Frank L.

So. Damn. Good. Absolutely delicious + fairly priced + Wonderful owner Giuseppe. We came on Saturday and was delighted to see pasta is now on the menu, we came for the paninis but the Bolognese was just perfect. First, the bolognese is served HOT and that is always a ++, its a good size portion, taste, al dente, and beefy. Simple, smile enducing pasta, not crazy pricing. The Paninis are always solid. From the simple bread to the delicate prosciutto, to the cheese, the olives, just everything. We love it here. Something that is a bit confusing though, is the name its under vs. what the Giuseppe kept calling it "Little Italy." Fret not, you won't go wrong by looking up Bottega Gabriele and the address, but I initially wanted to upload the photos to "Little Italy" and that place was clearly not this place. There is also art everywhere on the walls, color, color, color. That is life!!! Can't wait to return often for the food and the owner/family who are from across the water :)

Jess L.

Quick sandwich, super simple service and the inside decor is extremely is simple. The hot honey piccante was the best, with the mortadella a definite close second. If you like meaty sandwiches, comparatively, the Nduja is your choice, it's also spicier. But none of the sandwiches were spicy!

Brian C.

My ongoing sandwich quest continues... Stopped in with a colleague for lunch. It's a relatively unassuming place, but simple works when the food is good. I ordered the Mortadella sandwich while my buddy went with the Prosciutto di Parma. Honestly both sandwiches sounded good as did a couple of the others. The sandwich was really good. No frills just a very solid sandwich. They have cans of soda in a fridge toward the back and I was happy to have Diet Coke with the sandwich. Service was friendly and it wasn't a long wait for food since they were all that busy. Overall, a good sandwich!

Wisnu R.

Hands down the best italian sandwiches we had so far. We were craving for italian sandwiches and specifically drove here after a quick google search. We got in right after it was open so we probably the first customer of the day. Guys working were really cool and nice. And the spot is really chill. What we got: Prosciutto di parma (4.5/5) Really good. Plenty of prosciutto and mozzarela. Nicely done. Nduja sandwich (5/5) This is delicious!. Like its really good!! Plenty of flavor packed between two warm foccacia. It was a big sandwich and i was able to finish it plus half of the prosciutto sandwich. Overall We were very happy to have found this spot.

Carrie M.

Transported to Italy for lunch today Stopped by @bottegagabriele in Pioneer Square, just steps from the ferry dock, and honestly forgot I was in Seattle for a minute. Italian voices everywhere, shelves lined with beautiful pasta, olives, olive oils, and incredible imported goods--it felt like a tiny Italian market dropped right into the city. The sandwich was unreal: NDUJA - $19.50 Capocollo, salami, nduja, olive & tomato tapenade, artichoke, and fresh pecorino on freshly made focaccia. Spicy, rich, savory, and perfectly balanced. One of those sandwiches you think about long after the last bite. If you love indulgent Italian sandwiches, this one's a must. #12DaysOfSandwiches.

Efrain L.

Two sandwiches this weekend. Started with Bottega Gabriele. Found it last summer by accident. Walk in thinking it's a bodega/meat counter, then you look up and it's a room full of people quietly locked in on sandwiches. That's always a good sign. Old-school Italian energy. Owner's talking Sardinia, Naples, pride in the craft. Grabbed pasta, said I'd be back... life didn't line up. Fast forward a year. Focaccia Parma sandwiches are having a moment, especially in NYC. I hit Panino near Seattle Center in SLU. Clean, no nonsense. Parma, Peroni, done. It just works. Back to Pioneer Square for the original. Now there are two spots side by side. You don't need the backstory, you can feel it. Always a little tough to see when the thing that works gets split in half. Hope they figure it out. Tried the Parma. This one leans more traditional, more "authentic" in flavor. Bread wasn't toasted, no option. Eats a bit drier. Prosciutto thicker cut, but laid flat so it reads lighter than it should. Nice touches, sun-dried tomatoes, a chunk of pecorino. Good ingredients, just didn't quite land for me. I lean toward a softer, toasted bite you can run with a beer or a glass of wine. That's preference, not a knock. Both spots are doing something right. Still worth the stop.

Elizabeth H.

Enjoyed our two sandwiches. We had the Mortadella with ricotta, lemon zest, arugula, and that special subtle spicy sauce hot Calabrian honey. The Pancetta with burrata, pecorino, roasted walnuts, balsamic glaze, and arugula was sooo yummy too! The bread was crisp and soft. The service and the restaurant have a very Italian feel to it. We will come back again!

