tidbit

 

10

9

Jesseca C.

Seattle, WA

The Brain-Child of two Very Precious Entrepreneurs, HURRAY HURRAY for TiDBiT! All from the Cutie Pie Name, to the SUPER FRIENDLY service (from the owners themselves), this place is my new fave! I tell EVERYBODY about my new fave Tapas extraordinaries! HURRAY!

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13

40

Daisy B.

Seattle, WA

T idbit Baccala
A rancinos
P apas Dulces
A lbondigas con Almendras
S picy Paella Al Horno

Si!  And not overpriced.  They serve brunch on the weekends too.  I like having this place a few blocks away and it's a keeper.

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11

13

Tiffany P.

Seattle, WA

a friend came to visit me from the south, and when i asked her what kind of food she wanted to try, she replied "TAPAS! TAPAS! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD I WANT SMALL PLATES!" ok, maybe it wasn't that dramatic. so, i actually came onto yelp.com for tapas suggestions, and we decided to go to tidbit since it's near my place.

the food here is outstanding. we came here TWICE during her short visit for the great food, and they also have half-bottles of willamette valley pinot noir for a great price. one star deduction for playing italian pop music loudly on a large screen.  i mean, come on. italian music is like the worst ever. i realized i was looking at the tv half the time.

P.S. when you look out the window, you realize that tidbit is like, a mirror image word or whatever. i thought that was cool.

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0

5

Harley L.

Seattle, WA

Overall Tidbit is great!  

The decor is welcoming, not too warm not too cold.  We were at first confused by the crayons on the table.  It then became apparent that they were for writing on the brown paper table cloth above the white linen table cloth.  I am not sure why they would even have this "feature".  I guess not to be too pretentious, but it comes off as slightly trite.  

We had decided to try it for the 3 for $30 special promoted by New Urban eats.  As luck would have it, Tuesday is also half-price wine night...THERE IS A GOD!  We instantly started looking at the wine list which is flush with Tempranillos, Barolos, Brunellos, and other European wines.

Per usual we ordered some cocktails to start.  This is when Tidbit's short-comings started to reveal their heads.  The restaurant was 1/4 full yet it took literally 10-minutes to get our drinks.  Not a big deal, we had the crayons to occupy our time and we were still trying to decipher the wine list and choose our first bottle.  

The drinks finally came and we thought it best to ask the waiter for a wine recommendation.  We were looking for something a little fruit-forward and not too dry.  He seemed bewildered by our request.  Fortunately, the owner came over and was able to help guide our decision a to the Germana barolo.

We placed our orders and began to sip our cocktails.  I was having the crostini plate, my girlfriend ordered the gnocchi, Jason go the mixed greens salad, and Sarah enjoyed the gazpacho.   Once the appetizers arrived we were delighted by what we saw.  Fresh ingredients, great aromas, and beautiful colors.  We all shared tastes in which we were all equally pleased with our selections.  The gazpacho and the gnocchi were my favorite.  In addition, we got a grilled Caesar salad... AMAZING!

Our wine arrived and we let it breath.  The waiter cleared our plates and we enjoyed more conversation.  Our entrees were soon escorted to our table and we were in for another round of culinary indulgence.  Except for one hiccup.  The waiter forgot to replace our forks.  We scrambled to look for forks at adjacent tables, but could only find previously used ones left at the dirty tables.  We were able to quickly get the owners attention and the problem was soon resolved.

My girlfriend and I both got the Italian sausage and prosciutto lasagna.  Jason had the stuffed chicken breast with saffron rice and Sarah had the steak salad.  Everything was mouthwatering and perfectly balanced.  Jason's chicken was my favorite, but I was not going to  cast away my lasagna, it was perfect too.   We were very happy.  The best part was we had lasagna to take home!  PERFECTO!!!

