Ono Authentic Hawaiian Poke
Link
Open for: Lunch and dinner (closed Mondays).
Price range: $$
Ono, named for Oahu-born owner Steven Ono, is a seafood lover’s dream in Edmonds, offering possibly the highest-quality poke in the Seattle area on a menu that rotates depending on what’s fresh. (Ono sources some of his fish directly from the Honolulu Fish Auction.) Just as importantly, the restaurant uses a light hand with flavorings so you don’t lose the flavor of the fish itself, whether you’re eating salmon dressed with ponzu or a spicy ahi bowl. You will be eating fish here though — there are Hawaiian sides like mac salad and seaweed salad, but this isn’t a place for vegans.
Know before you go: This gem is in no way “hidden.” Expect long lines and occasional sellouts.
Harry Cheadle
Cafe Juanita
Link
Open for: Dinner on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$$$
Holly Smith’s Northern Italian fine dining restaurant feels old-fashioned, a quiet, low-key dining room tucked away in Kirkland. But the food is still outstanding and inventive. The menu changes frequently based on the seasons, but you’ll find bites that astound — we’re still thinking about an umami-rich foraged mushroom pasta we had there years ago. Notably, Cafe Juanita serves four different tasting menus: an omnivorous one alongside pescatarian, vegetarian, and vegan options. Couple that with a nonalcoholic beverage pairing you can opt for instead of wine and you’re looking at one of the most inclusive high-end restaurants in the metro area.
If you drive: Don’t try to mess around by finding street parking. You’re going to drop $200 a person here before drinks, you might as well pay $10 for the valet service.
Harry Cheadle
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FlintCreek Cattle Co
Link
Open for: Dinner from 4 to 10 p.m. daily, happy hour from 4 to 5:30 p.m.
Price range: $$$
Eric Donnelly’s Greenwood restaurant is a steakhouse, but it’s a steakhouse for people who maybe aren’t that into steak. Sure, you can get some dry-aged steaks in the usual cuts — New York, Delmonico, tomahawk, etc. — but you’re doing yourself a disservice not exploring the venison and boar. The duck confit is another winner, rubbed with spices for a little kick of heat. Even the pickled vegetables are worth an order here — they come with fragrant blue cheese tahini, one of the many ways the kitchen shows off its pan-Mediterranean cooking chops.
Must-try dish: The happy hour burger is just $11. Served with blue cheese at Worcestershire aioli, it’s a creamy, meaty treat.
Harry Cheadle
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Beast and Cleaver
Link
Open for: Dinner Thursdays through Sundays (reservations strongly recommended), a butcher shop the rest of the week (closed Mondays).
Price range: $$$$
London native Kevin Smith has built a cult following over the last few years for Beast and Cleaver, turning the Ballard spot into one of the city’s top destinations for carnivores. During the day, the business is simply an excellent whole-animal butcher shop serving house-made sausages and pates alongside local and imported steaks,. On Thursdays and Fridays, the celebration of meat kicks up another gear, when it turns into an exclusive tasting menu restaurant under the moniker the Peasant, which serves dishes like koji-aged beef and duck confit with Yorkshire pudding waffles. The menu changes based on the season and Smith’s whims; just expect a lot of meat, and probably some pate en croute. An a la carte menu is also available at the Beastro, which is open for dinner on the weekends. Follow it on Instagram for specials and pop-ups — on top of everything else, the Beast sometimes makes incredible dry-aged burgers.
Know before you go: It’s a tiny space and reservations are pretty much required, whether you’re going to Beastro or the Peasant.
Beast and Cleaver
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Sophon
Link
Open for: Dinner Tuesdays through Saturdays (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$
Sophon is both an ode to owner Karuna Long’s Khmer roots and an accessible introduction for non-Cambodians to Khmer cuisine — which means steak with tuk prahok (a sauce containing fermented fish paste), pork belly braised in coconut milk until it’s so rich and tender it practically melts, and small plates fried chicken and mushrooms best enjoyed with sweet, spicy, salty “crack sauce.” The Phinney Ridge restaurant also doubles as an innovative cocktail bar. The drinks include Khmer ingredients like peanut fish sauce orgeat, Kampot pepper (the Cambodian version of black pepper), and clarified coconut.
Know before you go: The opening hours are pretty narrow — the first seating is at 5, the last at 8:30. If you can’t get a reservation, you can try walking in and snagging a bar seat or two.
