Dinner at Tutta Bella

Saturday night found us at Tutta Bella in Columbia City. This Italian restaurant serves authentic neopolitian pizza, just like the kind you will find in Naples, Italy.  Everything they use on their pizza is imported and they even send their managers to Italy to visit the plants where the food comes from.  Tutta Bella is the only pizza place in Seattle to have the original thing and they have the certificate on their walls to prove it.  For more info about Tutta Bella, click here.  I had been hearing about this place for a while and when I bit into my first bite of pizza, I got it.  It tasted very authentic and they're all cooked in a wood fired oven.  The cheese is very light, so the pizza is not super heavy like some other pizza places.  The pomodoro, or tomato sauce, is flavorful and light too and matches the flavor of the cheese.  They have over twenty pizzas to choose from, so don't be afraid to order a glass of wine and take your time deciding what to order.  We weren't, we ordered a glass of La Maialina Chianti Docg from Tuscany and it arrived at the table with some olives to snack on.  It was happy hour and their happy hour is a good one.  From three to six every day.  So that glass of red was only $3.50.  Then we ordered a salad to split, the Mista Salad.  Then came the Italian cocktails.  We tried the Parini Sidecar.  This drink had Italian brandy, grappa, gran gala and a float of pear brandy.  Then our pizzas arrived.  They were only $6 each because of happy hour and each had flour slices.  We haven't been to Italy, but now we know how the pizza is in Naples.  Finally, dessert.  We ordered a scoop of the Nutella Gelati and the Cantucci.  The Cantucci is a trio of Italian cookies: almond, chocolate hazelnut and cranberry almond.

This is the first thing I saw when I walked in.  There's something about seeing Gelato right away when you enter a restaurant that makes you happy.  I felt like I had been whisked to Italy for an hour and a half when we ate at Tutta Bella because of the amazing service and the authentic Italian food.  

A glass of Chianti to start of our Italian meal. 

 The salad we split, the Mista salad with Gorgonzola cheese.  

Our Parini Sidecars. 

I ordered the Tutta Bella Pizza.  It had pomodoro, fresh mozzarella, italian sausage, mushrooms, onions and basil.

Nutella Gelati on the left and to the right, a trio of Italian cookies.  Almond, chocolate hazelnut and cranberry almond.

                          Well, Tutta Bella, I will be back soon!  Thanks for a delicious meal to remember!