The Best Places to Eat and Stay in Seattle

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

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 Tavern-Style Pizza · The Best Things I Ate This Year

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America