Suzi Pratt
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Un Bien
Link
Open for: Lunch and dinner Wednesdays through Saturdays.
Price range: $$
We don’t need to get into the Shakespearean drama that resulted in the demise of the old Paseo, that legendary Caribbean sandwich shop run by Lorenzo Lorenzo. (Paseo still exists under new ownership) Suffice it to say that Un Bien, run by Lorenzo’s sons, is carrying on that legacy, and more importantly the marinade. Sweet, tangy, dripping from the slow-cooked pork (or chicken thighs), you could make a whole meal out of the marinade itself. The onions are so tender and flavor-packed you should be able to get a sandwich that’s just onions, and in fact, you can.
Must-try dish: On top of everything else, the black beans here are incredible — aromatic from bay leaf and just a little bit sweet. Always, always get them as a side.
Harry Cheadle
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Situ Tacos
Link
Open for: Lunch and dinner daily.
Price range: $$
There’s signs in this brightly colored Ballard taco shop telling you not to “eat the fucking toothpicks,” and you’re all like, Why would I eat the toothpicks? Then you start biting into the fried tacos filled with Lebanese brown butter beef or garlic potatoes or harissa cauliflower and you forget about everything else in the world and before you know it, fuck, you’ve bitten into one of those toothpicks. There’s a limited menu here but this is food you lose yourself in, not just the tacos but the rotating soups — recent standouts have included molokhia (Lebanese chicken stew) and pozole rojo (a chile and pork soup).
Best for: The start of a night out on Ballard Avenue — drink specials include a combo shot of tequila and watermelon liqueur and the “Sad Girl Shot,” which is tequila with a “chunk o cheese.” (The “Smart Girl Shot” is the same thing but with white wine instead of liquor, “cuz you’ve already had a few.”)
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The Walrus and the Carpenter
Link
Open for: Dinner every evening.
Price range: $$$
James Beard Award-winning chef Renee Erickson has had a major hand in the evolution of Seattle’s dining scene, and her Sea Creatures restaurant group owns many of Seattle’s top restaurants, from steakhouse Bateau to Westward on Lake Union. But this is still arguably the flagship of her fleet. The Walrus and the Carpenter serves a wide range of mostly seafood-focused small plates, but the reason you go here is the selection of oysters — the staff here are so knowledgeable and happy to talk you through everything that they’ve probably turned a lot of millennials into true oyster heads. You can pair your ‘sters with a cocktail or wine or a Rainier tallboy, depending on your mood. The dining room is bright and airy, and the heated, covered patio sparkles with string lights. Be warned that you can’t make reservations at this perennial favorite; on the upside, this is one of the few Seattle-area date-night restaurants open on Mondays.
Must-try dish: The fried oysters — lightly breaded in corn starch and served with an herby aioli — are crunchy on the outside, creamy in the middle, and a great option for the oyster skeptics in your group.
Eric Tra
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Atoma
Link
Open for: Dinner Tuesdays through Saturdays (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$$$
In 2023, Johnny and Sarah Courtney took over the Wallingford house that used to be home to feted organic restaurant Tilth and immediately started building their own legacy. (It is a 2025 James Beard finalist for Best New Restaurant.) The menu rotates with the seasons, but you’re bound to find a lot of unexpected twists on what’s become known as “PNW cuisine.” The radish cake topped with delicate slices of geoduck, for instance, is a sophisticated and unexpected way to serve the Northwest’s most famous bivalve. The baked Alaska is maybe the best showcase of the team’s talents: It takes ingredients like corn silk or cheddar and somehow manages to combine those flavors into something beautiful.
Must-try dish: The savory rosette cookies with cheese and onion jam are so famous that the New York Times wrote about them. If you come here, you might as well order them and see what the fuss is about.
Kyler A. Martin
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Le Coin
Link
Open for: Dinner nightly, brunch Thursdays through Sundays.
Price range: $$$
This bistro in Fremont is a miracle: It’s impossible to have a bad meal here. Sure, you can have a tasting menu with foie gras toast and rabbit confit, but you can also get a big meaty burger loaded with caramelized onions. On hot days you can cool off with some happy hour oysters; on chilly evenings you can warm yourself with a bowl of deeply savory French onion soup. Even brunch — a meal some places phone in — is loaded with delights like huckleberry clafoutis and apple fritters. And then there’s the extensive cocktail menu, which is heavy on the Chartreuse — a nod both to Le Coin’s French influences and Seattle cocktail history.
