The Best Places in Seattle

Those barrel-aged cocktails sitting in vintage crystal decanters along the back bar are Liberty's calling card, sharing shelf space with 70-plus whiskies, a coffee station, and a sushi setup that nobody questions. It's a casual Capitol Hill cocktail bar with couches by the front windows and bench seating opposite the bar, the kind of room built for lingering. Industry folks and neighborhood regulars tend to find each other here without much effort.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

The chalkboard menu at this corner tapas bar looks like it's been there forever, which is kind of the point. Patatas bravas, garlicky shrimp, octopus, and chorizo rotate through in the Spanish tradition the team fell in love with while backpacking through Madrid. The room is small, retro without trying, and built-in banquettes give it the settled-in feel of a neighborhood place that has nothing left to prove.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

Aa Sushi is a casual Ballard sushi spot where the money that would buy one person an omakase fills the whole table with nigiri, rolls, and a startling amount of miso soup. The rice is kept just warm enough to go soft against a slice of yellowtail belly. The menu also lets you add tamago Spam musubi or lemon-squeezed chicken karaage, which feels less like ordering and more like giving in.

1. The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants In Ballard

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

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

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

El Moose is an all-day Mexican spot in Ballard where floral oilcloths and papel picado do the decorating and café de olla does the reviving. It's casual, priced like a place you'd go twice in a weekend, and the out-late-last-night crowd fills the room by mid-morning. The alambres come with cheese that melts on contact, and a fried egg on top is the sort of move the brunch gods tend to notice. Arrive early.

1. The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants In Ballard

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

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

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

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

GoodMart is a casual Ballard seafood spot built for a sit-down lunch, which is a dying art that apparently never got the memo. Each fish gets its own preparation, served with salad and rice, so there's no assembling a meal from a dozen small plates. Black cod comes glazed in apple miso, ling cod wears a panko crust, and the playlist is good enough that you may find yourself quietly mouthing along.

1. The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants In Ballard

1. The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants In Ballard

The bagel shop in University Village that refuses to slice, toast, or schmear anything, full stop. The chef rolls and bakes throughout the day, so there's almost always something warm coming out, crackly on the outside and just chewy enough inside. Cream cheese arrives on the side for ripping and dipping. If you want a sandwich, three other bagel spots are nearby, and Hey Bagel seems fine letting you go find one.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
2. The Infatuation #3 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

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 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 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. 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 Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

Maria Luisa is an empanada shop in a garage-like Ballard space, the kind of place where lunch means a few high-top tables and a paper bag. The fillings run from creamy spinach to chorizo to plain cheese, and the chimichurri alongside would be welcome in packet form for the glovebox. Takeout is easy, even for a family-sized order, and the alfajores filled with dulce de leche cover dessert. Nobody dresses up for this.

1. The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants In Ballard

Mean Sandwich is a small sandwich shop with a giant open mouth for a logo, which is also the face you'll make at the counter. The room keeps the old deli feel, but the corned beef is housemade and thick-cut, and the mint shows up by the fistful. Even the bread pudding comes from day-old buns, and a backyard patio handles warm-weather sandwiching. Order at the counter, bring napkins, expect no ceremony.

1. The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants In Ballard

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

A Turkish American tech worker turned pitmaster drives an hour a day just to source the right bread for his chopped beef sandwiches, which tells you everything about the commitment level here. This is a Texas-style BBQ beer bar in Fremont where the brisket, salt-and-pepper only, runs through the smoker for upward of twelve hours and comes out glossy and dark-edged. The sweet pickles in the potato salad are made in-house purely to be an ingredient, not a garnish.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
2. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

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

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

The pizza here is long, rectangular, and crust-heavy enough that it reads more like an open-faced sandwich than a pie, which tells you something about the kitchen's priorities. Sacro Bosco is an Italian-leaning dinner spot sharing space with Temple Pastries, and chef Christina Wood brings an almost artistic fussiness to a small, seasonal menu. The housemade ricotta alone has been called one of Seattle's best bites this year, and looking at the plate, you'd believe it.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
2. Seattle Met Housemade Ricotta · The Best Things I Ate This Year
3. The Infatuation #9 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

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

1. The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants In Ballard

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

The menu calls them "Sichuan ravioli," which tells you everything about the vibe here. This old-school International District Chinese restaurant has been serving homestyle Sichuan long before hot pot chains made the cuisine trendy in Seattle, and the approach hasn't changed much: big plates, ropy noodles, a pepper-reddened boiled fish that sounds mild and isn't, and portions sized like someone's grandmother is worried you look thin.

