around the last 1 hr of service then you may get a bar table/small table. Great for anniversary/special occasion dinners. Pastas come in two sizes, the small one is like a ~0.75serving size. Very clean place but parking is hard to find.

Overall: the pasta here is not the typical pasta you think of/or had. It's a very unique aromatic robust savory flavor, recommend for everyone to atleast try once but highly recommend for super tasters/high flavor palette tasters. Overall 4.8/5

We went for our anniversary and a delicious dinner! We tried:
- Prosciutto di Parma: we had a half order which was delicious and just enough for two people to share.
- Tajarin Con Burro E Salvia: SO GOOD and thehalf order was the perfect size considering we were ordering more food.
- Agnolotti: My partner really enjoyed this and we also had a half order.
- Braciola Di Maiale: the best pork chop I've had in a while, loved the veggies and sauce as well.
- Zuppa Inglese: this resembled something like a lemon tiramisu, the perfect refreshing end to our meal.

Overall, 5/5 for wonderful service, romantic and cozy ambiance, and the delicious meal! Would definitely recommend for a nice dinner with a small party.

One of my favorite restaurants in Seattle - I just booked another reservation for my upcoming birthday.

I very much enjoy the setting/ambience. It isn't doing too much. The service has always been excellent, with a bit of an old school touch where you feel like you're having a worthwhile experience because the staff actually appreciates you (more than just for the $$ you will spend).

The pasta is always fantastic and hits the spot. There are a few rotating seasonal dishes, so make sure to take advantage while they last!

It may not or may not be the absolute best pasta dish in Seattle, but it is always my #1 recommended spot. It's great for date night too, but not exclusively. Just make sure you reserve your table well in advance.

This place is a well oiled machine. The service is not super friendly in a warm sense but they are efficient and effective. I have visited a few times and is a place I will keep going back to during Seattle visits. The food is quite good here but so are the cocktails!

Finally made it to Spinasse after years of hearing hype about this restaurant. Unfortunately, it did not live up to the hype.

Butter sage tajarin: 3/5. It was a simple dish with good execution but nothing mind blowing. My boyfriend thought it tasted like string cheese.

Risotto with spot prawns and chives: 3.75/5. Risotto was cooked well with really good aroma from the white wine. Spot prawns were thick and cooked well. I'd eat it again but a little expensive.

Braised beef ragu cavatelli with blistered tomatoes: 4.25/5. This was my favorite dish of the night. The beef was so tender and flavorful and I love the thick al dente noodles. Blistered tomatoes gave it a fresh burst of flavor. I'd definitely recommend and I'd order this again.

Dessert is where things took a steep turn downhill.

I got the chocolate cake with hazelnut mousse and luxardo cherries and peach semifreddo with lemon cookies. The cookies were chewy with a nice lemon flavor but the semifreddo was sickeningly sweet. The chocolate cake was lacking chocolate flavor and left much to be desired flavor and texture wise.

Overall, this isn't my first restaurant of choice for pasta and I likely won't be revisiting.

This is the fifth time I have been here since moving to Seattle, and I don't typically go out of my way to have Italian food. I could go on and on about the Tajarin con burro y salvia. This is the dish that I come back for every time. Typically we come knowing we will be splitting the large portion of this with a few more seasonal dishes. There is always a starter that catches my eye and either another main or another pasta is plenty for two of us. A fantastic anniversary night spot!