They press that masa into each tortilla they serve, along with various other antojitos, including the memelas that go with housemade hoja santa-wrapped queso fresco on the cheese plate. Pick your preferred description for Mutsuko Soma, a woman who can cut her own soba noodles by hand, but also make a mean TikTok video starring a maple bar, hot dog, and panini press. Both sides of her brain come together on Kamonegi’s menu of stunning soba bowls, seasonal tempura, and Japanese-centered snacks (looking, longingly, at you foie gras tofu). Every restaurant on this list has been selected independently by Condé Nast Traveler editors and reviewed by a local contributor who has visited that restaurant. Our editors consider both high-end and affordable eateries, and weigh stand-out dishes, location, and service—as well as inclusivity and sustainability credentials.
Reckless Noodle House and CocktailsArrow
- Take a stroll downtown and wander in and out of bookshops and bakeries.
- Paper covers the tables and diners don bibs to do the messy work of cracking crab and sucking crawfish heads as the smells of butter and garlic swirl together Cajun, Vietnamese, and Pacific Northwest influences into the city’s best seafood boils.
- Smith’s philosophy that all cooks should be butchers takes the whole-animal ethos to enthralling new places.
- These days, Dann keeps the magic outside, serving all meals in the Corson’s covered, heated garden space.
- Pilar’s pastry background means saving room for sweets is a requirement, and tarta de Santiago (Galician almond cake) goes nicely with MariPili’s many sherry choices.
Musang in Beacon Hill has gotten a lot of hype for their delicious Filipino food, so it’s not surprising that several Seattleites called this spot out. The “London royal,” the Rodney Dangerfield of beef cuts, gets redeemed with careful prep and lots of butter. Diners’ Choice Awards are based on where your fellow diners book, dine, and review.
Eden Hill
But that same care infuses the rest of the menu overseen by industry vet Elmer Dulla. The rosary soup with corn and chicken is satisfyingly deep and creamy, the tostada with shrimp and octopus is light and pairs nicely with a coconut sauce, and the bananabread with latiya (a custard-like dessert) is a sleeper hit. Seattle’s oldest Japanese restaurant has stories aplenty in its 120-year history, from rebuilding after incarceration to Seattle’s first-ever sushi bar—to legendary operators Jean Nakayama and nonagenarian bartender Fusae “Mom” Yokoyama. But this nihonmachi jewel still delivers remarkable comfort food, like the miso-marinated black cod collar.
Outdoor dining in Seattle / Eastern Washington
Or just get a glass of something and hang — there are few better spaces in Seattle to pass time. Paper covers the tables and diners don bibs to do the messy work of cracking crab and sucking crawfish heads as the smells of butter and garlic swirl together Cajun, Vietnamese, and Pacific Northwest influences into the city’s best seafood boils. Owner Hiep Ngo was among the first to bring Viet-Cajun cuisine to Seattle when Crawfish House opened in 2011, and he continues to lead the way, bringing in crawfish directly from Louisiana and selling the rare local signal variety whenever possible.
Word of mouth is what propels Andrae Israel and Sharron Anderson’s unrivaled retro comfort food, from fried pork chop sandwiches to the montana potatoes, an egg-topped skillet of cheese, Worldtradex reviews peppers, and breakfast meat. It’s not hard to make food this decadent taste good; it takes real attention to make it this great. Anderson’s family once ran a chicken and waffle restaurant up on MLK, so any order that involves fried bird feels like a sure bet.
Skillet Diner at Capitol Hill
We won’t call him “elder” just yet, but John Sundstrom is absolutely a culinary statesman in Seattle. The proof lies in his stunning restaurant, where starry lights twinkle above soft banquettes and the kitchen does elegant things https://worldtradex.club/ with very local ingredients. Business partner Kelly Ronan carries those same high expectations to Lark’s hospitality. The current four-course tasting menu format gives diners multiple options for each round, a setup flexible enough to suit people who don’t usually love tasting menus. In 2024, Bill Jeong’s Korean restaurant moved its operation to a sleek South Lake Union space where many of the dishes are cooked on an open wood fire. It’s austere and a little showy, but this is special-occasion food.