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

Sunny Hill is a bright, casual pizza place a short walk from Golden Gardens, which makes it the natural spot to sit down once the beach has worn you out. The round pies come blistered, and the Detroit-style squares have a focaccia-ish crust with frizzled cheese at the edges. There are also cheeseburgers and waffle fries, and the black garlic ranch for dunking them is not optional in spirit, even if it is on paper.

1. The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants In Ballard

1. The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants In Ballard

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

A tofu production company that sprouted a deli counter, Thanh Son is the rare spot where the house-made soy milk and fresh tofu, sold by the pound, upstage everything else on offer. The banh mi are built to order on house-baked bread, and the glass case of che, Vietnamese sweet dessert, stacks up a rainbow of tapioca, jellies, and beans in combinations that take a minute to decode. Bring restraint, or at least a spoon.

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

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

The narrow passage to the left of the bar does not lead to a secret larger room; that's just the toilet. Hazlewood is a tiny cocktail bar in Ballard, once a coffee shop, where the counter is a few strides from the door and the upstairs lounge has the square footage of a treehouse. Come on a quiet weeknight and you'll spend a moment genuinely confused about where everyone is supposed to sit. The answer, apparently, is close together.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

Tucked below Pike Place Market where the street tilts toward the water, this Italian restaurant bar is easy to miss, which is half the point. The bar area is compact and carefully stocked, with grappa, cognac, and malt whisky sitting alongside cocktails that get proper attention. The bistro setting around it is relaxed enough that nobody is checking how long you've been nursing your drink.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 3 stars · Difford's Guide

The kitchen operates out of Copperworks Distilling in Kenmore, which means you order at a counter in a sprawling taproom full of kids and dogs, then sit down to charred cabbage with miso buttermilk and baby carrots cooked in beef fat with black garlic yogurt. The seasonal menu leans on produce from a nearby farm, and the team, veterans of the Seattle dining scene, lands dishes that feel genuinely original while nodding at comfort food. The kids' menu is nearly as long as the main one.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

A seafood counter tucked inside Fair Isle Brewing, La Marea brings Mexican coastal cooking to a city that usually prefers its seafood left alone. Hamachi and tuna arrive over tostadas, sliced with a precision that suggests sushi somewhere in the team's past. The scallop aguachile and chile morita aioli do not shy from heat. The brewery's farmhouse ales and saisons make good company, and the shared space keeps the whole thing loose.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

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

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Liz Kenyon

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

Fufu made from scratch and shito, the shrimp pepper sauce that shows up on nearly every table, are the signals that this is something Seattle doesn't have much of: a proper West African restaurant serving Ghanaian and Liberian cooking. The minimalist First Hill room fills fast with regulars who already know the goat peanut soup and newcomers working their way through peri peri wings and fried plantains for the first time.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
2. The Stranger The Beef Hand Pies · The 10 Best Things I Ate in Seattle

Little Jaye is the bakery spinoff of West Seattle's Lady Jaye, a small, cheerful counter in Georgetown where the pastries lean playful and the line moves at a polite pace. The breakfast sandwich is the main event: a sausage patty smashed lacy at the edges, American cheese, runny egg, and a hash brown tucked in like a crispy lid. It has landed on a couple of local best-things-I-ate lists, including one for a potato chip crispy treat.

