Lotus Pond reveals off Seattle’s depth of Vietnamese delicacies with Northern-style Hai Phong crab noodle soup.
Seven years after the autumn of Saigon, the rise of pho in Seattle started. When Washington Governor Dan Evans referred to as on the state to welcome Vietnamese refugees, he created a neighborhood that made Seattle immeasurably richer—and embedded some dishes in our culinary canon. It’s unusual to think about a time when banh mi wasn’t a lunchtime staple, earlier than Seattle’s Vietnamese meals scene had vegan delis, spicy noodles, and entire fried catfish. Now, a brand new technology of restaurateurs goals to additional increase the concepts of Vietnamese meals on this city, and our record of the place to seek out one of the best of it solely will get longer.
Inexperienced Tree Vietnamese & Chinese language Restaurant
Greenwood
To not be confused with the late, nice native mini-chain Inexperienced Leaf, this single location spot does a booming takeout enterprise to Flying Bike Cooperative Brewery subsequent door (and can typically supply to carry the meals to prospects there). However Inexperienced Tree produces meals price strolling down the block and driving throughout city for. The intense combo salad mixes one of the best components of the lotus root, mango, and papaya salads with a bathe of mint, and the char on the grilled beef quick ribs crackles, crisp and candy. Of the numerous Vietnamese specialties Inexperienced Tree nails, none surpasses the silky bánh cuốn: slippery blankets of rice noodles sprinkled with umami-flakes of onion and mushroom, able to fold round slices of meat.
Second-generation restaurateurs Thai and Trinh Nguyen incorporate Vietnamese flavors and methods right into a world of dishes at Ramie.
Ramie
Capitol Hill
Second-generation restaurateur siblings Trinh and Thai Nguyen’s follow-up to Ba Sa on Bainbridge Island additional refines their imaginative and prescient for contemporary Vietnamese delicacies. Conventional Viet flavors and dishes function jumping-off factors as they incorporate native substances and methods from world wide. The bánh tiêu, a fried hole bread, and its honey butter accompaniment (rightfully) sit on practically each desk, although Ramie’s boldly beet-purple tackle shrimp cocktail deserves an analogous must-order standing.
Voi Cà Phê
Georgetown
Each Khôi Phùng and Hiền Đặng grew up steeped in Vietnamese espresso tradition, the companions in enterprise and in life created their Georgetown café to showcase and honor that heritage. Robust, wealthy cà phê sữa đá brewed by phin highlights Vietnamese beans, whereas jackfruit, miso caramel, and even Pink Boat fish sauce lattes display the pair’s creativity with beloved flavors. The banh mi (conveniently obtainable in mini measurement, for a lighter meal) rework acquainted dishes into sandwiches, together with a pho-spiced beef (with broth dip) and claypot-braised vegetarian patties.
Lotus Pond’s bún bò Huế is one in every of its hottest dishes.
Lotus Pond
Northgate
Opened by a former chef of Seattle Vietnamese stalwart Tamarind Tree, the meals at Lotus Pond shone from the second it opened, with regional specialties like bún riêu cua, a northern Vietnamese crab noodle soup, and bún bò Huế sườn bò, a spicy soup made with quick ribs. Maybe equally spectacular because the meals is how Lotus Pond has blossomed within the three years because it opened, slowly reworking its shabby constructing into an oasis from the chaos of Aurora.
Rise & Shine Bakery
Edmonds
For a few of us, the bread makes the banh mi, and this nondescript store on Freeway 99 will get it. The housemade bread, with its skinny, crackly exterior, ranks among the many finest within the metropolis, however a little bit tweak enhances the sandwich additional. As a substitute of slicing the banh mi in half throughout the center of the sandwich, Rise & Shine cuts diagonally, sending takeout artfully resting in a field, moderately than wrapped in paper. It affords a tempting preview of the layers of sliced meats and jumble of colourful greens and leads to a neater sandwich to eat—the tapered finish even holds down on flying crumbs. The wholesome slather of mayo possible helps, too.
