Ristorante Machiavelli

I ate at Machiavelli the other evening, and ended up sitting in the bar due to the large queue. I'd heard that the food was decent and the prices reasonable, so the long line wasn't a huge surprise for the tiny Capital Hill restaurant.

But you can eat in the bar, so it worked out really nicely. Started with a coctail I might not have ordered had I been at a table, but it was really delicious and I was happy to have it. I ordered a ginger mango margarita. It was made from real mango juice and fresh squeezed lime and enough grated ginger to make it spicy. Yum. Dining companion ordered a martini. Along side our drinks came a large chunk of soft chewy olive bread and a bowl of some kind of savory dipping dressing.


There were plenty of vegetarian items on the menu, and I chose the spinach ravioli with tomato cream sauce. It usually come with mushrooms, but they were happy to substitute in peas instead.

The food came remarkably quickly... I had barely started to sip my drink... but unfortunatly it had been delivered a bit prematurely, as my pasta wasn't quite fully cooked.

Aside from that, it was all decent. The green pasta was stuffed with spinach and ricotta, and the sauce had the delicious mellow/sharpness of a tomato cream sauce. It was a bit heavier than what I'm used to eating (duh, cream sauce), but I didn't feel totally fat overloaded afterwards. The waitress gave me a big scoop of Parmasean and a hefty twist of black pepper, which I appreciated.

The price was good. The entrees were about $10 or under, which feels like a really good deal in this land of over priced pasta. I'd put this place in my mental roladex of inexpensive but good enough capital hill choices, but probably not on a list of places to visit for spectacular food.

Machiavelli
(206) 621-7941

1215 Pine St
Seattle, WA 98101