2 Best Restaurants in Capitol Hill and the Arboretum, Seattle

Artusi calls itself a bar, which isn't inaccurate—it specializes in craft cocktails and amari—but it shares a kitchen, and a chef, with much-heralded Spinasse next door, and most patrons are here to eat. Like its more sophisticated sibling, Artusi offers a short menu of antipasti, handmade pasta, and main courses, and everything is made with similar care, but the spirit of the food (and the place) is more casual, even playful. Meatballs and beef ravioli, two staples of Italian-American cuisine, are simply delicious. Prices are more casual too, particularly if you make it for happy hour or the Sunday and Monday pasta-and-wine specials.

Of the Capitol Hill area's several excellent Italian options, Serafina feels most like a neighborhood trattoria. The menu features well-made classics: pasta carbonara and Bolognese, osso buco, arancini, lasagna, stuffed eggplant. Burnt-sienna walls and a dark ceiling give the dining room a hint of an Italian villa vibe, a sense that's heightened in the courtyard out back. The neighborhoody feel is partly due to the location, just west of Capitol Hill in the Eastlake, away from the Hill's hubbub.