Blossom
Renton
Shiny, clear, and spacious, with pleasant and fast service, Blossom sidesteps most of the stereotypical failings of vegetarian and vegan eating places. The big menu options loads of historically meat-free dishes, like lemongrass tofu, and the standard faux-meat subs, like seitan. However the place it shines are the distinctive creations, just like the crispy inexperienced mussels and the 2 forms of Vietnamese ham on the bánh hỏi—and Blossom’s woven mats of rice noodles may simply go up towards these at any restaurant within the metropolis.
Banh City
Greenwood
Because the identify implies, baguette sandwiches are the transfer right here. However the lineup incorporates a number of nice surprises. Just like the banh mi full of corned beef, or one other that incorporates rooster braised in soy sauce and butter with candy onions and only a trace of melted mozzarella. A thicket of herbs, jalapeño, and pickled veggies leaven these wealthy meats.
ChuMinh Tofu and Vegan Deli
Chinatown–Worldwide District, Rainier Valley
Look past the vigorously pastel partitions to that superb pay-by-the-pound buffet, a smorgasbord of curry, tofu, braised jackfruit, eggplant, and various “meat” that’s the stuff of meatless goals. Proprietor Tanya Nguyen additionally makes tangy noodle soups and a banh mi with fake crispy pork pores and skin that counts loads of carnivores in its fan base. On-line ordering makes life even higher.
Huong Binh
Chinatown–Worldwide District
While you see aged Vietnamese women chatting at a four-top while assembling their lettuce-wrapped bundles of banh hoi rice noodles for lunch, you recognize you’re proper the place you ought to be—that’s, a restaurant tucked in a busy plaza on Jackson. New homeowners stick with it founder Lien Dang’s dedication to the delicacies of the previous royal capital of Hue, from spicy bún bò Huế beef noodle soup to bánh bèo, steamed rice desserts showered with floor shrimp and scallions.
Pho Bac Súp Store is the center of the Pho Bac empire and of the Little Saigon restaurant neighborhood.
Pho Bac Súp Store
Chinatown–Worldwide District
Born within the humble boat-shaped construction throughout the car parking zone, Seattle’s first pho store has grown into this tropically styled area, whose broad home windows sport the steam of all these bowls of wealthy pho served inside. The menu grew as effectively, to incorporate cocktails, Viet-tinged snacks like fries in lemongrass dipping sauce, and soup adventures just like the turmeric noodles and quick rib pho. The sibling location downtown affords those self same nice noodles, plus banh mi on house-baked bread and a hidden cocktail bar upstairs. The unique location is now The Boat, Seattle Met‘s 2023 restaurant of the yr, serving equally spectacular garlic fried rooster and pandan waffles.
Saigon Deli
Chinatown–Worldwide District
No seating, no frills, however, sure—among the finest banh mi within the metropolis on fresh-made baguettes, full of grilled tofu and veggies or three sorts of ham. Others go for snacks packaged in-house: shrimp spring rolls, rooster with rice, or minced pork inside steamed rice wrapped in banana leaf.
Duck rolls, chili-cumin pork ribs, grasp inventory crispy rooster, and the traditional banh mi at Stateside.
Stateside
Capitol Hill
“Fusion” seems like an entirely insufficient phrase for Eric Johnson’s ode to Vietnamese flavors, a love acquired throughout his years cooking at Jean-Georges in Shanghai and exploring Southeast Asia any likelihood he acquired. Johnson’s background within the highest of high-end eating places informs clever explorations of the flavour crossroads of Vietnam and China, like grasp inventory crispy rooster and Vietnamese iced espresso creamsicles.
Tamarind Tree
Chinatown–Worldwide District
In 2004, Tam Nguyen expanded the town’s definition of Little Saigon with a deeply atmospheric eating room, serving an infinite menu of fastidiously ready Vietnamese regional staples. Little or no has modified, save Seattle’s deepening consciousness of how fortunate we’re to have this place. Nowadays, Tamarind Tree can be a vacation spot for a correct bò 7 món, Vietnam’s conventional seven programs of beef.
Thanh Son Tofu
Chinatown–Worldwide District
Tofu can completely be destination-worthy, as evidenced by the lemongrass, chive, and different varieties made recent and bought right here by the pound. As soon as only a tofu manufacturing firm, Thanh Son branched out with an unexpectedly glittering deli area on King, with strong banh mi and a build-your-own che (beverage by means of dessert) menu that’s bonkers enjoyable.
