The Top 100 Places to Eat Near Mama’s Kitchen
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Rank 1. Mama’s Kitchen
Korean
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Rank 2. Archipelago
Progressive Filipino
Twelve seats, ten courses, and a tasting menu that treats Filipino food as a lens for Pacific Northwest history in ways that somehow feel personal rather than academic. Archipelago is one of those rare spots where the storytelling and the cooking are equally good, which has earned it a James Beard Award. Getting a reservation is notoriously hard, but the crowd that manages it tends to sit very still and pay close attention, which tells you everything.
- The Infatuation Infatuation’s Highest-Rated Restaurants In America
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Outstanding Hospitality
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Aaron Verzosa
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- Seattle Met 2023 · Omakase · The Best Things I Ate This Year
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Jun Takai
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Rank 7. Off Alley
European-Influenced
Twelve seats in a brick corridor, a chalkboard that changes daily, and a James Beard Award on the shelf. Off Alley is the kind of tiny, European-leaning dinner spot where the staff describes every plate like they genuinely can't believe you're about to eat it. The chef leans into organs, odd little fish, and the weirder corners of the PNW pantry, and somehow it all lands. Wear something nice but not stuffy.
- The New York Times 2022 · The Restaurant List
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
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Rank 8. Lil Red's
Barbecue
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle
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Rank 9. Familyfriend
Guamanian
A casual Beacon Hill spot doing Guamanian food in a way Seattle hadn't really seen before, and it's a James Beard Best New Restaurant winner, so someone noticed. The smashburger went viral and briefly filled the room with TikTokers, but the regulars have reclaimed their pistachio booths and the shady back patio. The empanadas and corn soup are the real reason to linger.
- Esquire 2024 · Lola Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- The New York Times 2024 · The Restaurant List
- The Infatuation #10 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
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Rank 10. Communion Restaurant & Bar
Southern
- USA Today 2024 · Restaurants of the Year
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Kristi Brown
- The New York Times 2021 · The Restaurant List
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Rank 11. Haidilao Hot Pot
Chinese
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Rank 12. Musang
Filipino
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Melissa Miranda
- The Infatuation #3 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
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Rank 13. Carmine's
Italian
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Rank 14. Bar Del Corso
Wood-fired Pizza
This wood-fired pizza spot on Beacon Hill has a James Beard Award for hospitality, which tracks, because the whole place feels genuinely warm rather than performative about it. The blistered crusts are the headline, but Roman street food, grilled octopus, and aperitivo cocktails make it hard to leave after one pie. The patio out back is a genuine find. Expect a wait, and expect the regulars to look completely unbothered about it.
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
- The Infatuation #11 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
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- Wine Enthusiast 2023 · Forward 50 Restaurants
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Aaron Tekulve
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle
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Rank 16. Homer
Wood-Fired Mediterranean
A James Beard-winning chef runs this wood-fired Mediterranean spot in Beacon Hill, and the room feels like your coolest neighbor's dinner party, if your neighbor had a wood oven and a soft-serve window out back. The pitas come out of that oven almost too hot to hold, still puffed and blistered, and everything you spread on them earns its place. The lamb ribs alone are worth the trip.
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Logan Cox
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Rank 18. Phở Bắc
Vietnamese
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Quynh-Vy and Yenvy Pham
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Yenvy and Quynh Pham
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
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Rank 20. The Boat
Vietnamese
A James Beard-winning team runs this Little Saigon all-day spot out of a literal boat-shaped building, and they've committed hard to a single dish: a garlic-crusted, fish sauce-glazed half chicken that arrives sticky-handed and deeply satisfying. The drinks list is surprisingly generous for a one-dish joint, and the pandan waffles with coconut fluff are reason enough to linger. The crowd knows exactly what they're doing here.
- Seattle Met 2023 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
- The Infatuation #17 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Yenvy and Quynh Pham
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- Seattle Met 2023 · Bozena Shero · The Best Things I Ate This Year
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle
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Rank 22. Kilig
Filipino
Kilig is a bright, fast-casual Filipino spot in the International District where the room is splashed with color and the food hits harder than the price tag suggests. Chef Melissa Miranda built her name at Musang, and this looser, bolder follow-up shows her having more fun. The bulalo, a beefy shank soup, is the anchor, but the wings, lumpia, and punchy noodles earn their keep too. The New York Times agrees it belongs on your list.