Know before you go: It’s not too hard normally to snag a seat at the large wraparound bar, but there aren’t that many tables; parties of three or more should make reservations.
Harry Cheadle
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Hamdi
Link
Open for: Dinner Wednesdays through Sundays (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$$
Chef Berk Güldal and Katrina Schult worked at literally the best restaurants in the country (Single Thread, the French Laundry, 11 Madison Park) before hosting pop-ups at Fair Isle Brewing, where they made their reputation roasting entire lambs over a wood fire. So when the couple opened their brick-and-mortar in Frelard in 2022, it immediately became a buzzed-about dinner destination. The restaurant they’ve created is dark and theatrical, with a long chef’s counter facing the open kitchen, where you can watch Güldal cooking meat over an open flame. Lamb is still the star of the show: The kebap — an upscale version of the kebab everyone knows — is fatty and luxurious, and the lamb ribs are crunchy on the outside and somehow creamy on the inside. Not that Hamdi only caters to carnivores: The roasted cauliflower with tahini sauce and a sunflower seed dukkah is one of the most decadent gluten-free and vegan dishes in the whole city.
Best for: Special occasions; don’t come here with a date unless you’re sure you like them.
Harry Cheadle
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Kamonegi
Link
Open for: Dinner Tuesdays through Saturdays (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$$
Star chef Mutsuko Soma makes soba from scratch at this petite Fremont destination, which was one of Eater’s Best New Restaurants in America in 2018. Soma serves traditional soba shop dishes like seiro soba (cold with dipping sauce) and super-crunchy tempura, but also more creative dishes like noodles topped with tri tips or oreo tempura. Chef Soma is a sake connoisseur (she also owns next-door sake bar Hannyatou) and the drinks menu includes items like habanero-infused umeshi (plum wine), which is an order for the brave.
Know before you go: It’s a small dining room with a lot of tables, which is a fun intimate setting but also not the best place if you want some privacy.
Kamonegi
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Local Tide
Link
Open for: Lunch and dinner Tuesdays through Saturdays, lunch only on Sundays (closed Monday).
Price range: $$
Victor Steinbrueck’s counter-serve restaurant feels like the natural evolution of casual seafood joints like Ivar’s. The vibe is casual and the dishes are familiar: smashburgers, crab rolls, clam chowder, salmon teriyaki, banh mi with rockfish. But everything is just a little better than it needs to be — like, that banh mi is loaded with herbs and vegetables, and the shrimp toast is buttery and light. Incredibly, nearly everything on the menu is under $20, making it maybe the last legitimate bargain in Fremont.
Know before you go: On weekends, the lines are long and parking is scarce. The move is to show up for a weekday lunch.
Harry Cheadle
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Joule
Link
Open for: Dinner seven days a week.
Price range: $$$
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. Don’t forget to look at the creative cocktail menu.
If you drive: Dining at Joule is relaxing, finding street parking on Stone Way is not. There are nearby lots, however.
Tivoli
Link
Open for: Lunch and dinner on weekdays, dinner only on weekends.
Price range: $$
You’ll probably come to Tivoli for the pizzas — New York–style dough, foldable with a moreish tang, the crust is the star whether you get plain cheese or one of the rotating seasonal specials. But Tivoli has a secret second life as a small plates restaurant, with dishes like wood-fired rainbow carrots, sweet and charred, with a zingy horseradish cream. You can also stop in for lunch; get the mortadella sandwich, served with fluffy ricotta on fresh focaccia. (It’s the Saint Bread crew, led by Yasuaki Saito, running things, so you know everything bread-related is on point.) There’s even a happy hour on weekdays from 3 to 5 p.m. where you can get vermouth for $5. Check it out, you’ll go away happy.
If you drive: If you get takeout here you can usually find short-term parking, but there aren’t many spaces to be had on this stretch of 34th. Take the bus, or prepare to circle the block.
Harry Cheadle
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Canlis
Link
Open for: Dinner Mondays to Fridays (reservations strongly encouraged).