Ariana M.

Saw this place on social media, and I instantly saved it to my Seattle trip itinerary! I've never been to Italy but it definitely felt like I was there. We ordered the Mortadella sandwich, and it's one of the best sandwiches I've ever had. It came out in less than 10 minutes, and it was big enough for two to share (a light bite). We enjoyed our sandwich outside. There's limited seating outside. There's lots of seating inside, but somehow it was hotter inside than outside?

Austin P.

I had been meaning to try this place for months. I ordered via Grubhub because I was trying to catch the water taxi and planned on eating on the boat. When I arrived, all of the tables were taken, but my food was ready. And they actually read my request in the order (which restaurants don't always do, so much appreciated)! But I should probably start talking about the food, because that's the main reason why anyone reads restaurant reviews. I opted for the mortadella. Oh my, it was so good! All the flavors come together beautifully and balance each other out perfectly - the spice from the hot honey, the acidity from the lemon zest, the creaminess of the ricotta, and the delicate meatiness of the mortadella. And the focaccia tasted fresh. Will definitely be back to try some of the other sandwiches! And explore the marketplace. Tip: the sandwiches are on the bigger side, so ask them to cut it in half.

Albert T.

We dropped by Bottega Gabriele for a Friday lunch just after New Years, hoping to score what were promised to be some of the best focaccia sandwiches in the city. The interior is interesting - it's kind of modern homey, with bric-a-brac displayed on shelves around the room and LVP on the floors, but yet a bit industrial, with a refrigerated meat and cheese display in the center. It's all a bit discordant, but does seem like what family owned cafe in Italy would look like. Mortadella Sandwich ($18.50) - The focaccia is is on the breadier side with a harder baked crust rather than the crisp oil-laden fried crust many other places serve (in fact, there's no oil whatsoever here). There's still a softness on the interior that helps to encapsulate the ingredients. It's cut in half and first slathered with a thick layer of ricotta. The cheese is heavy on the tongue, cloying, sickly fatty, and only occasionally punctuated by a sweet and spicy heat from the hot honey. Mortadella, sliced thin, is placed atop the cheese. The thickness of the cheese layer is easily twice or perhaps even three times as much as the meat. As a result, while mortadella typically has a savory spiced pork flavor and is studded with nutty pistachio, the flavors are muddled by the onslaught of ricotta. The ingredients lists lemon zest, which other reviews note gives a special zing to the sandwich to balance out some of the fat. Even knowing it's there, I couldn't discern a single hint of zestiness. Looking at other photos, I don't see nearly as thick of a layer of cheese and further examining, I note that Bottega Gabriele has major consistency issues. Just take a look at the photos uploaded here on Yelp. In some sandwiches, mortadella, ricotta, and arugula are placed in that order in between the bread. In others, it's mortadella, arugula, and ricotta. And in my case, it's ricotta, mortadella, and arugula. And then note that some photos, there's more arugula than both meat and cheese combined. In some, there's more mortadella than greens and ricotta. And in others, like in my sandwich, there's way more cheese than meat. Consistency in both balance of ingredients and order of ingredients really does matter for sandwich construction and unfortunately Bottega Gabriele doesn't pass muster. (3/5) Pancetta Sandwich ($19) - This is another sandwich with construction issues. In this case, there's the bottom slice of bread, followed by a drizzle of sweet balsamic, the meat, a layer of greens, then the burrata, walnuts, more balsamic, a hard wedge of pecorino (one per sandwich half), and finally the top slice of focaccia. The major issue here is the placement of the veggies and cheese. The soft and creamy burrata is needed to essentially 'glue' the harder walnuts and the pecorino to the rest of the sandwich. Unfortunately with it touching the bed of arugula, everything basically slides out as soon as the sandwich is lifted off the plate. I'm am not exaggerating when I say that upon lifting up my half for the first bite, the entire half of burrata and pecorino/walnuts slid out onto the plate. In my case, the buratta is a relatively small piece (compared to the size of the bread), centered in the sandwich before being cut in half. I couldn't really find the exterior mozzarella layer, so it's possible that it's actually stracciatella. It's rich and creamy and is better balanced here with the other flavors of the sandwich compared to the mortadella. The thinly sliced pancetta on the bottom is wavy and ribbon-like. Some of it, especially along the edges of the sandwich is crisped up and becomes almost bacon-like in taste and texture. The bread in this sandwich is toasted for far longer than for the mortadella. It gives a hard crisp throughout and really did a number on my hard palate while eating. And it doesn't do any favors to help cradle the ingredients, with the hardness increasing shear force, causing the interior to sputter out with every bite. I think the flavors are a little better balanced in this sandwich, albeit possibly leaning a bit too much into the very sweet balsamic glaze, but the construction really drags my rating down. (3/5) I can tell that Bottega Gabriele uses high quality ingredients for their sandwiches. I wouldn't say they are necessarily bad, but when I eat a sandwich, I expect to be able to eat it with my hands and not have to scrounge half the ingredients off the plate to stuff back in while eating. I also think they really need to really need to standardize their sandwich construction and think about how to better balance the ingredients. They have a 4.8 on Yelp and a 4.9 on Google, not to mention that I've never visited Italy before, so perhaps I'm the one that has the wrong expectations. On the other hand, according to the owners, they were in the process of moving to a different building so perhaps some consistency issues were from moving preparations. Bathrooms - Single unisex room.

