50 Best Restaurants in Seattle (2025)

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. 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. Portions prioritize quality over way-too-much quantity. And, to nobody’s surprise, meat dishes like key wat are also superb.

These days, Seattle Met’s first-ever Restaurant of the Year serves a fixed tasting menu that begins with a flurry of stuzzichini, or single-bite snacks. Chef Nathan Lockwood takes Northwest ingredients in unexpected and elegant directions. Beautiful dishes plated with moss, rocks, or leaves deliver a sense of the rustic, despite consistently deep finesse. Much has changed at Altura over the years, but the hand-carved wooden angel still looks down from an overhead alcove; the service is down-to-earth, the wine list smart. A great bet for a special occasion.

Maybe eight people per seating form a rapt audience as Aaron Verzosa and Amber Manuguid present roughly 10 courses that explore the Philippines’ many-faceted relationship with the Pacific Northwest. Historical lessons, cultural context, and childhood memories get wrapped around a menu of heirloom grain pandesal, miki noodles, and myriad other smart seasonal creations. You could certainly appreciate these flavors even without the backstory, but in Verzosa’s hands, the combination is a rare sort of magic.

Asadero means “grill,” or in this case, a beloved Kent restaurant that expanded into Ballard with northern Mexico’s traditions of mesquite-grilled meats and tacos thereof. Seemingly every table has a 16-ounce carne asada draped on top of it, and the flawless prep and simple seasoning (just salt, pepper, and the savory smoke of mesquite charcoal) give you an almost bionic ability to register every vivid detail of the meat, which is mostly American wagyu.

It’s one of the city’s most indispensable Italian restaurants thanks to Jerry Corso’s pizza—crusts blistered from the wood-fire oven, toppings simple and seasonal. But after pizza comes a mosaic of Roman street food like fried risotto balls, grilled octopus, Italian regional antipasti, and luminous seasonal salads. Because this understated dining room on Beacon Avenue (with a hidden-away back patio) is far more than a pizza joint: The menu is short, the waits can be long, and the aperitivi-based cocktails feel imperative.

Technically, this, like Ahadu, is a butcher shop. But once the case is tucked in for the night, owner Kevin Smith and his staff transform this busy meat counter into a tiny, full-service restaurant. On Thursdays and Fridays, the kitchen spins an elegant tasting menu out of humbler animal bits. On Saturdays and Sundays, it’s a steak bistro, where underestimated cuts of beef become tender showpieces. Smith’s philosophy that all cooks should be butchers takes the whole-animal ethos to enthralling new places. It’s an intensely fun dining experience for meat devotees.

Any list of Seattle’s best restaurants might include one of a half dozen of the spots fromRenee Erickson and her Sea Creatures group, each with European elegance, Pacific Northwest core, and a lively coolness. But Boat Bar, the seafoam and white ode to the French coast and its fruits de mer, marries the chilled oyster bar vibes of Erickson’s breakout star Walrus and the Carpenter to the hip, beefy Bateau right next door. Fresh-shucked shellfish, seafood platters, and clam dip share the menu with artful salads, steak tartare, and a burger. That Boat Bar takes reservations and offers the option to order a steak from Bateau makes it the most crowd-pleasing of the Sea Creatures spots.

After all these years, Seattle’s equivalent of Paris cafe culture still perches on Post Alley in Pike Place Market. Chef Daisley Gordon does right by classic dishes—quiche, pan-roasted chicken, oeufs en meurette—and instills in his kitchen the sort of perfectionism that renders even the simplest asparagus salad or brunchtime brioche french toast memorable. The patio hits the sweet spot for another hallmark of Parisian cafe culture, watching all the people go by.

The city’s vegetarian standard-bearer since 1991, Cafe Flora has also mastered the art of vegan and gluten-free indulgence. Brunchers linger over veg scrambles, rosemary biscuits obscured by savory vegan gravy and the famed cinnamon rolls (also vegan). Even devout carnivores appreciate the artful ingredient interplay in hearty lunch and dinner plates, not to mention the plant-filled atriumand a handsome year-round patio. Flora’s impressive pastry program is also on display at Flora Bakehouse on Beacon Hill and the Floret spinoff at Sea-Tac, an essential pre-flight destination.