Price range: $$$$
Canlis is the most famous restaurant in Seattle, and maybe the most important. It’s what people think fine dining is supposed to be: valet parking, a panoramic view over Lake Union, servers appearing at your elbow with elegantly cured carafes of wine. The words amuse bouche will come up. You’ll spend an entire evening inhabiting the world of people who go to restaurants like these, a world that somehow now includes you. Canlis has such clout that its website dares to tell notoriously casual Seattleites, “We’re a very dressy restaurant. We recommend a suit or sport coat for men, and ask that no T-shirts, shorts, hats, or casual attire of any kind be worn.” At the moment, Canlis is in a transition period, with celebrated executive chef Aisha Ibrahim leaving. (Co-owner Brian Canlis departed as well; now his brother Mark is the sole owner.) So it’s hard to say much about what the food will be like in the future. (The menu stay will the same until the new chef takes over in late spring or early summer.) But whoever is in the kitchen, Canlis is still Canlis.
Good for: The first fine dining experience of your life.
Canlis
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Taurus Ox
Link
Open for: Lunch and dinner Tuesdays through Saturdays
Price range: $$
When Taurus Ox opened in 2019, Laotian cuisine was a rarity in Seattle, so thank owners Khampaeng Panyathong and Jenessa Sneva for introducing the city to dishes like thom khem (caramelized pork belly) and chicken laap (a salad with minced chicken). Don’t miss the Lao pork sausage, fragrant with lemongrass and lime leaf, or the jaew, a tomato-y, somewhat spicy sauce comparable to salsa or chutney. For another rare treat, pair it with a locally made sato, or Laotian rice wine, from Village Ghost.
Best for: A casual lunch or dinner.
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Seabird
Link
Open for: Dinner, Thursday through Sunday.
Price range: $$$
When Seabird opened back in 2022 (and won an Eater Award) it was a fancy-schmancy type place with very fussy plating. It’s since become a little more chilled out — it no longer takes reservations — and is more affordable than you probably think, with all the entrees save the steak clocking in at under $40. The food is still show-off-y though, incorporating the sea into everything from the seaweed focaccia with a briny algae butter (an acquired taste) to the Caesar salad with a creamy kelp dressing. And the seafood classics are given fun flourishes; on a recent visit the mussels were cooked with honey mead rather than the traditional white wine for a dose of sweetness.
Must order: The menu rotates quite a lot but the kelp Caesar remains a constant, a great dose of greens amid a meal that will almost certainly be fish-focused.
Harry Cheadle
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Spice Waala
Link
Open for: Dinner only on Tuesdays, lunch and dinner Wednesdays through Saturdays (hours vary by location).
Price range: $
Spice Waala, which has opened three locations since starting as a pop-up in 2018, deserves to be in the pantheon of affordable Seattle takeout options alongside Dick’s and teriyaki. The chutneys are sweet and spicy and bursting with life — you can dip fries in them, get them alongside an aloo tikki (a potato patty) or papdi (crackers). The kathi rolls are similarly excellent whether you’re getting one with paneer (a cottage cheese–like cheese), lamb, or chicken tikka. At this point we’ve just like, listed the entire menu and told you it’s good? But it is incredible. The seasonal soft serve — with rotating flavors inspired by Indian cuisine — deserves a shout-out too. This is street food done exactly right.
Good for: A quick satisfying bite in the middle of a night out in Ballard, Columbia City, or Capitol Hill.
Spice Waala
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Surrell
Link
Open for: Dinner Wednesdays through Saturdays (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$$$
Behind a relatively anonymous new-build door on a busy stretch of Madison, chef Aaron Tekulve and his team are doing exceptional things. This two tasting menu spot should be on every fine dining fan’s radar, not just for the impeccable service — a meal comes with a welcome sangria at the door, a poem written to celebrate the menu, even a bouquet made by Tekulve’s mom — but for the inventive food. The menu shifts constantly based on the seasons and turns over completely every several weeks, but past highlights have include a porcini macaron and fantastically tender octopus cooked with bay leaf and splashed with fish sauce. Sitting at the chef’s counter really makes you feel like you’re at a dinner party hosted by an incredibly thoughtful, inclusive host (there are vegan, vegetarian, and pescatarian versions of the tasting menu).
Good for: A big-deal celebratory dinner.
Harry Cheadle
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Ltd Edition Sushi
Link
Open for: Dinner Mondays through Fridays (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$$$
This tiny omakase place on Capitol Hill first achieved fame for being so good it made the Seattle Times restaurant critic tear up. But you’re more likely to be laughing than crying at Keiji Tsukasaki’s counter. The former DJ cheerfully ditches the air of mystique some highly skilled sushi chefs seem to cultivate. He’ll drink a beer while he’s working, tell you which sake to drink with which course (and refill your glass with a heavy hand), all while abso-fucking-lutely wowing you with his food. The menu changes with the seasons but past highlights include sea snails served in their shells, toro topped with mushrooms for added depth of flavor, and a monkfish liver so rich and velvety it’s literally a dessert course.
