The Top 100 Places to Eat Near Taco Time

Brady Williams built his name at Canlis, and Tomo is what happens when a fine-dining chef stops apologizing for also loving a steam burger. The à la carte menu lands somewhere between Japanese comfort food and upscale American, with kakigori towering improbably over its bowl for dessert. The room runs dark and stylish, and the wine list is adventurous enough that the four-glass, diner-paced flight exists as a sensible entry point.

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Twelve seats, one seating, and roughly ten courses tracing the Philippines' complicated history with the Pacific Northwest. This intimate tasting room in South Seattle builds menus around heirloom grains, fermented local produce, and house-rolled miki noodles while serving up genuine cultural context alongside every plate. A James Beard nominee for Outstanding Chef, the chef here makes the backstory feel inseparable from the food, which is a harder trick than it sounds.

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2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Outstanding Hospitality
3. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Aaron Verzosa

A barely-there sign on Beacon Hill marks this casual Guamanian restaurant and bar, which is either accidental humility or the universe's way of filtering out TikTokers (it has not worked). The menu follows the chef's biography through Filipino chicken adobo tacos and Guam-style corn soup, but the achiote-orange empanadas, stuffed with raisined beef and served in a pool of fina'denne', are what drew a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2025.

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2. The New York Times The Restaurant List
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1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Melissa Miranda
2. The Infatuation #3 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
3. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

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2. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

Twelve seats in a brick corridor, a chalkboard that changes daily, and a chef who treats gooseneck barnacles as a reasonable Tuesday ingredient. Off Alley is an intimate Pacific Northwest tasting spot where foie gras might end up as ice cream and snails arrive on sourdough with bone marrow butter, though the stranger touches tend to punctuate dishes that are, underneath it all, quietly seasonal and elegant. The New York Times put it on their restaurant list, and the staff describe every plate like they can't quite believe it either.

1. The New York Times The Restaurant List
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
3. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

The wood-fired oven does the talking here, blistering crusts until they're charred and chewy in all the right spots. Bar Del Corso is a pizza shop on Beacon Avenue that keeps quietly outrunning that label, with fried risotto balls, grilled octopus, and aperitivo-forward cocktails filling out a short menu. The back patio is easy to miss, the waits are not. The New York Times has put it on their Seattle list, and the James Beard Foundation named it a hospitality semifinalist.

1. 50 Top Pizza 50 Top Pizza USA Excellent Pizzerias
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
3. The Infatuation #11 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
2. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
3. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle

The pitas come out of the wood oven almost too hot to handle, still puffed from the heat, and they anchor a menu built around big Mediterranean flavors in a neighborhood restaurant that also runs a soft-serve window because why not. The chef knows the local dogs by name, which tells you something about the room. Lamb ribs and meatballs fill out the regular order for anyone who can't decide, which is most people.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
2. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Logan Cox

1. US Coffee Championships #2 · U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship · Richelle Taylor

1. US Coffee Championships #2 · U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship · Richelle Taylor

1. Seattle Met 2026 · Seattle's Best Shaved Ice and Slushies

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Quynh-Vy and Yenvy Pham
2. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Yenvy and Quynh Pham
3. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

1. Eater Best Comeback · The 2025 Eater Seattle Award Winners

A postcard mural splashes the back wall of this fast-casual Filipino spot in the International District, setting the tone for a menu that's equally unsubtle about what it loves. Bulalo, the clear beef shank soup, is the centerpiece, and Melissa Miranda's kitchen pulls it off with enough technique to make a simple bowl feel considered. The pancit, the lumpia, the sinigang wings, all travel well in the same direction. The New York Times has named it among Seattle's 25 best.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
2. The Infatuation The 21 Most Fun Dinner Spots In Seattle
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now

The boat-shaped building in Little Saigon runs the whole menu on a single dish: a garlic-crusted half chicken, fried crisp and lacquered in fish sauce, served with rice or a noodle soup sidecar and a chrysanthemum greens salad that quietly steals the table. The drinks list is broader than you'd expect, with Vietnamese iced coffee, pandan iced tea, and cocktails. Save room for the pandan waffles, or come just for those.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
2. The Infatuation #17 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Quynh Pham and Yenvy Pham

1. The Infatuation The 21 Most Fun Dinner Spots In Seattle

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Coffee Shops In Seattle

The dough at this contemporary Messina pizzeria goes through a long fermentation that gives each base a noticeably different aroma from the standard Neapolitan crowd. The "Specials" menu is where the kitchen makes its argument, and the fried appetizers lean artisanal rather than afterthought. The wine list tilts local. Three r's in the name, which either signals confidence or a typo that stuck, and the room seems to lean toward the former.