Banh Mi Deluxe
Rainier Valley
Park behind this store on MLK and also you’ll see duck and pork stomach hanging in a glass enclosure on the aspect of the constructing, a literal window into the cautious substances that get tucked into satisfying baguettes. The banh mi lineup contains some classics, like that pork stomach, but additionally nouveau variations made with bulgogi and kimchi. Egg and avocado additionally make surprising however completely satisfying banh mi cameos. Boss Tea, a sibling bubble tea enterprise, has its personal counter inside.
Billiard Hoang
Columbia Metropolis
This low-key billiards corridor simply off Martin Luther King Jr. Means South doubles as a powerful Vietnamese restaurant. (Or maybe it is the opposite approach round?) It begins serving the expansive menu of banh mi, vermicelli bowls, and rice plates early sufficient to make a late breakfast, and whereas it makes a strong pho, it additionally affords an opportunity to discover different noodle soups like tomato-brothed bún riêu.
Huong Duong
Rainier Valley
We must always all be so fortunate to have a neighborhood restaurant like this in our midst—crispy bánh xèo, vermicelli bowls stuffed with crunchy greens and wealthy grilled meat, a mango salad you could possibly (gladly) eat day-after-day. Plus a number of less-common dishes, like duck noodle soup or a pork chop redolent of caramelized fish sauce and topped with a fried egg. Huong Duong means “sunflower” in Vietnamese, which explains the bright-yellow partitions within the laid-back eating room.
Rainier Restaurant
Rainier Valley
Sure, that one time Anthony Bourdain visited for The Layover was fairly cool. However we didn’t want a meals celeb to inform us this sprawling two-level eating room was particular. An unlimited menu contains unusual meat—grilled snails, deep-fried quail—however the kitchen reveals simply as a lot care with requirements like bánh xèo or a brief rib rice plate (the menu additionally contains Chinese language dishes). Large teams and households make an occasion out of the entire catfish, fried till its pores and skin crackles beneath your chopsticks like radio static.
Da Lat Quan
White Middle
Massive letters on the entrance window ship three emphatic phrases: com (rice), pho, and bun (rice noodles). However, at the least on the primary go to, head straight to the massive menu’s specialty part, stuffed with noodle soups from central Vietnam. The mì Quảng submerges shrimp, quail eggs, and bits of spare ribs in broth and a thicket of vast turmeric noodles, all topped with peanuts and caramelized onions. Different favorites embrace massive bowls of bún riêu or spicy beef noodle soup identified right here as bún bò dalat. No marvel practically each desk on this hovering room emits a plume of steam from a soup bowl.
Ba Bar
Capitol Hill, South Lake Union, College Village
It is simple to take Ba Bar without any consideration as a result of it’s at all times there for you. Three places serve dependable high-quality pho at 10am on a Tuesday, slushy cocktails at completely satisfied hour, and a menu constructed on Saigon avenue meals: vermicelli bowls, crispy imperial rolls, five-spice rotisserie duck. Sophie Banh ensures the meals stays nice, whereas brother Eric retains issues of the second, from including fashionable coated and heated patios to putting in a formidable pastry program. Ba Bar Inexperienced, a takeout window on the South Lake Union location, serves a wholly vegan menu.
Monsoon
Capitol Hill, Bellevue
Eric and Sophie Banh’s pair of stylish Vietnamese eating places nonetheless sparkle as they did when the primary Monsoon wowed the town in 1999. The unique location on nineteenth and its Bellevue spin-off every retain their very own personas, however each nail consistency—within the heat service, the grilled beef lá lốt, drunken rooster, and clay pot catfish, and the attract of weekend dim sum brunch. Beverage director Jon Christiansen ensures cocktails are on level, and the Seattle rooftop stays one of many city’s finest, most secluded patios.
Vinason
South Lake Union, Sodo, Kent, Kirkland, Sammamish
All of it started with an unassuming counter on Westlake, handing satisfying pho and vermicelli bowls topped with grilled natural meat out of the walkup window. If this method was a lock for Amazon lunchers, it has proved much more profitable with three subsequent places that provide precise seating and a whole wall of automated pour-it-yourself beer faucets.