Seattle used to be full of neighborly restaurants that were by no means fancy, but delivered vivid, personal fare worth a drive across town. Rajah Gargour’s lively Middle Eastern spot in Loyal Heights opened in 2012 and feels like a souvenir from that glorious era. Striking hummus plates (try the one topped with lamb and pine nuts) share tabletops with mezze dips and spreads, meat and vegetable kebabs, and family style platters, all served in an intimate room with arched doorways, white tablecloths, and pretty filigree light pendants.

Nearly seven decades of history, hospitality, and cliffhanging views from atop Queen Anne Hill cemented Canlis’s icon status long ago. But third-generation owners Mark and Brian keep Canlis in league with the country’s dining vanguard. (Even when it means morphing into a crab shack, or taking the whole operation outside as they did during their grueling series of pandemic pivots.) Chef Aisha Ibrahim infuses Japanese techniques, local ingredients, and myriad influences into a three-course menu where you select the dishes, but the Canlis kitchen furnishes a few snacks and surprises along the way.

It’s the tortillas that make this family-run restaurant on Beacon Avenue so marvelous—springy masa pressed into delicate rounds. No, actually…it’s the meat: charred carne asada, or an al pastor that melds pork, spices, and pineapple sweetness on an almost molecular level. Carnitas are traditional to Michoacán; the version here delivers on rich flavor and just enough crispy bits. This busy kitchen puts out food that surpasses the stuff at way fancier (and more expensive) places.

The rustic Italian farmstead with the trestle tables and wrought-iron chandeliers serves the best pasta in Pike/Pine, maybe even Seattle: rich hand-cut Piedmontese egg-yolk noodles, buttery delicate strands of tajarin. Smaller dishes pulled from the seasons and hearty meat dishes, from rabbit to roast trout, can also be extraordinary. Chef Stuart Lane carries on the legacy and the quality of one of the city’s most impressive Italian restaurants.

Filipino fried chicken restaurants like Jollibee inspired Paolo Campbell and Donnie Adams, but the counter service spot they created is very much their own: chicken crackles—literally via its gluten-free crust, but also with marinated flavors of tamari, ginger, and lemon. Sides veer away from American South staples to embrace Philippine flavors, and the butter mochi inspires as much bare-knuckled desire as the chicken. Preorder online, before the day’s cache is gone.

Kristi Brown practices her own brand of Soul food, tethering a menu of grilled pork chops and fried catfish to Seattle and its crossroads of Asian flavors. Chinatown–International District influence delivers dishes like a po’ boy–banh mi hybrid, pho-inspired gumbo, even maki rolls with cornmeal-crusted catfish. After years of catering, Brown created a neighborhood beacon in the Liberty Bank Building, the dining room’s modern edges softened with tufted booths, coppery ceiling panels, uproarious conversation, and a vintage back bar where Damon Bomar presides over drinks. Seattle Met’s 2021 Restaurant of the Year.

Shaun McCrain has always operated on his own exacting frequency. A veteran of Thomas Keller’s famed Per Se, he makes dinner feel unabashedly special, from the signature amuse-bouche (cured salmon cloaked in tempura and topped with roe) to the warm greeting from Jill Kinney, his wife, partner, and fellow Per Se alum who runs the front of house with calm polish. Three-course tasting menus are rife with classic French elements, but actual ingredients can globe-trot from Italy to Japan with plenty of Northwest stops.

In an old Italianate cottage amid an unlikely Georgetown garden, chef Emily Crawford Dann invents, and reinvents, seasonal odes. Coho lox with tahini and ginger-marinated celery, or braised beef shoulder with brussels sprout tips, squash ribbons, and hearty caponata. Few special occasion restaurants feel this legitimately special. These days, Dann keeps the magic outside, serving all meals in the Corson’s covered, heated garden space.

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. A full bar with an extensive beer list and plenty of Southern-fried delights round out the menu, but the main event here are the boils, customizable by sauce, seafood, and spice level, from “chillin’” to “can’t feel my mouth”—and beyond, for the truly brave.

In a town filled with great pizza, Brandon Pettit’s restaurant feels special. His pies may honor New York by way of Naples, but Delancey’s charm draws firmly from the Northwest, in topping combos that balance tomato brightness with pairings like Zoe’s bacon, cremini mushrooms, and basil. When Delancey opened in 2009, the pizza vaulted it into Seattle institution status, even before you throw in the impeccable seasonal salads, wood-fired odes to seasonal produce, and those bittersweet chocolate chip cookies dusted with gray salt.