We ordered another bottle of wine, our deserts, a few cappuccinos, and I had a Sambuca... because why wouldn't you?!?!  My girlfriend and I both got the chocolate torte, Jason got the pear sorbet and Sara ordered chocolate gelato with a shot of espresso.  Once again, another home run.  The chocolate torte had a slight espresso tastes with silky texture. Sara's gelato was phenomenal, and Jason enjoyed his pear sorbet.  We had enough chocolate torte to bring home... UNTIL THE WAITER TOOK OUR PLATES AND THREW THEM AWAY!!!

Overall the food at Tidbit was fantastic and fantastically priced.  I will go back and I have my eye on the Paella.  The service left a lot to be desired.  As an industry veteran I would guess that the waiter was new to the restaurant and to fine dining service.  He had a great attitude, but his service and lack of wine knowledge did take away from our experience... and my late night chocolate-filled snack!

It should be mentioned and applauded that Tidbit is a "Green Restaurant".  Our to-go box came in a recyclable paper carton.  I appreciate and thank them for their environmentally conscious choices which gives me another in a long list of why I would go back there.

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0

3

J R.

Seattle, WA

Love it! Love it! Love it!  

I live in Fremont but frequent Tidbit for, well, tid- bits.  Service is great and I love everything on the menu.  Since they opened there have been slight changes to the menu and they even pulled a couple dishes I LOVED but all the replacements are just as amazing and fulfilling.  

BOTTOM LINE: Great food, perfect portions, great ambiance, great prices, and yummy drinks!!  Oh, and there is always a fantastically crazy Italian channel on the bar TV which is totally mesmerizing and hilarious to watch.

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Elite '08

456

522

Tim O.

Seattle, WA

If you can get past the name, which sounds like something my little niece would name her kitten, this place has some great food.

The two owners, having varied experience in Spain and Italian, marry the two countries' culinary flavors. Let's just hope they can shake the haunted past of their location.

We had warm goat cheese in a tomato sauce with crustini, a delicious prawn dish and a couple of ginorous salads. I'm not putting as much time and care into explaining the dishes as they did making them.

Oh, plus several glasses of good $6 Pinot Noir!

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0

8

Frank R.

Seattle, WA

I have been to tidbit several times and I love it!  The gambas are my favorite.  The sauce that they are in is amazing.  The cod is another favorite.  I am a big lover of Spain and Italy and it's food and found this restaurant to be superb.

I will be back very soon!

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0

1

Jen E.

Seattle, WA

I found this place by searching online for a tapas restaurant that also had a good happy hour.  After reading the menu and seeing an extensive list of tapas, ranging in price from $1.50-$9.00, I decided we had to give this place a try.  We sat at the bar and chatted with the extremely sweet servers and one of the owners.  We ordered four small plates for happy hour (it so happened that we had dinner reservations elsewhere) and ooohed and aaaahed at each one of them.  We were bummed that we'd already made plans to eat elsewhere because we would have stayed.  I can't even tell you exactly what we had because it was over a month ago but I've been recommending this place to everyone I talk to.  So...we went out for dinner and then headed back to Tidbit for dessert.  We had the tiramisu and it was fabulous! It was the light and fluffy kind, not heavy and dense.  We also had a flight of grappa, which was more fun than it was tasty.  I'm not a grappa expert and I'm sure it's an acquired  taste but it was well presented and a great way to end our evening.  I'll be going back and I hope others start going so that this place will succeed.  Tell all of your friends to check it out!

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Elite '08

35

52

Bounce B.

Seattle, WA

I can't think why a restaurant owner would call his baby "Tidbits," what with the implications of trite, unsatisfying food. Fortunately the fare here does exceed that expectation.

On the whole, nothing here raises our expectations of food; nothing disappoints, either. It's fine....largely good, I guess.