Know before you go: There are tables here, but you really should try to sit at the counter to get the chef Keiji experience.
Harry Cheadle
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Spinasse
Link
Open for: Dinner seven days a week (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$$$
More than 10 years in, this romantic trattoria on Capitol Hill continues to entrance diners with food from Italy’s Piedmont region. The nest of delicate tajarin pasta with butter and sage sauce is a Seattle mainstay, but every dish from chef Stuart Lane is memorable. After a satisfying dinner at Spinasse, head to next-door sibling bar Artusi for a digestif and dessert, or stop by the bar another night for snacks like beef tongue with salsa tonnata (tuna sauce) and burrata with pomegranate seeds and toasted pistachios.
Know before you go: The house specialty is fresh pasta made with egg yolk and the entrees are typically meat — find someplace else to go if you’re vegan.
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Spinasse
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COMMUNION Restaurant & Bar
Link
Open for: Dinner Wednesdays through Saturdays (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$$
Chef Kristi Brown — who made her name running the catering operation That Brown Girl Cooks — calls the food at her Central District restaurant “Seattle Soul.” At Communion, fusions like the Hood Sushi Bowl featuring fried catfish and seaweed salad come from Brown’s memories of shopping at Asian markets in the neighboring Chinatown-International District. But the dishes that shine brightest are her more traditional Southern ones, like the fried chicken served with jerk ranch or the hoecakes, a cornmeal pancake rarely seen in Seattle.
Know before you go: It’s hard to get a seat at this Eater Award-winner in the renovated Liberty Bank Building. Walk-in guests who show up right when the restaurant opens on a weekday might be able to get a spot.
Communion
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Lark
Link
Open for: Dinner Mondays through Saturdays (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$$$
Right across the street from the Capitol Hill IHOP is another Seattle dining institution: John Sundstrom’s Lark. For more than 20 years (10 in its current location), this James Beard Award–winning restaurant has been carrying the banner for Pacific Northwest cuisine — though the menu today is more Pacific Rim than PNW thanks to a number of flourishes imported from Asian cuisines. Nam pla (Thai fish sauce) on the oysters makes the bivalves extra fishy and briny; chili crisp on top of ricotta and pepper ravioli transforms what could have been a routine dish. And though years ago Lark was known for pioneering the idea of “small plates,” these days the entrees are big and hearty by the standards of high-end restaurants; no one is walking away from the $120 four-course tasting menu hungry. (You can also order a la carte.)
Good for: Client dinners.
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Gold Coast Ghal Kitchen
Link
Open for: Dinner Wednesday through Sundays
Price range: $$
Tina Fahnbulleh’s restaurant is a gateway to West African cuisine. The menu teaches diners how to pronounce waakye (wah-che, a rice and beans dish) and tells them to eat with their hands; they can use fufu, a starchy, almost mashed potato–like side to sop up the creamy, carefully spiced broth from the soups. The user-friendly experience here is a recognition that many Seattleites aren’t familiar with food from countries like Liberia (where Fahnbulleh was born) or Ghana (where she spent her early childhood). Come to Gold Coast Ghal, though, and you’ll soon start craving potato greens.
Must order: Get the fufu if you haven’t had it before — while West African food is becoming a bit more common in Seattle, it’s still not something you commonly see.
Gold Coast Ghal
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Oriental Mart
Link
Open for: Lunch Tuesdays through Sundays.
Price range: $$
If you want to impress the tourists you (inevitably) have to take to Pike Place Market, skip pass the fish-throwers and overcrowded waterfront view joints, cross the street, and take them to this restaurant inside a grocery store. The salmon collar sinigang and succulent longanisa have made this place into an American classic. Literally, the James Beard Foundation gave Oriental Mart an America’s Classics award in 2020, and you can see why — sitting here eating adobo dishes makes you part of a long lineage of people of all classes, creeds, and colors who have eaten adobo dishes at this stainless steel lunch counter. While you ponder this, you can look at the handwritten signs cluttering the kitchen. One of them reads, “WIFI PASSWORD: TALK TO EACH OTHER”
Know before you go: “O Mart” is open from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. or until the sisters who run it are out of food — which can happen on busy days.
