The Best Italian Restaurants in Seattle | Eater Seattle

"Chef Nathan Lockwood’s ode to local ingredient-driven modern Italian food is a stunning nine-course tasting menu that brings inventiveness to a cuisine that’s known for rigidity. The oft-changing menu might include items like mussels flavored with tea-cured salmon roe and Madrone bark, or sea bream and sponge cake with tonnato, smoked caviar, and fermented potato espuma. Now, tasting menus can often be the culinary equivalent of experimental jazz: a dazzling display of virtuosic technique and creativity, but impossible to remember later. That’s not the case at Altura; the artistry here all adds up to an evening of unforgettable hedonism. Starting at $175 (with a 20 percent service charge and beverage options to consider adding), it is certainly not cheap. But you’ll be humming Lockwood’s melodies for months." - Mark DeJoy