1. 50 Top Pizza 50 Top Pizza Italy Excellent Pizzerias

1. Seattle Met Bozena Shero · The Best Things I Ate This Year
2. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle

1. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

1. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle

The whiteboard of daily specials is where regulars look first at this old-school Japanese restaurant and bar in the International District, an institution that has been around forever and shows no interest in pretending otherwise. No-nonsense aunties keep things in order, traditional cooks keep the kitchen honest, and the wait for a table is more or less constant. Come hungry and unhurried.

1. The Infatuation The 21 Most Fun Dinner Spots In Seattle
2. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
3. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

1. The Infatuation #12 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Coffee Shops In Seattle
2. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

Bún bò Huế arrives as tacos here, which tells you everything about the approach. This Vietnamese cafe in South Seattle pairs deep-cut dishes like stir-fried snails in coconut sauce with banana cookie crumble matcha lattes, and somehow neither feels out of place. The bánh xèo comes gasp-inducingly large on a woven basket ringed with herbs. Seattle Met named it one of Seattle's best new restaurants in 2025.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
2. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Coffee Shops In Seattle

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Coffee Shops In Seattle

1. Seattle Met 2026 · Seattle's Best Shaved Ice and Slushies

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Kristi Brown
3. The New York Times The Restaurant List

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Coffee Shops In Seattle

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

The chef sources so locally he's reportedly knocked on strangers' doors to ask about their gardens, and his mom's plot is in regular rotation. The result is a Northwest New American restaurant on Alki Beach where essentially everything on the plate comes from Washington state, no California citrus allowed. The bar runs the same way and is worth the trip on its own, and the desserts have drawn their own devoted following.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
2. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
3. Seattle Met Desserts · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
2. Seattle Met 2026 · Seattle's Best Shaved Ice and Slushies

1. The New York Times The Restaurant List
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
3. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

1. The Infatuation #19 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
2. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

Marble cafe tables inside a wine shop looking out at Melrose Market set the scene at Cafe Suliman, a Middle Eastern lunch spot where Pacific Northwest ingredients quietly take over the menu. The toast is famous enough to anchor a meal, and smaller bites like pickled gigante beans and carrot-lentil dip let you graze your way through without committing to a plan. The chef earned a James Beard Emerging Chef semifinalist nod in 2026.

1. Eater Best Counter
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Ahmed Suliman
3. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
2. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

1. Seattle Met Smashwich · The Best Things I Ate This Year
2. The Stranger The Potato Chip Crispy Treat · The 10 Best Things I Ate in Seattle

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Yenvy and Quynh Pham
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurateur · Quynh-Vy and Yenvy Pham
3. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

Starry lights over soft banquettes set the mood at this fine dining room on Capitol Hill, where the kitchen turns very local ingredients into something quietly elegant. The four-course tasting menu gives you real choices at each round, which makes it unusually painless for people who normally flinch at tasting menus. The hospitality carries the same care as the food, a James Beard Semifinalist nod for Outstanding Hospitality confirms that's not accidental.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
2. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Hospitality
3. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Aaron Tekulve
3. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle

1. The Infatuation #2 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
2. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
3. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle

1. US Coffee Championships #2 · U.S. Coffee in Good Spirits Championship · Richelle Taylor

The hollow bread comes with honey butter, and if that sounds simple for a Capitol Hill restaurant pulling Vietnamese flavors through a global filter, the rest of the menu will readjust your expectations fast. This is a contemporary dinner spot where risotto gets a Southeast Asian pesto and carpaccio arrives bright with nuoc cham. The chef is a James Beard semifinalist, and the cocktails have their own following.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
2. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
3. Seattle Met Tôm Cocktail · The Best Things I Ate This Year

The Canlis salad gets made tableside, which tells you exactly the kind of place this is: old-school fine dining with a capital F, perched on a cliff above Lake Union with views that earn their keep. A five-course prix fixe leans into Northwest ingredients with a quiet nod to the restaurant's Hawaiian roots. Food & Wine named it among the top US restaurants in 2025, and the wine program has a hall of fame plaque to its name.

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The chef's pastry background explains why the flan de erizo and the croissant sobrasada roll have each turned heads at Seattle Met. This tapas bar on 12th Avenue riffs on Galician cooking, leaning into the Pacific Northwest's seafood to find where Spain's northwest and Washington's coastline overlap. The menu takes liberties, in a good way, and the sherry list is longer than you'd expect. A James Beard semifinalist in 2024.

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2. Seattle Met Flan de Erizo · The Best Things I Ate This Year
3. Seattle Met Croissant Sobrasada Roll · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
2. The Stranger The Lamb Mabo Pizza · The 10 Best Things I Ate in Seattle

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1. The Infatuation The 21 Most Fun Dinner Spots In Seattle
2. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

1. The Infatuation The 21 Most Fun Dinner Spots In Seattle

The lechon arrives as a pinwheel of pork with skin so shatteringly crisp it sounds like a problem. Lenox is a Caribbean restaurant in Belltown doing Nuyorican cooking with palm-print wallpaper, rattan fixtures, and a rum-heavy cocktail list that leans hard into the beach-bar premise. The spice mixes are made in-house, the piña coladas get poured generously, and Bon Appétit named it one of America's Best New Restaurants in 2025.

