MariPili Tapas Bar performs with the seafood-focused delicacies of Spain’s northwest because it interprets to the Pacific Northwest.
“Greatest” is relative, actually. Generally one of the best place to eat is the closest slice to you, different instances it’s the place that is aware of your order.
We’re as responsible of recency bias as anybody, particularly since we spend a number of time highlighting newcomers (see our greatest new eating places), however this listing is in regards to the locations that stay masters of what they do—all are at the least a 12 months outdated. It focuses on the classics, the constantly ideally suited and dependably glorious.
This city has simply one other hundred or so great spots that deserve your time and a focus, however, for now, these are Seattle’s 50 most indispensable eating places.
Ahadu
Northgate
Technically, this storefront in a row of Ethiopian eating places is a butcher, although your solely clue may be the lengthy line of shoppers who arrive twice weekly to choose up parcels of recent meat. Mockingly, you’ll not discover a higher veggie combo than chef Menbere Medhane’s composition of shiro, beets, lentils, cabbage, and fossolia, a flavorful mix of inexperienced beans and carrots. Parts prioritize high quality over way-too-much amount. And, to no one’s shock, meat dishes like key wat are additionally excellent.
Altura
Capitol Hill
Nowadays, Seattle Met’s first-ever Restaurant of the 12 months serves a hard and fast tasting menu that begins with a flurry of stuzzichini, or single-bite snacks. Chef Nathan Lockwood takes Northwest elements in surprising and chic instructions. Stunning dishes plated with moss, rocks, or leaves ship a way of the country, regardless of constantly deep finesse. A lot has modified at Altura through the years, however the hand-carved wood angel nonetheless seems to be down from an overhead alcove; the service is down-to-earth, the wine listing sensible. An awesome guess for an important day.
Housemade miki noodles are a constant dinner spotlight at chef Aaron Verzosa’s Archipelago.
Archipelago
hillman Metropolis
Perhaps eight individuals per seating type a rapt viewers as Aaron Verzosa and Amber Manuguid current roughly 10 programs that discover the Philippines’ many-faceted relationship with the Pacific Northwest. Historic classes, cultural context, and childhood recollections get wrapped round a menu of heirloom grain pandesal, miki noodles, and myriad different sensible seasonal creations. You would actually respect these flavors even with out the backstory, however in Verzosa’s arms, the mix is a uncommon form of magic.
Asadero Prime
Ballard
Asadero means “grill,” or on this case, a beloved Kent restaurant that expanded into Ballard with northern Mexico’s traditions of mesquite-grilled meats and tacos thereof. Seemingly each desk has a 16-ounce carne asada draped on high of it, and the flawless prep and easy seasoning (simply salt, pepper, and the savory smoke of mesquite charcoal) offer you an nearly bionic skill to register each vivid element of the meat, which is generally American wagyu.
Bar del Corso
Beacon Hill
It’s one of many metropolis’s most indispensable Italian eating places due to Jerry Corso’s pizza—crusts blistered from the wood-fire oven, toppings easy and seasonal. However after pizza comes a mosaic of Roman road meals like fried risotto balls, grilled octopus, Italian regional antipasti, and luminous seasonal salads. As a result of this understated eating room on Beacon Avenue (with a hidden-away again patio) is way over a pizza joint: The menu is brief, the waits could be lengthy, and the aperitivi-based cocktails really feel crucial.
Beast and Cleaver
Ballard
Technically, this, like Ahadu, is a butcher store. However as soon as the case is tucked in for the evening, proprietor Kevin Smith and his employees rework this busy meat counter right into a tiny, full-service restaurant. On Thursdays and Fridays, the kitchen spins a sublime tasting menu out of humbler animal bits. On Saturdays and Sundays, it’s a steak bistro, the place underestimated cuts of beef turn out to be tender showpieces. Smith’s philosophy that each one cooks must be butchers takes the whole-animal ethos to enthralling new locations. It’s an intensely enjoyable eating expertise for meat devotees.
