You’ll find bar seating, communal tables and booths around the perimeter, but if you enjoy watching your meal be prepared, opt to sit at the bar as it’s an open kitchen. Certain nights of the week, you can find aerialists and live music, making your dining experience truly one of a kind. Menu favorites include arancini and fresh pasta dishes with seasonal ingredients like the spring risotto, which includes pancetta and asparagus. The main dining room has a more casual feel with a large bar with seating.
As I stepped inside, I was greeted by a cozy interior that exuded warmth and comfort, perfect for a relaxing dinner. Whether you’re a local looking for a new favorite or a visitor eager to explore, this guide will help you navigate the delicious options waiting for you in the heart of the city. Join our Seattle Secrets newsletter and get our 48-hour insider itinerary to the top hidden spots in Seattle. Seattle’s southern neighbor has a wide selection of excellent dining options, from elk sliders to bison melts to incredible bagels. A beautiful South Lake Union wine bar, a slick new waterfront taproom, and more.
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. This is no great sacrifice, as Homer is surrounded by great bars, including its sister restaurant, Milk Drunk. 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. 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). Walk-in guests who show up right when the restaurant opens on a weekday might be able to get a spot.
This tiny omakase place on Capitol Hill first achieved fame for being so good it made the Seattle Times restaurant critic tear up. Behind a relatively anonymous new-build door on a busy stretch of Madison, chef Aaron Tekulve and his team are doing exceptional things. Paju is a steakhouse in all but name — two of the three entrees are steaks, and the rest of the menu orbits around them. It’s austere and a little showy, but this is special-occasion food. 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.
Highlights from the menu include tagliatelle with oyster mushrooms, scallops, and pork osso buco. Sharing is encouraged at How to Cook a Wolf, and everything on the menu is fantastic. The perfect blend of Italian and Pacific Northwest cuisines, and the best member of the Ethan Stowell restaurant group. Artusi also has a happy hour, including both drinks and select dishes, so you can get a taste for less. If you’re a local, you can even join the Spinasse x Artusi Wine Club. It’s perfect for a romantic dinner or an intimate meal with friends.
The city of Seattle, Washington, has many notable restaurants. The dishes at Joule are meant to be shared—though I can’t promise that you’ll want to share the must-order steak—and there are a good number of options within each category on the menu. Seats at the counter are the most coveted, as you can watch the master sushi chef at work. Their menu is small, and you’ll appreciate the focus on fresh, traditional dishes that let the ingredients shine through.
Historical lessons, cultural context, and childhood memories get wrapped around a menu of heirloom grain pandesal, miki noodles, and myriad other smart seasonal creations. Ironically, you’ll not find a better veggie combo than chef Menbere Medhane’s composition of shiro, beets, lentils, cabbage, and fossolia, a flavorful blend of green beans and carrots. Technically, this storefront in a row of Ethiopian restaurants is a butcher, though your only clue might be the long line of customers who arrive twice weekly to pick up parcels of fresh meat. Oddfellows Café + Bar, located in Capitol Hill’s historic Oddfellows Hall, is a beloved all-day hangout that shifts effortlessly from sunlit brunch spot to cozy cocktail bar. Standouts include the creamy Mac & Four Cheeses with braised pork, seafood stew, wild cod & chips beer-battered in Pike Place Hefeweizen, and king salmon chowder—rich, comforting, quintessential PNW fare.
From fine dining to neighborhood favorites, each Seattle restaurant on this list offers something worth going out of your way for. Not the overhyped spots or the legacy names coasting on reputation, but the kitchens turning out thoughtful, exciting food with a clear point of view. You’ll find oysters pulled straight from Puget Sound, wood-fired vegetables at the latest farm-to-table gem, and bold, global flavors in every corner of the city. Seattle is a city that eats well — inventive, seasonal, and endlessly influenced by its surroundings. From oysters to omakase, these are the best restaurants in Seattle, WA worth planning your entire trip around. We checked out these new restaurants and loved them.
With a stunning view of the bustling market below, the atmosphere perfectly complements the aesthetically pleasing dishes that were about to grace my table. Overall, my visit to The Capital Grille was a delightful culinary escape and a shining gem in the vibrant dining scene of Downtown Seattle. Notably, the restaurant’s proximity to Pike Place Market adds to its charm, inviting you to explore the vibrant neighborhood before or after your meal.
It’s a place where chefs care deeply about ingredients, and it shows on every plate. Aimee holds a degree in screenwriting, a WSET certification, and the opinion that whatever marinara can do, vodka sauce can do better. Kamonegi is an excellent Japanese restaurant in Fremont that serves homemade soba and tempura. Spinasse on Capitol Hill is the best fork-up-your-money Italian restaurant in Seattle.
Few restaurants in Seattle transport you out of your everyday life the way the Corson Building does. 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. No single restaurant can please everyone; at Off Alley, a 14-seat brick-walled restaurant in Columbia City, chef Evan Leichtling embraces that truth. 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. 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.
As Seattleites, we’re so proud of the seafood here that one of our most cherished tourist activities is watching burly fishermen toss around their fresh catches. For an area with many outstanding Indian restaurants outside of Seattle proper, we’re lucky to have this one right in Greenwood. That, plus some of the best grilled chicken in town and fire-roasted corn slathered in limey aioli, paprika, and parmesan make for a perfect meal, especially if you’re picnicking at Golden Gardens. The cocktails are refreshing yet balanced (hello perfect apple mint julep), the space is lively yet warm, and even though it’s only been around since December 2020, it’s hard to imagine Seattle without this restaurant.
Incredibly, nearly everything on the menu is under $20, making it maybe the last legitimate bargain in Fremont. 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. 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. 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. An a la carte menu is also available at the Beastro, which is open for dinner on the weekends.
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. 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. 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 pin up online casino pomegranate seeds and toasted pistachios. 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). 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. 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.
This low-key Indian and Nepali restaurant on Aurora Ave deserves to be part of the Seattle elite for their momos alone. It’s all done in an effortless way that’s free of pretension, and worthy of bopping in multiple times a week. All hail the city’s finest, with a scientifically precise balance between fat hunks and lean shreds. Fiery salsa sets the bar high, and chorizo-speckled queso fundido sets it even higher.
Chef Stuart Lane carries on the legacy and the quality of one of the city’s most impressive Italian restaurants. Located in Belltown’s Kimpton Palladian Hotel, Shaker + Spear is a chic, seafood-focused spot that brings Pacific Northwest ingredients to life with global flair. A longtime favorite on the Seattle waterfront, Elliott’s Oyster House is a go-to for freshly shucked oysters and classic seafood with a view. With floor-to-ceiling windows, a cozy-yet-sleek vibe, and standout brunch offerings, it’s one of Seattle’s top waterfront dining spots—ideal for a special night out or a slow, scenic lunch by the sea.
