The 15 Seattle Dishes You Must Try

The dish: Berbere chicken

Chef Kristi Brown made a name for herself in Seattle with her That Brown Girl Cooks catering company. In 2020, after much anticipation, she opened Communion, her own brick-and-mortar restaurant, with her son and business partner, Damon Bomar.

Located in the Central District, the historic center of Seattle’s Black community, Communion sits on the ground floor of the Liberty Bank Building, a landmark as the region’s first Black-owned bank. The dining room, with its etched copper ceiling and large wooden tables, has already become a gathering place for area residents.

The Kansas City, Missouri-born Brown combines her own food heritage with the influences of nearby neighborhoods like the Chinatown-International district (think fried catfish sushi rolls). One of the star menu items, a nod to the area’s Ethiopian community, is the smoky berbere chicken that’s packed with heat and flavor on the outside and tender within, and pairs perfectly with the dish’s lemon-herbed lentils.

The dish: Omakase sushi at the chef’s counter

Seattle has long been one of the best places in the country to eat sushi, thanks to the presence of sublimely talented chefs from Japan. The city’s sushi restaurants were also among the early adopters of local and sustainably sourced sashimi.

One of the most important Pacific Northwest sushi chefs to know is Shiro Kashiba, who was born in Kyoto, trained under Tokyo’s famous Jiro Ono, and has been practicing his trade for more than a half-century. Kashiba, now 80, originally founded Shiro’s in Belltown before opening Sushi Kashiba in Pike Place Market in 2015.

The restaurant has table reservations for an à la carte menu, but the best way to experience Kashiba’s craft is at the chef’s counter, where he and his apprentices serve the day’s most delicious morsels of Edomae-style (cured) sushi to customers. There are no reservations for the coveted counter seating, and walk-in customers are known to line up as early as 3 p.m. to snag a table for dinner, but the payoff is an intimate encounter with a master and his ethereal creations.

Call 206-441-8844 for more info.

The dish: Ricotta cavateddi

Italophiles on the hunt for the city’s best pasta won’t let the current West Seattle bridge closure keep them away from Il Nido, which opened in 2019 in a landmark century-old log cabin known as the Alki Homestead. Chef Mike Easton, who first established himself with Seattle’s now-shuttered Il Corvo in Pioneer Square, makes seasonal handmade pastas, though he handles his secondi just as well (the rib eye is a go-to menu item for carnivorous diners).

Since reopening during the pandemic, Il Nido now offers a laid-back aperitivo hour between 4 and 5 p.m., with cocktails, spritzes, small bites, and antipasti; in another move toward relaxing the dining experience, reservations are no longer required for dinner. Thankfully, the most spectacular dishes remain on the menu: they include ricotta cavateddi, a little curled pasta whose name is the southern Italian pronunciation of cavatelli, with a hollow center that captures bits of the ricotta. The cavateddi is featured with ingredients that reflect the seasons, ranging from pomodoro to peas and mint.

The dish: Canard confit

The Gallic thread that runs through Seattle’s food scene remains strong — it includes beloved spots like chef Daisley Gordon’s Café Campagne off Pike Place Market and chef Bruce Naftaly’s Marmite on Capitol Hill.

Then there’s the alluring L’Oursin from chef-owner J.J. Proville, who pulled out all the stops to reimagine all the charms of a Parisian bistro with a Pacific Northwest twist. Proville, who spent part of his childhood in France, opened the Central District restaurant in 2016 with his business partner, Zac Overman, whom he met on the job at a bar in Brooklyn in 2007.

The warmly lit dining room feels reminiscent of dining in the Marais or Montmartre, with its zinc bar, mustard-hued walls, and bistro chairs. During the pandemic, the restaurant opened an adjacent épicerie selling French-style cheeses and charcuterie, adding to the Francophile appeal.

The sustainable seafood focus puts L’Oursin squarely in Seattle. Yet, the cult favorite dishes among locals is not fish, but fowl: namely, the Canard confit, roasted duck leg with a satisfyingly creamy pommes mousseline and a flavor-packed sauce charcuterie. Pair it with a bottle from the restaurant’s well-curated list of natural wines, which brings together both France and the West Coast.

The dish: Braised bison fry bread taco

Washington State’s Native American heritage endures in the names of many of the municipalities of the region (The Emerald City’s own name comes from Chief Seattle of the Suquamish and Duwamish people). Yet when it comes to the restaurant scene, Seattle is sorely lacking in the way of Indigenous culinary concepts. One of the few exceptions: Off the Rez from co-owners Mark McConnell, whose mother spent her childhood on Montana’s Blackfeet Reservation, and his partner, Cecilia Rikard.

Off the Rez started out as a food truck in 2011, and it’s still going strong, popping up in venues like the Fremont Sunday Market. In 2019, they opened a permanent café in the University of Washington’s natural history and culture-focused Burke Museum. At the café, McConnell dives deeper into interpretations of flavors and ingredients from Indigenous cooking traditions. One such dish is the braised bison fry bread taco, which takes bison, a pre-Colonial ingredient, and pairs it with the fry bread he grew up eating, a concoction of flour and lard that was introduced into Native American cuisine during Colonial times.