Boat Bar
Capitol Hill
Any listing of Seattle’s finest eating places would possibly embody one among a half dozen of the spots from Renee Erickson and her Sea Creatures group, every with European magnificence, Pacific Northwest core, and a energetic coolness. However Boat Bar, the seafoam and white ode to the French coast and its fruits de mer, marries the chilled oyster bar vibes of Erickson’s breakout star Walrus and the Carpenter to the hip, beefy Bateau proper subsequent door. Recent-shucked shellfish, seafood platters, and clam dip share the menu with suave salads, steak tartare, and a burger. That Boat Bar takes reservations and presents the choice to order a steak from Bateau makes it essentially the most crowd-pleasing of the Sea Creatures spots.
Cafe Campagne
Pike Place Market
In spite of everything these years, Seattle’s equal of Paris cafe tradition nonetheless perches on Put up Alley in Pike Place Market. Chef Daisley Gordon does proper by basic dishes—quiche, pan-roasted hen, oeufs en meurette—and instills in his kitchen the form of perfectionism that renders even the only asparagus salad or brunchtime brioche french toast memorable. The patio hits the candy spot for one more hallmark of Parisian cafe tradition, watching all of the individuals go by.
Suave vegetarian delicacies with out compromise cements Cafe Flora’s standing as an area basic.
Cafe Flora
Madison Valley
The town’s vegetarian standard-bearer since 1991, Cafe Flora has additionally mastered the artwork of vegan and gluten-free indulgence. Brunchers linger over veg scrambles, rosemary biscuits obscured by savory vegan gravy and the famed cinnamon rolls (additionally vegan). Even religious carnivores respect the suave ingredient interaction in hearty lunch and dinner plates, to not point out the plant-filled atrium and a good-looking year-round patio. Flora’s spectacular pastry program can be on show at Flora Bakehouse on Beacon Hill and the Floret spinoff at Sea-Tac, a vital pre-flight vacation spot.
Cafe Munir
Ballard
Seattle was stuffed with neighborly eating places that had been on no account fancy, however delivered vivid, private fare value a drive throughout city. Rajah Gargour’s energetic Center Jap spot in Loyal Heights opened in 2012 and looks like a memento from that wonderful period. Hanging hummus plates (strive the one topped with lamb and pine nuts) share tabletops with mezze dips and spreads, meat and vegetable kebabs, and household model platters, all served in an intimate room with arched doorways, white tablecloths, and fairly filigree gentle pendants.
Canlis
Queen Anne
Almost seven a long time of historical past, hospitality, and cliffhanging views from atop Queen Anne Hill cemented Canlis’s icon standing way back. However third-generation house owners Mark and Brian hold Canlis in league with the nation’s eating vanguard. (Even when it means morphing right into a crab shack, or taking the entire operation exterior as they did throughout their grueling sequence of pandemic pivots.) Chef Aisha Ibrahim infuses Japanese methods, native elements, and myriad influences right into a three-course menu the place you choose the dishes, however the Canlis kitchen furnishes just a few snacks and surprises alongside the way in which.
Carnitas Michoacán
beacon Hill
It’s the tortillas that make this family-run restaurant on Beacon Avenue so marvelous—springy masa pressed into delicate rounds. No, truly…it’s the meat: charred carne asada, or an al pastor that melds pork, spices, and pineapple sweetness on an nearly molecular degree. Carnitas are conventional to Michoacán; the model right here delivers on wealthy taste and simply sufficient crispy bits. This busy kitchen places out meals that surpasses the stuff at method fancier (and costlier) locations.
Cascina Spinasse
Capitol Hill
The country Italian farmstead with the trestle tables and wrought-iron chandeliers serves one of the best pasta in Pike/Pine, perhaps even Seattle: wealthy hand-cut Piedmontese egg-yolk noodles, buttery delicate strands of tajarin. Smaller dishes pulled from the seasons and hearty meat dishes, from rabbit to roast trout, may also be extraordinary. Chef Stuart Lane carries on the legacy and the standard of one of many metropolis’s most spectacular Italian eating places.
Rooster Provide
Greenwood
Filipino fried hen eating places like Jollibee impressed Paolo Campbell and Donnie Adams, however the counter service spot they created may be very a lot their very own: hen crackles—actually by way of its gluten-free crust, but additionally with marinated flavors of tamari, ginger, and lemon. Sides veer away from American South staples to embrace Philippine flavors, and the butter mochi conjures up as a lot bare-knuckled need because the hen. Preorder on-line, earlier than the day’s cache is gone.
