Rondo offers ramen, sushi, bento boxes, and delicious Japanese cocktails. One of the top Italian restaurant recommendations from locals is Spinasse. This charming spot in Capitol Hill is hard to get into but it’s worth the wait for the handmade pasta and cozy ambiance. Finally, just a stone’s throw from that wine bar and restaurant is an outpost of international chain Joe & the Juice. What used to be a semi-clandestine pop-up is the best thing to happen to Seattle’s bagel scene, let alone University Village.

The 38 Best Restaurants in Seattle

• “We have zero tolerance for direct or implicit threats against government officials,” Essayli wrote in response, adding he’d requested a “full threat assessment” by the U.S.
• In a city where everyone seems to be aggressively pro-Din Tai Fung or pro-Dough Zone, consider us Team DZ all the way.
• Plump camarones mojo de ajo has us contemplating getting “chipotle butter” tattooed somewhere UV rays will never see.
• At 19th Avenue and Mercer Street, chef Monica Dimas opens Condesa, a Mexico City-inspired spot next to her new sports bar, Pitch the Baby.

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. 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. 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.

Greenwood American Bistro

Explicit costs include things like employee salaries, repairs, utility bills, debt payments, land purchases, and so on. For most people, things considered part of implicit memory include knowing how to tie your shoes, knowing how to read, or knowing where you live. Typically, you can remember these things without even having to think about them. It can be easy to confuse implicit and explicit because they are often used in the same contexts, or even alongside each other.

THE SPOTS

This Greenwood strip mall Vietnamese spot is a North Seattle destination, whether you live around the corner or across the county. We can’t think of a better place to get taken care of by way of phở, vermicelli bowls, and fried snacks. Phở hà nội overflows with broth, topped with a raw yolk that works just as well dissolved into the soup as it does strategically dolloped onto each bite of rice noodle and beef shank.

For an area with many outstanding Indian restaurants outside of Seattle proper, we’re lucky to have this one right in Greenwood. Owner Jhonny Reyes can trace his culinary background to Seattle’s most famous French chef, Thierry Rautureau, whom he worked for at the bistro Luc. Since Lenox opened in 2024, it’s rapidly become the standard-bearer for Afrox-Latin food in Seattle, and one of the most stylish, happening restaurants in all of downtown. 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.

• The Old World wine menu (bottles starting at $45) has better deals than the wines by the glass, if you have a party of three or more.
• A half-mile south, Grillbird Phinney and Salad Party share a kitchen in a counter-service cafe.
• If you could only eat at one Seattle restaurant for the rest of your life, which would it be?
• Fiery salsa sets the bar high, and chorizo-speckled queso fundido sets it even higher.

Whether you’ve lived here your entire life or are visiting for the first time, it’s human nature to want to experience the best of implicit interest rate the best. 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. 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.

Pho Bac Súp ShopArrow

The menu changes each time, but the constant is the surplus of red meat that shapes your meal, be it steak tartare on top of a beef tallow scone, or a roulade of lamb that’s slow-roasted until it falls apart. But the excellence here stretches beyond that stuff, with refreshing salads and a phenomenal sunchoke truffle ice cream that gives Salt & Straw an absolute run for their money. You can’t get much better than eating outstanding food and drinking great wine while sitting catty-corner to a display case of raw links, patties, and chops. Behind a relatively anonymous new-build door on a busy stretch of Madison, chef Aaron Tekulve and his team are doing exceptional things.

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. 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. 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. Whether redefining the cuisines their parents brought across oceans or bringing wry humor to the staid traditions of fine-dining, Seattle chefs combine creativity with the impressive bounty of local seafood, produce, and craft beverages.