This unassuming spot keeps limited hours and eschews delivery apps or even a website. 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, 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.

A near-religious commitment to Washington ingredients means no citrus at the bar, but it also yields dishes that look like maximalist art and almost never taste like overkill. Chef Dan Mallahan’s creations—a lavish pork chop, complex beef tartare, countless vegetable dishes—stand out in the crowded field of seasonal Northwest restaurants in Seattle. Throw in the memorable bar program, the subtle views of Alki Beach across the street, and some of the best restaurant desserts in town: Few places are this well-rounded, and less inclined to brag about it.

Crowd favorites like the crispy pig head candy bar, cauliflower chilaquiles, and foie gras cake batter still anchor the menu at Maximillian Petty’s original restaurant. But these standards are surrounded by dishes that roll out endless seasonal creativity. Few restaurants balance “welcoming neighborhood restaurant” and “special occasion tasting menu” with this much elegance—and unstuffy hospitality.

Toshiyuki Kawai grew up in Osaka, then cooked in some of Seattle’s most impressive European-leaning kitchens: Luc, RN74, Book Bindery, the Harvest Vine. He threads those experiences together with the sort of self-assured elegance you don’t expect to find in an understated Mt. Baker dining room: Iberico shabu shabu. Neah Bay sole meuniere with escargot. A glorious peach melba dessert. If you see anything that involves risotto, order it.

The Alki Homestead, a landmark century-old log cabin, is a special sort of restaurant space. Just as special: the labor-intensive pasta and double-cut rib eyes served inside. In 2022, Mike Easton left his restaurant in the capable hands of manager Cameron Williams and executive chef Katie Gallego. As owners, they’ve piloted a smooth transition for both the Tuscan-inspired menu and the warm service. Getting a reservation can be certifiably bananas, but the bar and rear patio take walk-ins.

Committed artisan. Classically trained chef. Practitioner of madcap drinking snacks. 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). Seattle Met’s 2018 Restaurant of the Year.

In a city with endless options for above-average pad Thai, Kin Len demonstrates how much higher we should set our expectations for Thai food. The meandering series of elegantly dim spaces sets the expectation of chic neighborhood bar, while the creative and precise dishes insinuate that neighborhood could as easily be Song Wat as Fremont. The wide-ranging menu shows off the full extent of Thai cuisine with dishes like spicy octopus carpaccio, banana blossom fries, and durian tiramisu. The drinks follow suit, as in the Ying Yang Jar, with mezcal-infused coffee, Bailey’s, and sesame oil. (They do still have pad Thai, but it comes draped in oversize river prawns.)

It’s a Parisian bistro by way of Northwest ingredients—reason enough to love Zac Overman and JJ Proville’s wainscoted hangout. Proville recasts classic French dishes with spot prawns, dungeness crab, and arctic char, while Overman runs the marquee-lit bar filled with surprising cocktails. But wry wit bubbles behind all that formidable talent—this is a place unafraid to describe a wine as “the purple nurple of pet-nat.” (Oh yeah, the wine program is largely natural, mostly French, and wholly great.)

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 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.

Erasto Jackson combines exacting barbecue with soul food staples and Jamaica’s tradition of seafood and jerked meats. (The latter honors his wife, Lilieth, and her heritage.) It’s nigh impossible to choose when a single menu might offer jerk spareribs, curry goat, smothered pork chops, plantains, spot-on brisket, a whole snapper, and seriously piquant mac and cheese. Jackson puts in long hours smoking meat, cooking, and mixing his own rubs—and it shows.

Seattle has startlingly few restaurants centered on Northwest seafood. This counter-service spot sources from a network of local fisheries, a labor-intensive process often reserved for higher-end spots. But owner Victor Steinbrueck turns the results into the best takeout lunch ever: rockfish banh mi, upgraded salmon teriyaki, home fries tossed with bacon bits and chunks of smoked cod. Then, of course, there’s the weekend-only crab roll, on a buttery split-top bun. Steinbrueck shares a name with his famous grandfather, but this place is indisputably his own.