Communion
Central District
Kristi Brown practices her personal model of Soul meals, tethering a menu of grilled pork chops and fried catfish to Seattle and its crossroads of Asian flavors. Chinatown–Worldwide District affect delivers dishes like a po’ boy–banh mi hybrid, pho-inspired gumbo, even maki rolls with cornmeal-crusted catfish. After years of catering, Brown created a neighborhood beacon within the Liberty Financial institution Constructing, the eating room’s trendy edges softened with tufted cubicles, coppery ceiling panels, uproarious dialog, and a classic again bar the place Damon Bomar presides over drinks. Seattle Met’s 2021 Restaurant of the 12 months.
Copine
Ballard
Shaun McCrain has at all times operated on his personal exacting frequency. A veteran of Thomas Keller’s famed Per Se, he makes dinner really feel unabashedly particular, from the signature amuse-bouche (cured salmon cloaked in tempura and topped with roe) to the nice and cozy greeting from Jill Kinney, his spouse, companion, and fellow Per Se alum who runs the entrance of home with calm polish. Three-course tasting menus are rife with basic French components, however precise elements can globe-trot from Italy to Japan with loads of Northwest stops.
With a setting that feels particular, the Corson Constructing serves odes to the season.
The Corson Constructing
Georgetown
In an outdated Italianate cottage amid an unlikely Georgetown backyard, chef Emily Crawford Dann invents, and reinvents, seasonal odes. Coho lox with tahini and ginger-marinated celery, or braised beef shoulder with brussels sprout ideas, squash ribbons, and hearty caponata. Few big day eating places really feel this legitimately particular. Nowadays, Dann retains the magic exterior, serving all meals within the Corson’s lined, heated backyard house.
Crawfish Home
White Middle
Paper covers the tables and diners don bibs to do the messy work of cracking crab and sucking crawfish heads because the smells of butter and garlic swirl collectively Cajun, Vietnamese, and Pacific Northwest influences into town’s finest seafood boils. Proprietor Hiep Ngo was among the many first to convey Viet-Cajun delicacies to Seattle when Crawfish Home opened in 2011, and he continues to prepared the ground, bringing in crawfish instantly from Louisiana and promoting the uncommon native sign selection each time doable. A full bar with an intensive beer listing and loads of Southern-fried delights spherical out the menu, however the principle occasion listed here are the boils, customizable by sauce, seafood, and spice degree, from “chillin’” to “can’t really feel my mouth”—and past, for the actually courageous.
Delancey
Ballard
In a city full of nice pizza, Brandon Pettit’s restaurant feels particular. His pies could honor New York by the use of Naples, however Delancey’s attraction attracts firmly from the Northwest, in topping combos that stability tomato brightness with pairings like Zoe’s bacon, cremini mushrooms, and basil. When Delancey opened in 2009, the pizza vaulted it into Seattle establishment standing, even earlier than you throw within the impeccable seasonal salads, wood-fired odes to seasonal produce, and people bittersweet chocolate chip cookies dusted with grey salt.
Drae’s Lake Route Eatery
Rainier Seaside
This unassuming spot retains restricted hours and eschews supply apps or perhaps a web site. Phrase of mouth is what propels Andrae Israel and Sharron Anderson’s unequalled retro consolation meals, from fried pork chop sandwiches to the montana potatoes, an egg-topped skillet of cheese, peppers, and breakfast meat. It’s not onerous to make meals this decadent style good; it takes actual consideration to make it this nice. Anderson’s household as soon as ran a hen and waffle restaurant up on MLK, so any order that includes fried chicken looks like a positive guess.
Dishes at Driftwood might cross for inventive renderings of nature.
Driftwood
West Seattle
A near-religious dedication to Washington elements means no citrus on the bar, but it surely additionally yields dishes that appear like maximalist artwork and nearly by no means style like overkill. Chef Dan Mallahan’s creations—a lavish pork chop, advanced beef tartare, numerous vegetable dishes—stand out within the crowded area of seasonal Northwest eating places in Seattle. Throw within the memorable bar program, the refined views of Alki Seaside throughout the road, and among the finest restaurant desserts on the town: Few locations are this well-rounded, and fewer inclined to brag about it.