Harry Cheadle
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The Boat
Link
Open for: Lunch and dinner every day but Wednesdays.
Price range: $$
The Pham sisters behind the Pho Bac family of restaurants don’t overcomplicate things, so when they opened this place across the parking lot from the original Pho Bac Sup Shop, they kept the menu minimalist. It features fried chicken with broth, rice, or dry egg noodles and pandan and banana waffles. Trust us, you don’t need anything else, not when the chicken is this aromatic from garlic and fish sauce or when the waffles come with a fluffy, coconut-and-egg-whites dipping sauce. Combine it with cocktails, and there’s no better brunch in Seattle.
If you drive: It’s tough getting parking here — only the very fortunate can find a spot actually in the Pho Bac lot.
Jay Friedman
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Musang
Link
Open for: Dinner seven days a week (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$$
Since opening in early 2020, Beacon Hill’s innovative Filipino restaurant from star chef Melissa Miranda has developed a dynamic menu with items such as succulent short rib kare kare, smoked oysters, and beef tartare with a tart calamansi sauce. The menu rotates seasonally but always features lots of gluten-free and vegan dishes. Bring a group and sample as much as possible, because Musang is the kind of place where unexpected items can be showstoppers — on one recent visit a side of greens and mushrooms soaked in umami-rich adobo was the best thing we ate.
Vibe check: For a big-deal restaurant, Musang is refreshingly unpretentious and welcoming, we’d even say “chill.”
Harry Cheadle
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Homer
Link
Note: Homer is temporarily closed as of June 2025.
Open for: Dinner Tuesdays through Sundays.
Price range: $$$
This chill Beacon Hill Mediterranean spot is named after a dog but it could just as well be named after the Greek poet because we want to write epics about its wood-fired vegetables. Or it could be named after the Simpsons character, because the “d’oh” it uses for its pitas is fantastic! Sorry, sorry, but these are some of the best pitas in the city, pillowy and fresly baked The menu constantly changes, but you can expect a wide range of dishes that draw on Mediterranean cooking tradition with a flair for condiments — cured ham XO sauce, fish sauce caramel, harissa butter... you get the idea. Better get extra pita to sop it all up.
Know before you go: Except for large parties, Homer is walk-in only, so prepare to have to go someplace else for a drink while you wait for a spot to open. This is no great sacrifice, as Homer is surrounded by great bars, including its sister restaurant, Milk Drunk.
Belathée Photography
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Bar del Corso
Link
Open: Dinner Tuesdays through Saturdays (reservations strongly recommended)..
Price range: $$
Owner Jerry Corso’s expert Neapolitan-style pizzas are the primary draw for this Beacon Hill hideaway; simple toppings like spicy salami harmonize with light, airy, and slightly salty crusts. The garlic mussels, baccala fritters, and grilled octopus with corona beans are also exceptional, and reservations tend to go fast.
Must order: Before you start in on the pizzas, grab an order of suppli al telefono for the table. These crispy rice balls with piping hot mozzerella inside are the perfect complement to being a human being.
Bar del Corso
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Familyfriend
Link
Open for: Dinner seven days a week.
Price range: $$
In 2024, the burgers at this newly opened Beacon Hill Guamanian restaurant went viral, and for good reason. With miso providing a hint of umami and onions lending a sharpness to the bite, these are smashburgers assembled with care. 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. Order everything.
Know before you go: Familyfriend has no website, no phone number, and doesn’t take reservations. Prepare to deal with a waitlist on weekends.
Suzi Pratt
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Lil Red Takeout & Catering
Link
Open for: Lunch and dinner Thursdays through Sundays.
Price range: $
Seattle doesn’t have its own “style” of barbecue, and this famed takeout spot from Erasto “Red” Jackson mixes up all kinds of regional influences. The ribs here are cooked with a Carolina-style vinegar sauce and can be topped with a tomato-based barbecue sauce, a la Kansas City, or jerk sauce. The sides are mostly soul food standards but notably include the kind of sweet, melt-in-your-mouth plantains that are annoyingly hard to find in Seattle and a mac and cheese that is unexpectedly smoky and peppery. Thank Red’s wife, Lelieth Jackson, for putting all the Jamaican notes on the menu. We’re not sure who to thank for the lumpia, but who says no to lumpia?
Good for: Family takeout night.