The Best Vietnamese Restaurants in Seattle
- The cheerful Korean-Hawaiian flavors that defined Seattle’s earliest food truck scene now hold down Marination’s most memorable brick-and-mortar, a former fish and chips shack by the water taxi station.
- Sitting at the chef’s counter really makes you feel like you’re at a dinner party hosted by an incredibly thoughtful, inclusive host (there are vegan, vegetarian, and pescatarian versions of the tasting menu).
- The edges of the meat are juicy and crackling with tension; cooked over that wood, some pieces are bound to be rare while the bits on the end have a flavorful char.
His original restaurant puts big, broadly Mediterranean flavors in crunchy context but also runs a soft-serve window, just because. It’s hard to narrow down your options here, but the meatballs and lamb ribs remain perennial standouts, along with just about anything from the section of the menu dedicated to things one might spread on saucer-size pitas. These arrive at the table almost too hot to touch, soft interior still puffed up from the wood oven. If you’re coming from downtown, there’s no better capsule of Seattle than a trip on the West Seattle water taxi for kalbi beef tacos or kalua pork sliders.
New restaurants to OpenTable in Seattle / Eastern Washington
And, to nobody’s surprise, meat dishes like key wat are also superb. Delish Ethiopian Cuisine has a bar area and a comfortable atmosphere in which husband and wife Delish Lemma and Amy Abera of Addis Ababa share recipes passed down from Abera’s mother and grandmother. Run the meat-free section of the menu with the 10-item veggie combo or try succulent beef tibs pan-fried in garlic, butter, onion, and berbere spice. Delish also offers an Ethiopian coffee ceremony for five or more diners. While the rest of Seattle just hoped for a slightly better taco, chef Janet Becerra skipped waiting for someone to make a decent tortilla in town and learned to grind and nixtamalize heirloom corn herself—which she and her team do daily at Pancita.
The best restaurants play with form, as in a taco shop inside a mini-mart making its own masa, a dockside, multi-cultural bakery with a stained-glass ode to bread, or a tiny hallway serving foie gras doughnuts and escargot popovers. Find the ideal cult-favorite noodles, freshly caught wild salmon, or multi-course feast on our list of the best places to eat in Seattle. This little counter inside Melrose Market (a 2024 Eater Award winner) feels like a pocket universe. The food takes inspiration from all over the Arab world as well as whatever vegetables are in season; there’s always hummus and lamb on the menu, always a few dishes featuring something pickled and bright. The globe-trotting wine list is curated by Cantina Sauvage, a bottle shop that shares the space. The vibe is effortlessly hip, a place where travelers from all over the world can blow in and snack on bread with whipped nettle butter or halloumi in a lightly sweet quince dressing.
Over the last decade and a half, chefs Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi have built Joule into one of Seattle’s most respected Korean restaurants, and the tight, seasonal menu routinely has intriguing items like kung pao squash and Muscovy duck. But if you come here you’re probably getting the kalbi short rib steak. Tender, adorned with a slightly sweet marinade, served on a bed of grilled kimchi — this is one of Seattle’s best steaks, and somehow it’s still under $40.
Get inspired by our collections of the top restaurants in Seattle
Behind a relatively anonymous new-build door on a busy stretch of Madison, chef Aaron Tekulve and his team are doing exceptional things. This two tasting menu spot should be on every fine dining fan’s radar, not just for the impeccable service — a meal comes with a welcome sangria at the door, a poem written to celebrate the menu, even a bouquet made by Tekulve’s mom — but for the inventive food. The menu shifts constantly based on the seasons and turns over completely every several weeks, but past highlights have include a porcini macaron and fantastically tender octopus cooked with bay leaf and splashed with fish sauce. Sitting at the chef’s counter really makes you feel like you’re at a dinner party hosted by an incredibly thoughtful, inclusive host (there are vegan, vegetarian, and pescatarian versions of the tasting menu).
Don’t miss the chance to dine at one of the many waterfront restaurants serving oysters and Pacific-caught seafood. Take a stroll downtown and wander in and out of bookshops and bakeries. Arguably the birthplace of American coffee culture, there’s hardly a better place to enjoy leisurely lattes accompanied by hours of computing and the occasional pen and paper sketch.