The dish: House meatballs

A bright spot of the Beacon Hill dining scene is the Mediterranean-themed Homer, created by chef Logan Cox, former executive chef of Sitka & Spruce, and his wife, Sara Knowles, who live in the neighborhood.

While Homer shares the name of the ancient Greek poet and fits in nicely with the Mediterranean theme, the couple got the name from their travels to Homer, Alaska. (Their dog happens to be named Homer, too).

The high-ceilinged dining room, with its open kitchen and wood-burning oven, draws a diverse mix of neighborhood families and casual-but-chic duos, lending a laid-back — albeit photogenic — neighborhood feel. They’re here for the feast of shared plates, which range from a tender lamb ragu resting within a generous dollop of tahini to hearty main dishes like wood-fired coho salmon with romesco sauce. The dish that shouldn’t be missed is the tender house meatballs made with a blend of local, sustainably sourced ground pork and lamb. It’s submerged in a thick tomato sauce that’s laced with spices and dried fruits like apricots and prunes, and diners should prepare to soak it all up with the pillowy housemade pita or grilled sourdough bread.

Note: Currently Homer has a no-reservations policy for groups smaller than six.

The dish: Short rib rice

More than a decade ago, chef Rachel Yang and her husband, Seif Chirchi, opened Revel in Fremont, and it quickly became one of the most-lauded restaurants in Seattle. The couple have since opened other concepts, including the successful, barbecue-focused Joule, but Revel, with its menu of street food-inspired dishes brandishing both French and Korean influences, remains a cornerstone of Seattle’s dining scene. For two years, the restaurant temporarily moved to South Lake Union — home to Amazon — while the building of their original location was demolished and rebuilt.

In 2020, Revel finally returned to Fremont as planned, this time in a reimagined, light-filled space with a large patio. The easy-to-share menu items range from dumplings like mapo pork wontons to crab noodles. Revel’s kitchen excels in meat preparations, and it’s no small wonder that one of its most prized dishes is the short rib rice. The tender, perfectly charred short rib is served over rice with a golden egg yolk, and laced with flavor-packed sambal daikon and mustard greens.

Call 206-547-2040 for more info.

The dish: Braised beef noodle soup

Just a couple of decades ago, Seattle’s Eastside was made up of sleepy bedroom communities on the brink of transformation. Today, it’s a full-fledged tech hub, with the likes of Microsoft calling the area their headquarters, drawing professionals from all over the world. The increasingly multicultural community has led to a seismic shift in the once-limited dining landscape, and now restaurants offer sophisticated takes on the regional cuisines of countries ranging from China to India.

One such example is Nine Way, which centers on Sichuanese flavors and the low, slow burn of peppercorn-laced dishes that define this regional Chinese cooking style. This under-the-radar spot, located in a strip mall near a Safeway, consists of a small, nondescript dining room with a handful of tables. You can’t go wrong with the ground pork-topped, slightly sweet Nine Way Noodle or the chile oil-topped handmade dumplings. But the best thing to order on Seattle’s abundant drizzly days is the fortifying braised beef noodle soup, where the richness of the beef broth is balanced out by those famous peppercorns — and a thrilling hint of anise.

The dish: Amritsari fish

Bohemian Fremont has been evolving alongside the city’s tech boom, and it’s seen an influx of exciting new restaurants over the last few years, particularly when it comes to South Asian cuisine. Among the most notable recent arrivals is Meesha 127, a modern temple to regional Indian specialties that chef-owner Preeti Agarwal opened in late 2020 after running a successful pop-up restaurant in a French restaurant within the same space.

In her banquette-lined dining room, with its wood-beamed ceilings, Agarwal takes inspiration from the flavors of different parts of India, from the coastal Indian state of Goa to her own home state of Uttar Pradesh. Pacific Northwest ingredients show up on the menu in dishes like Goan prawns and Benarasi scallops. One of the shining examples of her culinary prowess is the Amritsari fish, made with Pacific rockfish, which has been pan-fried with fenugreek leaves, fragrant, seed-like ajwain, and lime.

Call 206-632-0135 for more info.

The dish: Brisket pho (and banh mi sandwich)

Seattle has a strong reputation for Vietnamese food, thanks to the city’s large Vietnamese community. Chefs specializing in some of the country’s regional specialties have risen to prominence in the dining scene, including brother-sister team Eric and Sophie Banh of Ba Bar and Monsoon (home to the revered catfish claypot). But the OG spot is Pho Bac, Seattle’s first-ever pho shop, which has been serving perfectly executed, no-frills bowls of pho noodles to Seattleites since the 1980s.