Infinite creativity retains each meal entertaining at Eden Hill.
Eden Hill
Queen Anne
Crowd favorites just like the crispy pig head sweet bar, cauliflower chilaquiles, and foie gras cake batter nonetheless anchor the menu at Maximillian Petty’s authentic restaurant. However these requirements are surrounded by dishes that roll out limitless seasonal creativity. Few eating places stability “welcoming neighborhood restaurant” and “big day tasting menu” with this a lot magnificence—and unstuffy hospitality.
Iconiq
Mount Baker
Toshiyuki Kawai grew up in Osaka, then cooked in a few of Seattle’s most spectacular European-leaning kitchens: Luc, RN74, E-book Bindery, the Harvest Vine. He threads these experiences along with the form of confident magnificence you don’t anticipate finding in an understated Mt. Baker eating room: Iberico shabu shabu. Neah Bay sole meuniere with escargot. A wonderful peach melba dessert. In the event you see something that includes risotto, order it.
Il Nido
West Seattle
The Alki Homestead, a landmark century-old log cabin, is a particular form of restaurant house. Simply as particular: the labor-intensive pasta and double-cut rib eyes served inside. In 2022, Mike Easton left his restaurant within the succesful arms of supervisor Cameron Williams and government chef Katie Gallego. As house owners, they’ve piloted a easy transition for each the Tuscan-inspired menu and the nice and cozy service. Getting a reservation could be certifiably bananas, however the bar and rear patio take walk-ins.
Kamonegi
Fremont
Dedicated artisan. Classically skilled chef. Practitioner of madcap consuming snacks. Choose your most popular description for Mutsuko Soma, a girl who can minimize her personal soba noodles by hand, but additionally make a imply TikTok video starring a maple bar, scorching canine, and panini press. Each side of her mind come collectively on Kamonegi’s menu of gorgeous soba bowls, seasonal tempura, and Japanese-centered snacks (wanting, longingly, at you foie gras tofu). Seattle Met’s 2018 Restaurant of the 12 months.
Kin Len Thai Night time Bites
Fremont
In a metropolis with limitless choices for above-average pad Thai, Kin Len demonstrates how a lot larger we must always set our expectations for Thai meals. The meandering sequence of elegantly dim areas units the expectation of stylish neighborhood bar, whereas the artistic and exact dishes insinuate that neighborhood might as simply be Tune Wat as Fremont. The wide-ranging menu reveals off the total extent of Thai delicacies with dishes like spicy octopus carpaccio, banana blossom fries, and durian tiramisu. The drinks comply with go well with, as within the Ying Yang Jar, with mezcal-infused espresso, Bailey’s, and sesame oil. (They do nonetheless have pad Thai, but it surely comes draped in oversize river prawns.)
L’Oursin
Central District
It’s a Parisian bistro by the use of Northwest elements—purpose sufficient to like Zac Overman and JJ Proville’s wainscoted hangout. Proville recasts basic French dishes with spot prawns, dungeness crab, and arctic char, whereas Overman runs the marquee-lit bar full of shocking cocktails. However wry wit bubbles behind all that formidable expertise—this can be a place unafraid to explain a wine as “the purple nurple of pet-nat.” (Oh yeah, the wine program is basically pure, largely French, and wholly nice.)
Lark
Capitol Hill
We gained’t name him “elder” simply but, however John Sundstrom is totally a culinary statesman in Seattle. The proof lies in his gorgeous restaurant, the place starry lights twinkle above tender banquettes and the kitchen does elegant issues with very native elements. Enterprise companion Kelly Ronan carries those self same excessive expectations to Lark’s hospitality. The present four-course tasting menu format provides diners a number of choices for every spherical, a setup versatile sufficient to go well with individuals who don’t normally love tasting menus.