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. The Infatuation #12 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

1. The Infatuation #4 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

1. Seattle Met Breakfast for Dinner (for Lunch?) Pie · The Best Things I Ate This Year
2. Seattle Met Breakfast for Dinner Pizza · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Greek Fries · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Pumpkin y Mamey Canela Roll · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. The Infatuation #11 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

1. The Infatuation #8 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

1. The Infatuation #5 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

1. The Infatuation #7 · Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

Pork belly sisig arrives still sizzling on a cast-iron plate, which tells you most of what you need to know about the room. This Filipino restaurant near the Beacon Hill light rail grew out of a food truck the family started after redevelopment shuttered their first spot, and the new stationary digs feel more like a return than a debut. The menu runs to lumpia, bistec, and adobo, with flavors on the gentler, pull-you-in end of the spectrum.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

An Italian cafe tucked inside a streetwear and sneaker shop, which is either a strange choice or the most Pioneer Square thing imaginable. Counter-service focaccia sandwiches and housemade pasta land in that comfortable zone between careful and fussy, and happy hour swings toward spritzes and antipasti without much ceremony. The kind of spot that handles a pre-game and a leisurely lunch date with equal ease.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

The patio hangs so close to Lake Washington you could lose a chip in it. El Encanto is an upscale Mexican restaurant where the room is very white, the crowd is very photogenic, and the chef quietly runs circles around the decor. The chile en nogada, made daily with help from his mom, is the kind of detail that earns its reputation. The cocktail list takes the tequila selection seriously, which helps when the selfie-to-taco ratio tips the wrong way.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

Charcoal grills and skewers of chicken thighs, beef tongue, and mochi wrapped in bacon define this Wallingford yakitori bar. Empty skewers go into containers shaped like Super Mario pipes, which tells you everything about the room's energy. Pressed sushi and small plates keep the highballs coming. On the way out, the Indigo Cow soft-serve window near the entrance turns milk from Hokkaido cows into a rich, swirly send-off.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

Arcade games and sticker vending machines frame the room at this slice joint in the Beacon Hill area, where the team behind Fremont's Lupo traded sourdough pies for New York-style foldable slices. The crust is the work of serious dough people, and the housemade ice cream could survive a white-tablecloth setting but seems happier alongside paper plates and plastic tumblers. Salads, too, punch above the room's decor.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
2. Seattle Met Normie Macdonald Slice · The Best Things I Ate This Year

Arcade games and sticker vending machines line the walls of this East Coast-style slice joint in Olde Burien, which is exactly the vibe the team behind Fremont's Lupo was going for. The crust is the work of dough obsessives, foldable and crisp in the New York tradition. Side salads and housemade ice cream are better than the paper plates and plastic tumblers would suggest, but nobody seems to mind.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
2. Seattle Met Normie Macdonald Slice · The Best Things I Ate This Year

The alleyway entrance in Madison Park sets the tone: this is an omakase counter that knows it doesn't need to try too hard. Yasutaka Suzuki, a former partner at the beloved Sushi Kashiba, adjusts rice temperatures fish by fish and rotates the menu with microseasons. He runs a precise, focused kitchen, but in front of diners he's warm and prone to laughing. The presidential-themed bathroom is its own subplot.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

1. Seattle Met Stir-Fried Asparagus Lettuce · The Best Things I Ate This Year

A live-coal grill, the kind you'd see on a street corner in Xinjiang, sits in the kitchen of this Uyghur restaurant tucked into a Kent strip mall. The lamb skewers come off it cumin-crusted and properly smoky, the sort of thing that makes a food writer ask to see the back of the house. The menu covers the northwest Chinese canon: hand-pulled noodles, flatbreads, big plates of spiced meat.

1. Seattle Met Lamb Skewers · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Broccoli Taco · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. The Stranger The Focaccia · The 10 Best Things I Ate in Seattle

1. The Stranger The (VEGAN!!?!) Train to Busan Cake · The 10 Best Things I Ate in Seattle

1. The Stranger The Flan de Vainilla · The 10 Best Things I Ate in Seattle

1. The Stranger The Inimitable Porchetta Sandwich · The 10 Best Things I Ate in Seattle

1. Seattle Met Oklahoma Smash · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Seattle Met Churro · The Best Things I Ate This Year