What makes an omakase stand out so much that diners emerge in a jubilant daze, perhaps muttering admiring curse words under their breath? Start with chef Keiji Tsukasaki, a Sushi Kashiba alum with both joyful magnetism and surgeon-level fish skills. He also brings a sense of fun you don’t always find with skill levels this serious (and ingredients this expensive). Dinner at the eight-seat chef’s counter might include sea bass aged like beef, or side-by-side tastes of uni from Hokkaido and Santa Barbara.

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.

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. 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. The waterside location inspires an extra dash of Hawaii on the menu, like plate lunches and shave ice. The expansive beer garden patio offers umbrellas, striking views, and a host of summery drinks. If you can’t steal away, a counter at Sixth and Virginia is an office lunch game changer.

In the space that once held the beloved Cafe Presse, Grayson Pilar presents an equally understated and excellent ode to Galicia. MariPili plays with the seafood-focused cuisine of Spain’s northwest as it translates to the Pacific Northwest, taking careful but fun steps away from traditional tapas, paella-ish rices, and gin cocktails with dishes like octopus folded into a brioche crust and eggplant-stuffed canelones with oat milk bechamel. 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. Seattle Met’s2022 Restaurant of the Year.

Chef Johnny Sullivan had big shoes to fill taking over for chef Jason Stratton as nonna-in-chief. But restaurateur Marcus Lalario has a knack for finding talent, and does it again at this Georgetown restaurant, where planes descend overhead toward Boeing Field and tajarin pasta still blows your mind. The menu reflects Lalario’s northern Italian heritage, but ginger lurks in an endive salad and lime leaf helps spark a bowl of beef sugo and gigli pasta. If you want to go big (and can book well in advance) Mezzanotte does its own version of an omakase at the chef’s counter.

The story of Luam Wersom working his way up from dishwasher to owner at this long-standing Latin American and Cuban restaurant is a great one. The food is just as remarkable. Dishes like vaca frita, tostones, and pescado en guiso—even the accompanying rice—bear the finesse of 20 years of experience. Tropically hued walls backdrop a patio that looks balmy no matter the weather. Even the titular mojitos are on point.

Chef Melissa Miranda is a force on so many levels—an advocate within her culinary, cultural, and geographic communities. But it’s all built on some serious cooking talent. Musang is an ode to the Filipino food of Miranda’s Northwest youth, from kare kare to seasonal pancits, her grandmother’s delicate lumpia recipe to squid adobo. It’s food with soul, with seasons, and with lovely cocktails to go with it, all in a converted lavender Craftsman. Seattle Met’s2020 Restaurant of the Year.

Running a tiny 12-seat restaurant in a glorified brick corridor means chef Evan Leichtling has a lot of freedom: to source nearly unsourceable treats like gooseneck barnacles. To serve snails on sourdough toast with bone marrow butter. Maybe churn foie gras into ice cream. Off Alley’s daily chalkboard menu celebrates underappreciated organs and oft-overlooked tiny fish. But rather than headline, these often serve as punctuation on elegant plates of seasonal produce. If it's too hard to pick a few dishes, go for the tasting menu and let Leichtling's team choose for you. Whatever you order, Meghna Prakash’s wine and service seals a very fun deal.

A fine dining expat by way of New York and San Francisco composes jewel box tributes to Korean flavors: fried rice, black with squid ink, punchy with bacon and kimchi, topped with a confit quail egg yolk, or hand-rolled ricotta dumplings layered in pyogo beoseot, also known as shiitake mushrooms. Bulgogi is gussied with truffles. Prices remain surprisingly casual given the special occasion caliber of these plates.

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. 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. Using traditional Mexican techniques and her European fine-dining training, Becerra tops albacore tuna tostadas with morita Kewpie mayonnaise and burnt habanero oil, stuffs tacos with cauliflower prepared as al pastor, and blankets chicken with mission fig and stone fruit mole.

Turin, Italy-born Michela Tartaglia first taught pasta-making classes in the Pike Place Market Atrium’s test kitchen. Now she runs a hidden-away pasta counter directly above; it serves four daily bowls that always include meat, seafood, and “from the garden” renditions. What this means: a different menu each time you visit, and memorable partnerships between seasonal ingredients and pasta shapes, like tortiglioni with speck and ricotta, or gemelli with caramelized pears, gorgonzola, and walnuts.