Lil Purple Jamaican BBQ and Soul Delicacies
Columbia Metropolis
Erasto Jackson combines exacting barbecue with soul meals staples and Jamaica’s custom of seafood and jerked meats. (The latter honors his spouse, Lilieth, and her heritage.) It’s nigh inconceivable to decide on when a single menu would possibly supply jerk spareribs, curry goat, smothered pork chops, plantains, spot-on brisket, a complete snapper, and significantly piquant mac and cheese. Jackson places in lengthy hours smoking meat, cooking, and mixing his personal rubs—and it reveals.
Native Tide
Fremont
Seattle has startlingly few eating places centered on Northwest seafood. This counter-service spot sources from a community of native fisheries, a labor-intensive course of usually reserved for higher-end spots. However proprietor Victor Steinbrueck turns the outcomes into one of the best takeout lunch ever: rockfish banh mi, upgraded salmon teriyaki, residence fries tossed with bacon bits and chunks of smoked cod. Then, after all, there’s the weekend-only crab roll, on a buttery split-top bun. Steinbrueck shares a reputation together with his well-known grandfather, however this place is indisputably his personal.
Ltd. Version Sushi
Capitol Hill
What makes an omakase stand out a lot that diners emerge in a jubilant daze, maybe muttering admiring curse phrases beneath their breath? Begin with chef Keiji Tsukasaki, a Sushi Kashiba alum with each joyful magnetism and surgeon-level fish expertise. He additionally brings a way of enjoyable you don’t at all times discover with ability ranges this severe (and elements this costly). Dinner on the eight-seat chef’s counter would possibly embody sea bass aged like beef, or side-by-side tastes of uni from Hokkaido and Santa Barbara.
Maneki
Chinatown-international District
Seattle’s oldest Japanese restaurant has tales aplenty in its 120-year historical past, from rebuilding after incarceration to Seattle’s first-ever sushi bar—to legendary operators Jean Nakayama and nonagenarian bartender Fusae “Mother” Yokoyama. However this nihonmachi jewel nonetheless delivers exceptional consolation meals, just like the miso-marinated black cod collar.
Marination Ma Kai
West Seattle
In the event you’re coming from downtown, there’s no higher capsule of Seattle than a visit on the West Seattle water taxi for kalbi beef tacos or kalua pork sliders. The cheerful Korean-Hawaiian flavors that outlined Seattle’s earliest meals truck scene now maintain down Marination’s most memorable brick-and-mortar, a former fish and chips shack by the water taxi station. The waterside location conjures up an additional sprint of Hawaii on the menu, like plate lunches and shave ice. The expansive beer backyard patio presents umbrellas, hanging views, and a bunch of summery drinks. In the event you can’t steal away, a counter at Sixth and Virginia is an workplace lunch recreation changer.
Grayson Pilar’s tapas at MariPili honor her grandmother and Galician culinary traditions.
MariPili Tapas Bar
Capitol Hill
Within the house that when held the beloved Cafe Presse, Grayson Pilar presents an equally understated and glorious ode to Galicia. MariPili performs with the seafood-focused delicacies of Spain’s northwest because it interprets to the Pacific Northwest, taking cautious however enjoyable steps away from conventional tapas, paella-ish rices, and gin cocktails with dishes like octopus folded right into a brioche crust and eggplant-stuffed canelones with oat milk bechamel. Pilar’s pastry background means saving room for sweets is a requirement, and tarta de Santiago (Galician almond cake) goes properly with MariPili’s many sherry decisions. Seattle Met’s 2022 Restaurant of the 12 months.
Mezzanotte
Georgetown
Chef Johnny Sullivan had large sneakers to fill taking on for chef Jason Stratton as nonna-in-chief. However restaurateur Marcus Lalario has a knack for locating expertise, and does it once more at this Georgetown restaurant, the place planes descend overhead towards Boeing Area and tajarin pasta nonetheless blows your thoughts. The menu displays Lalario’s northern Italian heritage, however ginger lurks in an endive salad and lime leaf helps spark a bowl of beef sugo and gigli pasta. If you wish to go large (and may guide nicely prematurely) Mezzanotte does its personal model of an omakase on the chef’s counter.
Mojito
Lake Metropolis
The story of Luam Wersom working his method up from dishwasher to proprietor at this long-standing Latin American and Cuban restaurant is a good one. The meals is simply as exceptional. Dishes like vaca frita, tostones, and pescado en guiso—even the accompanying rice—bear the finesse of 20 years of expertise. Tropically hued partitions backdrop a patio that appears balmy irrespective of the climate. Even the titular mojitos are on level.