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1. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Coffee Shops In Seattle

A hand-carved wooden angel watches from an overhead alcove while chef Nathan Lockwood plates Northwest ingredients on moss and stones below, which pretty much sets the tone. Altura is a fixed tasting menu restaurant on Capitol Hill, the kind of place where the cooking is polished but the service stays warm enough that you don't feel like you're being graded. A good call when the occasion demands it.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

1. The New York Times The Restaurant List
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
3. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

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2. Seattle Met Khao Soi Chiang Mai · The Best Things I Ate This Year
3. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots
2. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Christina Wood

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Baker · Pamela Vuong

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots
2. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

The smash burger with house-cured pork jowl and jeaw condiment is either a flex or a provocation, possibly both. Taurus Ox is a casual Laotian restaurant that moved out of its original counter spot into a proper dining room, and the menu came with it. Khao poon and a family sausage recipe built around lemongrass anchor the Lao side of things, while that burger quietly complicates any notion of what the restaurant is supposed to be. The New York Times named it among Seattle's 25 best.

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2. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
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Two Italian men, both named Gabriele, run this Italian deli on Yesler Way, and the staff communicate in rapid, gesticulate Italian that could be an argument or a recipe debate or just Tuesday. The focaccia sandwiches are stacked with imported prosciutto and mortadella, and the 'nduja is made next door. Shop shelves hold Sardinian cheese, Calabrian honey, and bottarga for browsing. Vegetarians exist here, but they have to ask nicely.

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A cocktail bar beside the oven is the first signal that PizzBurgh is doing something a bit different. This Messina pizzeria runs through the full format card, red, white, fried, pala, padellino, and the big wheel-shaped ruota di carro, all built on high-hydration doughs with long fermentation times that keep things soft without going slack. The outdoor terrace fills up quickly, and 50 Top Pizza lists it among Italy's excellent pizzerias.

1. 50 Top Pizza 50 Top Pizza Italy Excellent Pizzerias

A former boat repair shop on the canal, now doing the Lord's work with cardamom croissants and Japanese melonpan. Saint Bread is a bakery with a full menu organized, with some nerve, by how many slices of bread your order contains. The "No Bread" section includes okonomiyaki, which tells you the kitchen has opinions. A James Beard Semifinalist for Outstanding Bakery, and the New York Times put it on their short list of top U.S. bakeries.

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2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bakery
3. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

A small pasta counter tucked above the Pike Place Market Atrium, where the menu changes every couple of weeks based on whatever the market has going. The lasagna stays, the tomato sauce pasta stays, and everything else rotates through combinations like pappardelle with venison ragù or gemelli with caramelized pears and gorgonzola. The chef grew up in Turin, and it shows in the kind of quiet confidence that pairs orecchiette with Penn Cove mussels without making a fuss about it.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
2. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

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1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

The long counter at this old-school Chinese restaurant in the Chinatown-International District has been accumulating scuffs, celebrity photos, and regulars for decades. The menu has been this way forever, and that's the point: beef in oyster sauce, chop suey built on sautéed vegetables, nothing experimental. The owner waves you out the door himself, which is a touch you don't get everywhere.

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Coffee Shops In Seattle

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

The bar is lit by a marquee sign, the wine list describes something as "the purple nurple of pet-nat," and fresh urchin sometimes arrives in the spiny shell with bread and butter. This wainscoted French bistro on Capitol Hill pairs classic technique with Northwest seafood, keeps the natural wine program largely French, and still serves pimento cheese left over from a pop-up era because the menu has a sense of humor about itself.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants
2. Seattle Met Urchin · The Best Things I Ate This Year
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar – U.S. West

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

Claypot dishes and lacquered roasted meats are the draw at this polished but casual Cantonese spot, where most of the menu stays under $15 and the lunch crowd moves fast. It shares a building with the much larger Diamond Bay, which means dim sum from that sprawling menu is also on offer, a dangerous development for anyone who came in planning to keep it simple. New York restaurant group, Seattle address, Chinatown, International District building with history.

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

1. US Coffee Championships #4 · U.S. Barista Championship · Noel Goodwin

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now

The owner built this wood-fired pizza spot himself from recycled materials, made the stools, maintains a chicken coop out back, and processes rainwater on site. If that sounds like a lot, the thin-crusted, springy pizzas are doing their part too. Mostly outdoor seating means summer is the sweet spot, but the boutique brews, rotating ciders, and the easy International District energy make a case for showing up in a jacket anyway.

1. Seattle Met 2026 · The Best Restaurants in the Chinatown–International District Right Now

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

1. The Infatuation The 21 Most Fun Dinner Spots In Seattle