To be Seattle’s first pho shop is notable enough, especially given our town’s subsequent obsession with Vietnam’s robust noodle soup. But second-generation owners Yenvy and Quynh Pham have a talent for finding new, impressively on-trend ways to reinforce these traditions. Case in point: This tropically hip dining room where bowls of that same beautiful pho come with bar snacks and cocktails. The original shop, a boat-shaped structure across the parking lot,now serves garlic chicken and rice and was Seattle Met’s 2023 Restaurant of the Year.

Logan Cox is the sort of chef who can make lamb ribs craveable, redefine roast chicken as something new and exciting, and recognize most of the neighborhood dogs (and their owners) by name. 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. Seattle Met’s 2019 Restaurant of the Year.

Welcome to the church of flour, where the fishes are broiled salmon on rice bowls, the loaves could be Japanese melonpan, yuzu polenta cake, or cardamom croissants, and nothing is sacred. With a blessed canal-side location in a former boat repair shop, this bakery-plus from restaurateur Yasuaki Saito (Tivoli, Post Alley Pizza, and, previously, London Plane) starts with breakfast pastries that take inspiration from France, Scandinavia, and Japan. The rest of the menu is categorized by quantity of sliced bread: look under one for cinnamon-Okinawan sugar toast, two slices includes egg sandwiches and the impressive cheeseburger, and the “No Bread” section includes salads, fries, and okonomiyaki.

Only in damp Seattle does a beach cafe serving only steaming hot, soul-comforting rice porridge make perfect sense. Secret Congee’s version of the staple shines with the power of all the sunlight we rarely see, using the subtle, creamy base as a canvas for powerful flavors from around East and Southeast Asia: plump shrimp with a spicy sauce inspired by Thai tom yum soup, slow-cooked beef brisket with kimchi, and black cod paired with ginger, garlic, and goji berries.

It’s a union that almost seems fated: Shiro Kashiba, the legend who gave Seattle its first-ever sushi counter, and Pike Place Market, our other signature monument to local ingredients. Together as one in a striking neutral-hued space. The dining room takes reservations, but diners jockey for first-come-first-serve spot at the long sushi bar—and its peerless omakase. Shiro himself is still known to hold court for diners at the far end.

Head down the beat-up passage of Broadway Alley to find a nine-seat sushi restaurant hidden behind a barber and a tobacco shop. Here, chef Hideaki Taneda inlays some ornate seasonal traditions of kaiseki within a high-end sushi omakase. Nigiri, naked save a light sear and a swipe of the condensed soy sauce known as nikiri, bookend ritual-thick kaiseki courses like thehassun: assorted bites—from a morsel of rich wagyu to broiled eel wrapped in a tamago ribbon—on a single, eight-sided plate. This unusual alliance of two Japanese culinary traditions works, thanks to the meal’s measured tempo—and some excellent sake pours.

Demand for its striking Laotian food propelled this casual spot out of its tiny counter quarters on Madison and into a real dining room, complete with atmosphere and way more seating. Dishes, mercifully, remain the same, like the khao poon noodle soup and co-owner Khampaeng Panyathong’s mom’s sausage recipe, all texture and lemongrass. None of which prepares you for this: Taurus Ox makes, indisputably, one of the best burgers in town, with a pair of proper smash patties, two versions of the condiment jeaw, and house-cured pork jowl in place of bacon. It’s cross-culturally clever and drive-across-town good.

The sons of the original Paseo founder opened Un Bien with their dad’s recipes, which makes this Caribbean roast sandwich the legendarily messy original: pork shoulder, caramelized onions, pickled jalapenos, all on an aioli-swiped Macrina roll. A blast to eat, especially with a cob of slathered grilled corn during warmer months—but have multiple napkins handy. Two locations bookend Ballard, with a third on Queen Anne.

Seattle has a few more destinations than it used to for biang biang noodles, named for the sound that happens when chefs slap long strands of dough against a counter, creating the fissures that lead to those wide, perfectly chewy ribbons. But Lily Wu’s remain the standard-bearer, whether they’re dressed in cumin lamb or tingly beef, or just some chile-infused oil. Her upgraded dining room on the Ave now has sibling spots: a second restaurant in Bellevue and a counter hidden in Westlake Center.