Rima Z.

What a terrific sandwich shop! Lovely interior with an appetizing display case of ingredients, as well as items for purchase. Tuna, oils, pastes, and pastas. The owners are from Italy and absolutely charming, service is fast. But the sandwiches.... Oh my. I ordered a pancetta amd my friend ordered the mortadella, so we could go halvsies. Sandwiches are on the large size, so this is the way to go if you really want to appreciate the full flavor. (Sometimes when you share a sandwich, your half is only two bites...) Perfect ratio of focaccia to filling, and the fillings were distributed evenly inside. Bread is fluffy amd lightly toasted. The pancetta was warmed on the grill, the burrata was creamy, and the arugula was lightly dressed. Delish. Thé mortadella was fantastic. The ricotta with lemon zest added a brightness to the sandwich, and the hot honey added just the right amount of zing. I'm already planning to return to try the tuna and the nduja sandwiches. This place will be on rotation!

Valerie Y.

I really enjoyed Bottega Gabriele. It has a very unassuming storefront in Pioneer Square but I promise, their sandwiches are authentic! They ship ingredients from Italy and you can really tell. My friends and I got the Nduja Sandwich, the Mortadella Sandwich, and the Pancetta Sandwich (asked for no walnuts and they happy complied). The Mortadella was hands down my fav, the hot honey and ricotta go so well together. The Pancetta was nice as well, the burrata's creaminess really made it all come together. I was pretty excited for the Nduja since Eater wrote about it, but I felt like it was just fine. The tapenade&artichokes convinced me of the authenticity of the recipe; but I don't think I was a fan of hot and cold ingredients together. Overall though the bread was fantastic, I think it was a focaccia that was just so crispy. The portion size is great and the wait time on a weekend was not too long. Would definitely come back!

Marie B.

I convinced The Homie to take a break from studying to head to Pioneer Square to check out Bottega Gabriele (6/3/25). Again, lucked out with nearby parking, walked over, and joined the line leading to the main counter. Kind of gave me reminiscent vibes of long shuttered Il Corvo. Lots of folks enjoying their lunch dining onsite. However, there were quite a lot of people also waiting for their orders. I ended up extending my street parking to a cumulative 45 minutes. But I cut them a break with only one guy taking orders and another guy making each order (dine onsite, to go) during lunch rush. That person kindly paused and we received two unexpected samples of their freshly sliced prosciutto! Interior is fairly bright, decent amount of onsite seating, the perimeter had some art work, merch, and interesting window decor including a foosball table. The Homie was pleased with his fresh cannolo with sweet ricotta and chocolate ($7). My first bite of my ginormous mortadella sandwich ($17.50) was so delicious! The combo melded well together, generously sliced mortadella, abundant arugula, ricotta, lemon zest, and hot Calabrian honey held together in fresh slices of bread. I forgot to ask whether it was ciabatta or focaccia. Quality ingredients and excellent sandwich creations. I was only able to take two bites before heading to our next stop. Pro tip: request your sandwich to be sliced. Huge and easily shareable. And make sure to eat it fresh! I stupidly kept it refrigerated for four days and the lemon zest was overpowering and the arugula understandably was limp, my bad. I hope they are able to train other staff to join their team. One can see the intense weariness of both folks/owners crafting some incredible menu items. But during pauses, very friendly with welcoming smiles. Just be patient and take an extended lunch. Bottega Gabriele was excellent. Closer than Dante in Vancouver, BC and of course, much closer than flying to Italy. Terrific addition to Pioneer Square! Open Mondays to Saturdays 11am to 4pm.