- Seattle Met 2024 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
- The Infatuation The 21 Most Fun Dinner Spots In Seattle
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
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Rank 23. LTD Edition
Omakase Sushi
- The New York Times 2023 · The Restaurant List
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
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Rank 24. Spinasse
Northern Italian
- The Infatuation #2 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle
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Rank 25. Taurus Ox
Laotian
A casual Laotian restaurant in Capitol Hill that earned a New York Times shoutout, which tells you something. The food is bold and bright, the kind that built enough of a following to graduate from a tiny counter spot into a proper dining room. The crowd skews neighborhood regulars who know exactly what they're ordering. Come for the khao poon and the housemade sausage, but don't sleep on the smash burger, which sounds like a gimmick until you eat it.
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle
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Rank 26. Billiard Hoang
Vietnamese
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- Seattle Met 2024 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
- Seattle Met 2025 · Tôm Cocktail · The Best Things I Ate This Year
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Rank 28. iconiq
Japanese, French
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Rank 30. Saint Bread
Japanese-Influenced Bakery
A James Beard-winning bakery sitting canalside in a converted boat repair shop, which is already a good start. The pastries pull from France, Scandinavia, and Japan all at once, so your morning cardamom croissant might share a tray with yuzu polenta cake. The menu is loosely organized by how many slices of bread are involved, which is the kind of system you appreciate once you're holding an okonomiyaki and not questioning it.
- The New York Times 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bakery
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
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Rank 31. Ciudad
Mediterranean
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Rank 32. Jackalope
Tex-Mex
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Rank 33. Lark
New American
Lark is a fine dining room in Capitol Hill that's been around long enough to feel like a fixture, and the James Beard Award for Outstanding Hospitality tells you the staff genuinely means it. The four-course tasting menu is unusually forgiving, with real choices at each round so it never feels like you're just eating the chef's diary. The crowd skews date-night and special-occasion, dressed like they meant it.
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Hospitality
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle
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Rank 35. Maneki
Japanese
- The Infatuation The 21 Most Fun Dinner Spots In Seattle
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
- Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now
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Rank 36. Soufend Cafe & Eatery
Vietnamese
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- Wine Enthusiast 2023 · Forward 50 Restaurants
- The Stranger 2024 · The Lamb Mabo Pizza · The 10 Best Things I Ate in Seattle
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Rank 38. Canlis
Northwest
Canlis is the kind of fine dining institution that's been around forever, perched on a cliff above Queen Anne Hill with views that make the prix fixe feel almost justified. The room fills with anniversaries, milestone birthdays, and people who clearly ironed their shirts for this. Northwest ingredients anchor the menu, the wine program has a James Beard win behind it, and the Canlis salad gets its own tableside moment.
- AAA Four Diamonds
- Food & Wine 2023 · Best New Chefs · Aisha Ibrahim
- Wine Enthusiast The Wine Restaurant Hall of Fame
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Rank 39. Altura
Italian
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Rank 40. Maripili Tapas Bar
Spanish
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
- Seattle Met 2024 · Flan de Erizo · The Best Things I Ate This Year
- Seattle Met 2023 · Croissant Sobrasada Roll · The Best Things I Ate This Year
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Rank 41. Cafe Suliman
Middle Eastern
- Eater Best Counter
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Ahmed Suliman
- Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots
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Rank 43. Pancita
Mexican
Janet Becerra grinds and nixtamalizes her own heirloom corn daily, which tells you everything about how seriously she takes this place. Pancita is a lively, mid-range Mexican restaurant where European fine-dining training meets deep traditional technique, and the room fills with people who showed up on purpose. She earned a James Beard Award, and one bite of those tortillas explains why. Skip nothing on the menu.
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Emerging Chef · Janet Becerra
- Seattle Met 2023 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
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Rank 44. Fogón Cocina Mexicana
Mexican
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- James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Yenvy and Quynh Pham
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Quynh-Vy and Yenvy Pham
- Bon Appétit 2022 · America's Best New Restaurants
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Rank 47. Fat's Chicken and Waffles
Southern/Creole/Cajun, Breakfast/Brunch
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Rank 49. Cafe Flora
Vegetarian, Vegan, American/New American
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Rank 50. Atoma
Pacific Northwestern
Fine dining in a converted Craftsman house in Wallingford, Atoma has James Beard Awards for Best New Restaurant and Best Chef behind it, which tells you something. The chef keeps things hyperseasonal and genuinely playful, and the room feels nothing like a white-tablecloth temple. Couples and curious regulars fill the small space, all quietly thrilled that food this precise still manages to be fun rather than a lecture.