Musang
Beacon Hill
Chef Melissa Miranda is a pressure on so many ranges—an advocate inside her culinary, cultural, and geographic communities. Nevertheless it’s all constructed on some severe cooking expertise. Musang is an ode to the Filipino meals of Miranda’s Northwest youth, from kare kare to seasonal pancits, her grandmother’s delicate lumpia recipe to squid adobo. It’s meals with soul, with seasons, and with pretty cocktails to go together with it, all in a transformed lavender Craftsman. Seattle Met’s 2020 Restaurant of the 12 months.
Off Alley
Columbia Metropolis
Operating a tiny 12-seat restaurant in a glorified brick hall means chef Evan Leichtling has a number of freedom: to supply practically unsourceable treats like gooseneck barnacles. To serve snails on sourdough toast with bone marrow butter. Perhaps stuff a dutch child with foie gras and nectarines. Off Alley’s each day chalkboard menu celebrates underappreciated organs and oft-overlooked tiny fish. However moderately than headline, these usually function punctuation on elegant plates of seasonal produce. Sunday “grownup lunch” presents one other likelihood to seize a seat; regardless of the day, Meghna Prakash’s wine and repair seals a really enjoyable deal.
Paju
South Lake Union
A pair of high quality eating expats by the use of New York and San Francisco compose jewel field tributes to Korean flavors: fried rice, black with squid ink, punchy with bacon and kimchi, topped with a confit quail egg yolk, or hand-rolled ricotta dumplings layered in pyogo beoseot, also referred to as shiitake mushrooms. Bulgogi is gussied with truffles. Costs stay surprisingly informal given the big day caliber of those plates.
Pancita
Ravenna
Whereas the remainder of Seattle simply hoped for a barely higher taco, chef Janet Becerra skipped ready for somebody to make a good tortilla on the town and realized to grind and nixtamalize heirloom corn herself—which she and her staff do each day at Pancita. They press that masa into every tortilla they serve, together with numerous different antojitos, together with the memelas that go together with housemade hoja santa-wrapped queso fresco on the cheese plate. Utilizing conventional Mexican methods and her European fine-dining coaching, Becerra tops albacore tuna tostadas with morita Kewpie mayonnaise and burnt habanero oil, stuffs tacos with cauliflower ready as al pastor, and blankets hen with mission fig and stone fruit mole.
Pasta Casalinga
Pike Place Market
Turin, Italy-born Michela Tartaglia first taught pasta-making lessons within the Pike Place Market Atrium’s check kitchen. Now she runs a hidden-away pasta counter instantly above; it serves 4 each day bowls that at all times embody meat, seafood, and “from the backyard” renditions. What this implies: a unique menu every time you go to, and memorable partnerships between seasonal elements and pasta shapes, like tortiglioni with speck and ricotta, or gemelli with caramelized pears, gorgonzola, and walnuts.
The Pham sisters make magic from Vietnamese noodle soup and a dedication to group.
Pho Bac Súp Store
Chinatown-Worldwide District
To be Seattle’s first pho store is notable sufficient, particularly given our city’s subsequent obsession with Vietnam’s strong noodle soup. However second-generation house owners Yenvy and Quynh Pham have a expertise for locating new, impressively on-trend methods to strengthen these traditions. Working example: This tropically hip eating room the place bowls of that very same stunning pho include bar snacks and cocktails. The unique store, a boat-shaped construction throughout the parking zone, now serves garlic hen and rice and was Seattle Met’s 2023 Restaurant of the 12 months.
Restaurant Homer
Beacon Hill
Logan Cox is the form of chef who could make lamb ribs craveable, redefine roast hen as one thing new and thrilling, and acknowledge many of the neighborhood canines (and their house owners) by identify. His authentic restaurant places large, broadly Mediterranean flavors in crunchy context but additionally runs a soft-serve window, simply because. It’s onerous to slender down your choices right here, however the meatballs and lamb ribs stay perennial standouts, together with absolutely anything from the part of the menu devoted to issues one would possibly unfold on saucer-size pitas. These arrive on the desk nearly too scorching to the touch, tender inside nonetheless hyped up from the wooden oven. Seattle Met’s 2019 Restaurant of the 12 months.
