North Side Trattoria

Surprisingly respectable Italian food.
This is the Italian mini-​restaurant within Whole Foods Downtown.
The hot prepared/​cooked to order foods at Whole Foods are generally excellent — making the Whole Foods mothership a great place to take out of town guests or just to grab a lunch.
Most of the treats are on the food bar (and double that praise for the soup bar)
Not all of the mini-​restaurants are wonderful — but the Italian place is competitive with the better Italian places in Austin.
(not the better Italian places in Italy … the Italian places in Austin.)
A first rate tomato spread for your bread while you wait. (which is just as well because you will wait.)
A surprisingly excellent chicken saltimbocca with both a first rate chicken-​prosciutto combo and a fine sauce, mushrooms and caramelized onions.
Leaden trofie pasta — but then trofie pasta tends to be thick, chewy and demanding … so that comes with the territory.
Their spaghetti and meatballs is serviceable — as is spaghetti and meatballs nearly everywhere else on the planet except for school lunch or on an airline.
Their menu is small, but what they do they do well.

Whole Foods Market does everything well. It plays right into the «jack of all trades» trend of providing a hungry clientele with a hodgepodge of grub, ranging from burgers to grain bowls all the way to a mile of salads and toppings. And how could you forget raw food?
Italian-​American gives way to simple meals and an abundance of the carbohydrates in the form that the better part of America enjoys so much. All at a low price. Whole Foods provides these desirable attributes in the form of North Side Trattoria, their pasta/​wine/​Italian area.
Dishes err on the more basic styles of sauces and pastas, but with good wine, the meal elevates itself beyond a simple mix of tomato and starch. Obviously, the eatery maintains a steady dedication to high quality preparation and good seasoning, but Whole Foods still banks on streamlined procedures.
The cookie-​cutter approach to Italian cooking here does not provide bells and whistles, but I do appreciate the care that the folks behind this concept offer the loyalists of this huge gourmet food institution.

North Side Trattoria is a small eatery inside whole foods downtown. Usually I go in and grab something from the buffet nearby or one of the cases full of whole foods best and then go home. Last night we decided to give it a try and we were definitely not sorry that we did. The menu is small but there are plenty of off menu options that you just have to ask for. The dishes are primarily Italian and are prepared fresh right in front of you as you wait. They have a good wine selection as well and the food is usually served within minutes of ordering. Kimberly made me a great penne with meatballs dish and my wife had the penne with spicy shrimp and andolue sausage. Both were spectacular! I highly recommend this and for awhile I even forgot that I was sitting in the middle of a buzzing whole foods store. Great food, not overpriced, and good service. I highly recommend this to anyone who is downtown and looking for a great bite to eat. Probably the biggest hassle will be finding a parking space, but for the food it was worth it.