Today, Pho Bac has a handful of locations, including one in the International District and another to the south in Rainier Valley. The new downtown location, which appeals to a younger, hipper crowd with a speakeasy-style cocktail bar called Phocific Standard Time, serves Pho Bac’s famous beef brisket pho. That perfect balance of flavors, consisting of tender brisket, rice noodles, and flavor-rich beef broth, accompanied by cilantro, bean sprouts, and thinly sliced onions, is by far the most essential menu item. But given that it’s also Pho Bac’s only location that makes out-of-this-world banh mi sandwiches, you won’t regret it if you order one to go.

The dish: Shucker’s dozen

Taylor Shellfish has been procuring jewels from Puget Sound for shellfish-loving Seattleites since 1890, and its treasures range from Olympia oysters and sweet Manila clams to geoduck clams. The company also understands just how heavily its business relies on clean maritime ecosystems, and it’s taken admirable steps to become a more sustainable operation. THus it’s certified by the third-party Food Alliance, which certifies agricultural operations and ensures they’re sustainable, and the shellfish species they sell are all listed as the most sustainable choices on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program.

Those species also happen to be delicious; yes, even the late Anthony Bourdain was filmed rhapsodizing about the oysters at the Pioneer Square location. The thing to get here is the shucker’s dozen, which offers the best selection of the day from Taylor’s farms.

The dish: Butter-roasted Dungeness crab

Renee Erickson’s mini empire of restaurants in Seattle pays homage to the natural bounty of the nearby sound, and with good reason do Seattleites keep her cleverly named spots (The Walrus and the Carpenter; General Porpoise Donuts) on their shortlist of preferred gathering spots.

One of the best parts of the Whale Wins, aside from its inviting open kitchen, marble-topped tables, and laid-back counter service, is the simplicity that reigns in each dish. The butter-roasted Dungeness crab is a testament to this — the sweet, delicate meat from this revered Pacific Northwest crustacean is complemented by butter and spiked with a hint of Cajun spices. Sweet tooth? The medjool dates, which also embrace simplicity, are paired with sea salt and vanilla olive oil with magical results.

Call 206-632-9425 for more info.

The dish: Cambodian stuffed chicken wings from Theary Cambodian Foods

Spice Bridge Food Hall is a business incubator that launched in 2017 for immigrant and minority entrepreneurs in South King County. This year, the incubator saw its first business, Argentinean-themed Seatango, graduate into a standalone restaurant in Tukwila. Spice Bridge is also fast becoming a popular spot for those seeking out cuisine types that are harder to come by in the area, with vendors including Taste of Congo and Jazze’s organic Afghan American Cuisine.

One of the first businesses to join was Theary Cambodian Foods: Seattle is home to the country’s third-largest population of Cambodian Americans, and Theary Ngeth is striving to preserve the traditions behind Cambodian cooking, which were at risk of being lost forever during the Khmer Rouge regime that she escaped from with her family. Ngeth has earned a following for her stuffed chicken wings, which are deboned and filled with a flavor-packed concoction of lemongrass-marinated chicken, noodles, and bamboo shoots, before being baked to golden perfection.

The dish: Sinigang soup

Melissa Miranda spent more than a decade cooking in New York City and Europe before returning five years ago to her Seattle hometown, where she intended to open an Italian restaurant.

But after witnessing the gentrification of Seattle neighborhoods that threatened to push out long-established communities, she went all-in on the creation of Musang, a community-driven restaurant representing the cuisine of Seattle’s sizeable Filipino population, which has for the most part been underrepresented in the food scene. (One wonderful exception, says Miranda, is Oriental Mart in Pike Place Market, where chef Leila Rosas has been cooking Filipino food for decades.) Musang, named after Miranda’s father’s nickname, which he earned when he immigrated to Seattle from the Philippines, is housed in a former Asian American community center in Miranda’s childhood stomping grounds of Beacon Hill.

Musang’s seasonal menu takes the flavors and dishes of Miranda’s heritage — adobo, pancit, lumpia — and puts a modern spin on them with creative plating and Pacific Northwest ingredients (her dad catches the restaurant’s locally-sourced squid himself). Her irresistibly tart and savory sinigang soup, with grilled head-on shrimp, grapefruit, and shishitos, is traditional enough to appease an earlier generation while offering something fresh and exciting to her own.

Call 206-708-6871 for more info.

The dish: Triple coconut cream pie

A reverence for local seafood and seasonal ingredients led Seattle chef Tom Douglas to national recognition in the 1990s, when he helped put Seattle on the map as a serious culinary destination. During the pandemic, several of his restaurants saw permanent closures, including Downtown’s beloved Dahlia Lounge, which launched his career.

As Douglas reimagines the future of his restaurant group with a grant from the SBA, he’s relaunched the Dahlia Lounge space as an expanded locale for Serious Pie, his pizzeria.

Sharing the space with the pizzeria is Dahlia Bakery, which continues to serve what is probably the most famous pie in all of Seattle: the triple cream coconut pie. The fluffy creation is composed of custard-style coconut cream, whipped cream, and toasted coconut flakes, all nestled snugly within a buttery coconut crust — a favorite of former President Obama when he’s in town.