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Green star Volterra (Ballard)

5411 Ballard Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
(206) 789-5100
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Volterra serves very fine Italian food in a lovely, classic-bistro-y room in Ballard, with pastas and the wild boar tenderloin earning extra devotion. There's also a Volterra in Kirkland with a more contemporary feel, but the food is reportedly not always as good.
Categories: Bar, Restaurant

Restaurant Details

Bar Details

The Stranger's Reviews of Volterra

Other Locations

Green star Volterra - Kirkland

Eastside 121 Kirkland Ave    phone (425) 202-7201
 
 

Average Rating:
  • 3.89000/5 Stars.
Reviews/Comments (9) RSS

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9

Gone downhill

First three times at Volterra were wonderful. Been to Italy many times and actually reccomended this place to friends. The last time I went, it was pretty sad. The chicken was dry, the polenta was only so-so and the waitress (who repeated to my date "Peanut Greegeo" -yes the "T" is supposed to be silent)seemed inexperienced and untrained, in a hurry and not friendly - Anyway we sat outdoors which was nice but we won't be back. They had it together for a minute there.....don't know where it went.
Posted by aberdog on August 6, 2010 at 1:12 PM · Report
8

Better than Italy?

This is ridiculous. I just spent three weeks in Tuscany, including a day in Volterra, a preposterously beautiful walled city with a great Roman ruin just outside the walls. We ate great throughout(Garibardi and ZaZa were standouts in Firenze, Il Reggio fabulous in Feisole), but Sunday night at Volterra in Ballard was the best Italian meal I had. And il conte was in dollars, not euros. Risotto with wild boar and 'shrooms was excellent. Ravioli is usually disappointing since the pockets are so skimpy, but Volterra's crab ravioli was crabby; how did they get all that crab in there? The waiter was delightfully knowledgeable with an indiscernable accent (is gay an accent?).
Posted by Algernon on November 10, 2009 at 2:53 PM · Report
7

I dream of the pasta

I once had the most delicious pasta entree at Volterra. It was several years ago, but the memory of the flavors still linger in my mind. Smoked pork jowls (smokey-porkey-deliciousness) and truffles were the highlights. Perfectly seasoned. Elegant, flavorful, without pretension. I could never ask for a more perfect bowl of pasta.
Posted by more pork jowl on July 16, 2008 at 11:58 PM · Report
6

An horrible place

Pay some Tuscan person to teach you how to cook and then have a wedding in a Tuscan town because it’s the closest thing you can get to being Tuscan without actually being adopted. The food at Volterra is on the whole, good. However it sucks when it arrives cold, and then when you respectfully complain to your waitress (just to show what they are doing wrong; not to get any attention or money back), she gets defensive and gets the chef. (Turns out she’s his wife so go figure.) After you repeat the first 10 words of your complaint to the chef, (I again calmly repeated to him, that the main course arrived cold, and the dessert wasn’t as advertised) he cuts you off mid sentence and throws you out. (I think it was my accent - I don’t know – it certainly was not warranted.) I hope it made him feel good to do that – because I’d like to think that ruining my husband’s birthday was worth it. So best of luck if you go to Volterra and get bad service, and then get treated horribly, because try to complain and you’ll get kicked out for not telling them how wonderful they are. It’s bratty, behaviour. Hey, don’t take your low self-esteem out on your customers. Better yet, save your time and just go to Le Gourmand – the food and wine is actually better there anyway, and not much more expensive, plus the owners are wonderful.
Posted by Siena, che bella! on May 10, 2008 at 8:42 PM · Report
5

Cant' wait to return

I would say the food and overall experience definitely lived up to the hype. Started with the truffle custard with culatello served with micro greens salad on top. It was really good. We then had the special appetizer which was a BLT with brown sugar cured pork belly on brioche with heirloom tomatoes, romaine and garlic aioli. Yum. Next came the tagliolini with morels, fava beans, giuancale and truffle butter. The portion (even when split) was generous. This dish was so good it's inspiring me to do some experimenting at home to try to recreate it. We then had the Wild Boar Tenderloin, which the waiter said was his favorite dish. The gorgonzola mustard sauce was incredible. The Beef tenderloin with lardo and chianti demiglaze. If our reservation had been earlier, we probably would have eaten more, but I thought this was the perfect amount of food to share in order to leave full but not stuffed. I was pleasantly surprised not just by the food and ambiance, but by how helpful the sommelier and waiter were in paring the wines, how they encouraged us to sample wines they suggested. There are a lot of wines by the glass so that we had the perfect wine for each course, by the waiter's suggestion to split courses so that we could sample more and eat at a more leisurely pace, and by what I considered to be a very reasonable price tag in the end for what we'd had.
Posted by patparks on July 31, 2007 at 8:46 PM · Report
4

Great Spot

Everything that Volterra has served us has been simply excellent - the quality of the food is amazing, and the dishes are inventive. The ambience is nice -- cool lighting, beautifully decorated. The service is attentive and the servers are very knowledgeable both about the food and their great wine list.
Posted by niknik on July 31, 2007 at 8:39 PM · Report
3

Best Italian in Seattle

My favorite restaurant in Seattle is Volterra because the food is exceptional and consistent every time. Not many restaurants anywhere can pull off the same high quality food night after night like the staff at Volterra. The prices are reasonable and when you factor in that most of the meats and produce are organic or natural, i don't know how they can afford to keep the prices that low. The service is professional and friendly. Small details like the trampetti olive oil on the tables, glassybaby candles, european style coffee service set them apart. Don't miss the set of Chihuly drawings as they are quite rare. I eat at Volterra as often as I can and on a graduate student budget I'm still able to go monthly. All of the accoloades are well deserved.
Posted by hirokon on July 16, 2007 at 10:57 PM · Report
2

Curse You, Truffles!

Oh my! If you order anything with truffles at Volterra you will be immediately hooked on this not-so-cheap local eatery. Also, the lobster ravioli is something that I dream of: almost fluffy but not. OK, that's not really a good description so I'll just say that you mustn't pass up the opportunity to go.
Posted by hayleyrae on July 10, 2007 at 2:01 PM · Report
1

Try the Pom Sidecar!

I had an excellent steak there the other night with a pomegranate sidecar which was one of the best cocktails I've ever had. Other times it's been so so.
Posted by Charles on May 23, 2007 at 8:57 AM · Report

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