Their multi-cuisine lineup prioritizes quality as much as quantity—and where La Cabaña lacks in bells and whistles, they make up for in well-executed simplicity. Leopard-seared pupusas are packed with chicharron that fuses with sticky cheese to make a glorious pork paste. And plump shrimp sauteed with onions and peppers rival the city’s top seafood giants. Be sure to show up when you have nowhere else to be—partly because La Cabaña’s pace is relaxed, and partly because you won’t ever want to rush a meal here. This Piedmontese pasta specialist is the best Italian restaurant in Seattle, full stop. Yes, your wallet will be three figures emptier at the end of it all, but in exchange, you’ll have a life-affirming meal in a dining room filled with lace curtains, fine art, and noodle sheets draped over the open kitchen.

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. You’ll have one of the best meals all year at Beast & Cleaver, a tiny butcher shop in Ballard. This isn’t in reference to the porterhouse you could pick up and grill at home, but rather to their tasting menu known as The Peasant. With a preset lineup of expertly cooked meats, snacks, and surprises, this after-hours operation makes for one of the most unique dining experiences in Seattle.

This Vietnamese spot in Columbia City is a bonafide classic that hasn’t missed a beat. Almost everything at the bare-bones pool hall with a large dining room is phenomenal—and under $20. Artistically assembled lemongrass chicken vermicelli bowls could feed you for lunch and dinner, rice plates with char-marked short ribs rival those of a fancy steakhouse, and crispy fish sauce-slicked wings are among Seattle’s best. You’ll also never have to wait for a table, whether that’s for an early lunch with the soundtrack of pool playing or a weeknight dinner with a big group of friends. And you know that, no matter what time you go, there will be outstanding Vietnamese dishes waiting—and maybe an intense game of nine-ball, too. 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.

Hot arepas are immensely comforting and come stuffed with stracciatella and prosciutto as popcorn-scented steam floats around. To match these exciting bites is a space with brunette walls, dramatic lighting, and speakers that blast soothing whale noises in the bathroom. As the sister restaurant to sushi institution Shiro’s, Shomon Kappo not only lives up to that pedigree—it surpasses it, with an exciting eight-course kappo experience for $185.

A small French bistro loved by locals for years that will make you feel as if you’ve traveled from current day Seattle to bygone Paris. It’s a Pike Place Market neighborhood treasure you don’t want to miss. Keep an eye on Archipelago’s Instagram, where they’ll announce when the next two months of reservations will open up.

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? The seasonal soft serve — with rotating flavors inspired by Indian cuisine — deserves a shout-out too.

(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. Moving south to Pioneer Square, office workers and hungry fans on gameday are hitting DeLeo Bros Pizza for New York-style slices, calzones and salads. A block west from that slice shop, Biryani and Curry King does Indochinese fusion dishes and takeout favorites like butter chicken.

We fight for the same reservations you do and book under aliases to dine incognito. We order a ton, take detailed notes, and pay for everything ourselves. This is definitely one of Seattle’s most iconic Italian restaurants (and has an equally iconic view to match). These are the Seattle restaurants would happily eat at again and again. 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.

Restaurant experiences trending in Seattle / Eastern Washington

At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. Get access to exclusive reservations at this spot with Chase Sapphire Reserve. Communion will announce on Instagram when reservations open up for the next month. There will be a waitlist if you’re too slow, and if you’re flexible on timing, there are last-minute bookings that pop up here and there, typically towards 4pm when they first open. We never accept free meals, allow spots to arrange our visits, or do paid reviews.

Some of the main factors to consider are the type of food, price point, neighborhood, and occasion. That’s why Eater’s map of the 38 best restaurants in Seattle exists. Every place on the list has been open for at least six months, proving its merit. The drinks include Khmer ingredients like peanut fish sauce orgeat, Kampot pepper (the Cambodian version of black pepper), and clarified coconut. In Wallingford, 30-seat wine bar Occhi Belli has become a surprise hit on the main drag of 45th. The menu of shared plates includes fresh pasta along with many dishes under $20, from meatballs to sausages, all to be paired with vino from a rotating list of Italian wines.