This is an excellent and accurate review. We ate at Altura last Friday and had a great meal almost exactly as described, including watching perhaps the same couple eat their pasta while we enjoyed our second course and anticipated our third. Great restaurant - amazing artistic (and satisfying) food.
As someone who is currently planning a visit to Seattle and looking for nice restaurants. What is the deal with all the Italian? It seems like almost everywhere is just a different variation of expensive with a couple places like Sitka and Spruce or Book Bindery sprinkled in. I mean Italian is great but I expected some more diversity.