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Best New Restaurant
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Johnny Courtney
- Eater Best New Restaurant
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Rank 51. Tomo
American
Tomo is a sleek, stylishly dim upscale American restaurant in West Seattle where the kitchen does Japanese-inflected cooking that resists easy categorization, and honestly that's the whole point. The menu swings from fried chicken to chawanmushi with total confidence, and the wine program is genuinely outstanding, James Beard Award-winning if you need convincing. The crowd skews curious and adventurous, people who order the kakigori just to see if it'll topple.
- The New York Times 2025 · Dungeness Crab Rice · The Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S.
- Esquire 2022 · #30 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- The Infatuation The 21 Most Fun Dinner Spots In Seattle
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- Seattle Met 2025 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
- Seattle Met 2025 · Housemade Ricotta · The Best Things I Ate This Year
- The Infatuation 2025 · #9 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
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Rank 53. Paju
Korean
- The New York Times 2021 · The Restaurant List
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
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Rank 54. Oriental Mart
Filipino
- The Infatuation #19 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle
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- Seattle Met 2025 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
- Eater Best All-Day Cafe · The 2025 Eater Seattle Award Winners
- The Infatuation 2025 · #2 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
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Rank 58. Le Pichet
French
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
- Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots
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Rank 59. Milk Drunk
Soft Serve, Sandwiches/Deli
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Rank 60. Joule
Korean Steakhouse
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Chef · Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle
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Rank 61. Kamonegi
Japanese
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Mutsuko Soma
- Bon Appétit 2018 · America's Best New Restaurants
- Eater 2018 · The Best New Restaurants in America
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Rank 62. L'Oursin
French
A wainscoted French bistro that sneaks Pacific Northwest seafood onto the menu and describes its wines with phrases you'd expect from a group chat, not a sommelier. The bar is serious enough to have won a national award, and the food follows suit, with Dungeness crab and spot prawns doing their best Parisian impression. The crowd tends toward couples who actually dressed up and regulars who already know what they're ordering.
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar – U.S. West
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar – U.S. West
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar – U.S. West
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Rank 63. Rimini Restaurant
Italian
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- 50 Best 2026 · #89 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Esquire 2023 · Amis Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West
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Renee Erickson's oyster bar in Ballard has been a James Beard Award winner and a reason people fly into Seattle just to stand in line, which tells you something. It's a lively, no-reservations neighborhood spot where the oysters are meticulously sourced and the cocktails are built to keep pace. The crowd is mostly locals who know the drill and visitors who read the right articles. If there's a wait, the bar next door is a perfectly decent place to kill time.
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurant
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurant
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Renee Erickson
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Rank 66. Local Tide
Seafood
A casual counter-service spot in Fremont doing something Seattle almost never does: centering the menu entirely on local Northwest seafood without charging fine-dining prices for the privilege. The chef sources from a network of local fisheries, then turns it all into the kind of takeout lunch that makes you feel smug about your choices. Weekend crab rolls on a buttery split-top bun are the thing people talk about. Expect a crowd of neighborhood regulars who clearly know something you don't.
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
- The Infatuation #20 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
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Rank 67. Mezzanotte
Italian
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Rank 68. Ba Bar
Vietnamese
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- The Infatuation 2025 · #11 · The Top-Rated New Restaurants
- Seattle Met 2025 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
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Rank 71. Kathakali
Indian
- Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Ajay Panicker
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- The New York Times 2025 · Lamb Neck Korma Pie · The Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S.
- Eater Best New Restaurant · The 2025 Eater Seattle Award Winners
- The Infatuation 2025 · #10 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
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Rank 75. Jeffry's
American
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Rank 76. Lenox
Caribbean
- Bon Appétit 2025 · America's Best New Restaurants
- Seattle Met 2024 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
- The Infatuation The 21 Most Fun Dinner Spots In Seattle
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Rank 77. Bellwether BBQ
Korean
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Rank 78. Humble Pie
Pizza
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Rank 80. Kobuta & Ookami
Japanese
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Rank 81. Dough Zone
Chinese
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Rank 83. Thanh Son Tofu
Vietnamese
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Rank 84. Byrek & Baguette
Balkan
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Rank 86. BOPBOX
Korean
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Rank 87. Saigon Deli
Vietnamese
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Rank 89. Pelicana Chicken
Korean
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- The Infatuation #13 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
- Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Kevin Smith
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- The Infatuation Our Favorite Bakeries In The Country Right Now
- Seattle Met 2025 · Kuih Goyang @ ILMU · The Best Things I Ate This Year
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Rank 97. Loretta's Northwesterner
American/New American
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Rank 99. Chu Minh Tofu and Vegan Deli
Vietnamese, Vegan
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Rank 100. Cornelly
Italian
- The Infatuation #21 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
- The Infatuation The 21 Most Fun Dinner Spots In Seattle