The menu has an almost bewildering array of dish sizes, ranging from tiny appetizers to small tapas to first and second courses. Conceptually, many of these are quite good, including fried risotto balls with warm cheese hearts to cheese and charcuterie plates, Spanish meatballs, and mushroom crepes. Main dishes are good, but fall short of great. The beef stew might be the best option---very tasty, much like a bourguignon. The lamb is tender, but a bit gristly, as mutton is wont to be. The risotto is fine, although the peas don't pop as they optimally ought and some of the chicken pieces have unpleasant tendony bits.

One of the consistent failings we experience here is that they don't offer to refill wine glasses when they get low. It's like they don't really want to sell wine---which is a shame, since this is one of the few places we could conceivable stagger home from. After our last visit, we vowed to work on training them about that.

As always, the atmosphere here is cozy and pleasant. Go for a wall seat, though. If you're a couple don't let them seat you next to the front window, which is cramped and doesn't offer much of a view anyway.

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10

26

Laura G.

Seattle, WA

I enjoyed a good, but not great, meal at Tidbit on Saturday night, their opening night. Tidbit opened in the location that formerly housed the XO Bistro on 10th Ave E.

The  serving and kitchen staff still have quite a few kinks to work out, but the pan-European menu has some interesting items. We started with a few tapas. I enjoyed the prawn and potato croquette appetizers. The sun-dried tomato and pesto spread was supposed to include blue cheese, but I couldn't taste it through the tomato flavor. The charcuterie plate was basic but good.

We were a big group, so we tried a variety of entrees. People seemed to like Tidbit's take on mac and cheese. My black cod dish was just OK - I was not a big fan of the coating on the fish, but the green beans that accompanied it were good. Our server said that crepes were great and the night's most popular dish. Unfortunately, by the time we ordered, the crepes were all sold out, so we didn't get to check them out. Tidbit will hopefully have more of the crepes on hand in the future.

The pacing of the meal was not good. After our starters, our entrees arrived in a slow trickle, and one dish was forgotten completely. The kitchen made up for the error by bringing a complimentary salad (followed by the forgotten dish) that everyone enjoyed. I assume that they will fix this type of problem as the serving and kitchen staff get into their groove.

Dessert was pretty good. I especially liked the cappuccino tartufo and would go back to have that again.

The wine list was also pretty good. There were several bottles that I would have loved to try.

All in all, a promising start. Tidbit needs to work on a few things, but I'd love to go back in a month or two to try some more items from their menu after the service issues are worked out. I'll come back to update my review after my next Tidbit experience!

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Elite '08

21

115

Amy K.

Seattle, WA

Rising from the ashes of Cassis and XO is a great new addition to North Capital Hill.  I was excited to see construction going on for a new restaurant over the summer and anxiously awaited it's opening.  Well, I finally made it down to check out the new digs last night....soft lighting, warm colors and although it was crowded, there were still a couple of open tables for two so we were seated promptly.  Staff was very accommodating with food and wine recommendations and the wine list offers many choices (by the glass or bottle and with $6 wines by the glass, we opted to try a couple different ones than committing to an entire bottle).  We split the Colorata salad (honestly, one of the better salads I have had in awhile and I eat a lot of salad!), and also did the banderillas tidbit, arancini (the risotto cakes, a MUST have!), the gambas and the parmigiana bianca, which was the only miss of the night as the zucchini was overly salted.  Our server explained that the owner (Nick) was helping out in the kitchen because they ended up short staffed for the evening and that he isn't really a "cook."  That being said, we were certainly impressed by our other dishes and the tapas are actually decent sized portions, truly not "small plates".  Nick came out to introduce himself...very quiet and gracious and obviously hoping that his restaurant can succeed where others failed.  He sent us over the Chocolate Tartufo for dessert and even though we were completely full we couldn't resist the little melting bites of heaven in our mouths.  So if you live in the neighborhood please stop by and even if you don't, this is your reason to find your way over to North Capital Hill...they have a parking lot in the back and plenty of on street parking, so don't fall into the "oh, it's Capital Hill and parking will be a bitch," mindset.  My friend from Phinney who I was dining with is excited to go back and even said she would put it on her date spots.

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