Harry Cheadle
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Off Alley
Link
Open for: Dinner Thursdays through Sundays.
Price: $$$$
No single restaurant can please everyone; at Off Alley, a 14-seat brick-walled restaurant in Columbia City, chef Evan Leichtling and partner Meghna Prakash embrace that truth. You don’t always find a meticulously seasonal chef’s-choice cooking style and a hand-written list of cool natural wines paired with punk music and attitude, but that approach is working here. The menu changes daily, so check the website to see what you might encounter, from juicy smoked mussels with celery on sourdough and whole quail with nettles in a cream sauce to salt cod with squid ink rice and a burning-hot Scotch bonnet ice cream.
Know before you go: Reservations are offered for the tasting menu only; you can walk in if you want to eat the a la carte bar menu, but be advised this is a small restaurant that fills up quickly. You can get a spot at the “standing rail” and get a 10 percent discount on your meal.
Off Alley
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Corson Building
Link
Open for: Dinner Thursdays through Sundays (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$$$
Few restaurants in Seattle transport you out of your everyday life the way the Corson Building does. Part of that is the setting — it’s an owld stone cottage sparsely but elegantly decorated, with a garden and large patio that’s heated in colder months. You could be in New Orleans, you could be on a past-its-prime Italian estate; you’re definitely not in Seattle. The food from co-owner Emily Crawford Dann lives up to the surroundings. The ever-changing menu (mostly prix fixe, though you can get a la carte meals here on Thursdays) highlights seasonal vegetables while always having enough meat to satisfy carnivores. Main courses like scallops in brown butter and walnut sauce are sensational, but you can also trust the Corson Building to create unique, perfectly balanced salads. Come here if you love to be surprised and delighted.
Good for: Romantic evenings.
Corson Building
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Archipelago
Link
Open for: Dinner Wednesdays through Saturdays, two seatings a night (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$$$
It’s difficult to overstate how ambitious Archipelago is. It’s not just a Filipino fine dining restaurant, it’s the only place in the city where each course comes accompanied by a short speech from a staff member that connects the dishes to some element of local or Filipino history, foregrounding the political undertones of a dinner that usually go unsaid. The miracle is that all of this is pulled off without it seeming pretentious or jarring. It helps that the team led by husband-and-wife owners Aaron Verzosa and Amber Manuguid are exceptionally welcoming. They’ll do things like ask each guest how hungry they are before serving the last savory course — perfectly cooked steak — ensuring no one feels the need to stop for a burger on the way home (a stereotype of fine dining restaurants). The tiny restaurant’s 12 seats are normally booked out months ahead so pay attention to when reservations drop in order to score a seat.
Good for: Intimate dinners with one or two people (getting a full table here is hard).
Archipelago
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Delish Ethiopian Cuisine
Link
Open for: Dinner, every day of the week but Tuesday.
Price range: $$
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.
Good for: An introduction to Seattle’s thriving Ethiopian food scene.
Delish Ethiopian Cuisine
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TOMO
Link
Open for: Dinner, Wednesdays through Saturdays (reservations strongly recommended).
Price range: $$$
Former Canlis chef Brady Williams struck out on his own with this playful fine dining-ish restaurant in an unlikely location: a former adult video store in White Center. We say fine dining-ish because it’s moved away from its initial tasting menu model and is set to go a la carte only on May 1. But whatever the format, Williams blends local ingredients with Japanese techniques — think rigatoni with pork ragu spice with the Japanese pepper sansho. It’s extremely approachable stuff too, with steam burgers and fried chicken on the menu alongside Washington State uni. Way more fun than an adult video store.
Good for: Fancy-ish dinner for fine dining skeptics.
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El Cabrito
Link
Open for: Lunch and dinner, every day but Sunday.
Price range: $$
After five years as a food truck, El Cabrito became a brick-and-mortar restaurant on Burien’s Ambaum Boulevard in 2019, with a few seats indoors and some covered tables on a back patio. Owner Leticia Sánchez started making moles with her grandmother in Oaxaca when she was five years old, and these years of experience show in dishes like the expertly balanced mole coloradito that pools around pork enchiladas and the molotes (fried masa dumplings filled with potato and chorizo) drowned in smoky morita pepper and avocado salsas, all presented on brightly hued ceramics. El Cabrito also serves specials like rockfish ceviche, tamales, and blue crab empanadas.
Good for: Takeout anytime.
Jade Yamazaki Stewart/Eater Seattle
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