Saint Bread
College District
Welcome to the church of flour, the place the fishes are broiled salmon on rice bowls, the loaves might be Japanese melonpan, yuzu polenta cake, or cardamom croissants, and nothing is sacred. With a blessed canal-side location in a former boat restore store, this bakery-plus from restaurateur Yasuaki Saito (Tivoli, Put up Alley Pizza, and, beforehand, London Aircraft) begins with breakfast pastries that take inspiration from France, Scandinavia, and Japan. The remainder of the menu is categorized by amount of sliced bread: look beneath one for cinnamon-Okinawan sugar toast, two slices consists of egg sandwiches and the spectacular cheeseburger, and the “No Bread” part consists of salads, fries, and okonomiyaki.
Secret Congee
Ballard
Solely in damp Seattle does a seashore cafe serving solely steaming scorching, soul-comforting rice porridge make excellent sense. Secret Congee’s model of the staple shines with the facility of all the daylight we hardly ever see, utilizing the refined, creamy base as a canvas for highly effective flavors from round East and Southeast Asia: plump shrimp with a spicy sauce impressed by Thai tom yum soup, slow-cooked beef brisket with kimchi, and black cod paired with ginger, garlic, and goji berries.
Sushi Kashiba
Pike Place Market
It’s a union that nearly appears fated: Shiro Kashiba, the legend who gave Seattle its first-ever sushi counter, and Pike Place Market, our different signature monument to native elements. Collectively as one in a hanging neutral-hued house. The eating room takes reservations, however diners jockey for first-come-first-serve spot on the lengthy sushi bar—and its peerless omakase. Shiro himself continues to be identified to carry court docket for diners on the far finish.
Taneda Sushi in Kaiseki
Capitol Hill
Head down the beat-up passage of Broadway Alley to discover a nine-seat sushi restaurant hidden behind a barber and a tobacco store. Right here, chef Hideaki Taneda inlays some ornate seasonal traditions of kaiseki inside a high-end sushi omakase. Nigiri, bare save a lightweight sear and a swipe of the condensed soy sauce generally known as nikiri, bookend ritual-thick kaiseki programs just like the hassun: eight disparate bites—from a morsel of wealthy wagyu to broiled eel wrapped in a tamago ribbon—on a single plate. This uncommon alliance of two Japanese culinary traditions works, due to the meal’s measured tempo—and a few glorious sake pours.
The informal really feel of Taurus Ox belies its seriousness in regards to the flavors of Laos.
Taurus Ox
Capitol Hill
Demand for its hanging Laotian meals propelled this informal spot out of its tiny counter quarters on Madison and into an actual eating room, full with ambiance and far more seating. Dishes, mercifully, stay the identical, just like the khao poon noodle soup and co-owner Khampaeng Panyathong’s mother’s sausage recipe, all texture and lemongrass. None of which prepares you for this: Taurus Ox makes, indisputably, the most effective burgers on the town, with a pair of correct smash patties, two variations of the condiment jeaw, and house-cured pork jowl instead of bacon. It’s cross-culturally intelligent and drive-across-town good.
Un Bien
Ballard
The sons of the unique Paseo founder opened Un Bien with their dad’s recipes, which makes this Caribbean roast sandwich the legendarily messy authentic: pork shoulder, caramelized onions, pickled jalapenos, all on an aioli-swiped Macrina roll. A blast to eat, particularly with a cob of slathered grilled corn throughout hotter months—however have a number of napkins useful. Two areas bookend Ballard, with a 3rd on Queen Anne.
College District
Seattle has just a few extra locations than it used to for biang biang noodles, named for the sound that occurs when cooks slap lengthy strands of dough in opposition to a counter, creating the fissures that result in these huge, completely chewy ribbons. However Lily Wu’s stay the standard-bearer, whether or not they’re wearing cumin lamb or tingly beef, or simply some chile-infused oil. Her upgraded eating room on the Ave now has sibling spots: a second restaurant in Bellevue and a counter hidden in Westlake Middle.
