We order a ton, take detailed notes, and pay for everything ourselves. This is definitely one of Seattle’s most iconic Italian restaurants (and has an equally iconic view to match). These are the Seattle restaurants would happily eat at again and again. Perfect for everyday commuting, trip planning in Ireland, or exploring a new region—this tool takes the stress out of navigating. At the former Highliner Public House space at Fisherman’s Terminal in Interbay is Pidgin Cooperative, an employee-owned project headed by a group that includes chefs and brothers Seth and Zach Pacleb, formerly of Ramen and Tacos.

Seattle

Nearly seven decades of history, hospitality, and cliffhanging views from atop Queen Anne Hill cemented Canlis’s icon status long ago. But third-generation owners Mark and Brian keep Canlis in league with the country’s dining vanguard. Technically, this storefront in a row of Ethiopian restaurants is a butcher, though your only clue might be the long line of customers who arrive twice weekly to pick up parcels of fresh meat. Ironically, you’ll not find a better veggie combo than chef Menbere Medhane’s composition of shiro, beets, lentils, cabbage, and fossolia, a flavorful blend of green beans and carrots. And, to nobody’s surprise, meat dishes like key wat are also superb.

• The miracle is that all of this is pulled off without it seeming pretentious or jarring.
• The pies alone would solidify this Beacon Hill staple as one of the most iconic Seattle happy places—up there with UW during cherry blossom season and Reuben’s when there’s no line for the bathroom.
• The garlic mussels, baccala fritters, and grilled octopus with corona beans are also exceptional, and reservations tend to go fast.
• Nearly seven decades of history, hospitality, and cliffhanging views from atop Queen Anne Hill cemented Canlis’s icon status long ago.
• Closer to Lake Union, at the corner of Eastlake Avenue and Louisa Street, Mioposto Eastlake runs a new 84-seat pizzeria.

Ltd. Edition Sushi

Take a stroll downtown and wander in and out of bookshops and bakeries. Arguably the birthplace of American coffee culture, there’s hardly a better place to enjoy leisurely lattes accompanied by hours of computing and the occasional pen and paper sketch. Because without it, we wouldn’t have the blazing flame inside Bar Del Corso’s domed pizza oven creating tasty leopard spots on their crispy crust, melting globs of buffalo mozzarella, and sizzling craggy bits of homemade fennel sausage.

• On Beacon Hill, cheesemonger Courtney Johnson, who recently took third place at the Mondial du Fromage in France (basically, the Olympics of cheese), opens her Street Cheese shop along the hip restaurant row of Beacon Avenue South.
• Much like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours or season one of “Riverdale,” this all-day Thai spot in a Bitter Lake strip mall has no skips.
• Soma serves traditional soba shop dishes like seiro soba (cold with dipping sauce) and super-crunchy tempura, but also more creative dishes like noodles topped with tri tips or oreo tempura.

Chef Johnny Sullivan had big shoes to fill taking over for chef Jason Stratton as nonna-in-chief. But restaurateur Marcus Lalario has a knack for finding talent, and does it again at this Georgetown restaurant, where planes descend overhead toward Boeing Field and tajarin pasta still blows your mind. The menu reflects Lalario’s northern Italian heritage, but ginger lurks in an endive salad and lime leaf helps spark a bowl of beef sugo and gigli pasta. If you want to go big (and can book well in advance) Mezzanotte does its own version of an omakase at the chef’s counter. Pick your preferred description for Mutsuko Soma, a woman who can cut her own soba noodles by hand, but also make a mean TikTok video starring a maple bar, hot dog, and panini press. Both sides of her brain come together on Kamonegi’s menu of stunning soba bowls, seasonal tempura, and Japanese-centered snacks (looking, longingly, at you foie gras tofu).

COMMUNION Restaurant & Bar

The Pham sisters behind the Pho Bac family of restaurants don’t overcomplicate things, so when they opened this place across the parking lot from the original Pho Bac Sup Shop, they kept the menu minimalist. It features fried chicken with broth, rice, or dry egg noodles and pandan and banana waffles. Trust us, you don’t need anything else, not when the chicken is this aromatic from garlic and fish sauce or when the waffles come with a fluffy, coconut-and-egg-whites dipping sauce. You’ll probably come to Tivoli for the pizzas — New York–style dough, foldable with a moreish tang, the crust is the star whether you get plain cheese or one of the rotating seasonal specials. But Tivoli has a secret second life as a small plates restaurant, with dishes like wood-fired rainbow carrots, sweet and charred, with a zingy horseradish cream.

Delish Ethiopian Cuisine has a bar area and a comfortable atmosphere in which husband and wife Delish Lemma and Amy Abera of Addis Ababa share recipes passed down from Abera’s mother and grandmother. Run the meat-free section of the menu with the 10-item veggie combo or try succulent beef tibs pan-fried in garlic, butter, onion, and berbere spice. Delish also offers an Ethiopian coffee ceremony for five or more diners. The minimalist seven-sandwich menu features Italian cheeses and meats served on fresh-baked schiacciata, which is like a crispier, less fluffy focaccia. A small French bistro loved by locals for years that will make you feel as if you’ve traveled from current day Seattle to bygone Paris.

The menu of shared plates includes fresh pasta along with many dishes under $20, from meatballs to sausages, all to be paired with vino from a rotating list of Italian wines. The Old World wine menu (bottles starting at $45) has better deals than the wines adjusting entry for bad debts expense by the glass, if you have a party of three or more. These days, Seattle Met’s first-ever Restaurant of the Year serves a fixed tasting menu that begins with a flurry of stuzzichini, or single-bite snacks. Chef Nathan Lockwood takes Northwest ingredients in unexpected and elegant directions. Beautiful dishes plated with moss, rocks, or leaves deliver a sense of the rustic, despite consistently deep finesse.

Hit List

A rich XO sauce underneath seared scallops is the best application of geoduck this city has ever seen (the bar was not high, but still). Hot arepas are immensely comforting and come stuffed with stracciatella and prosciutto as popcorn-scented steam floats around. To match these exciting bites is a space with brunette walls, dramatic lighting, and speakers that blast soothing whale noises in the bathroom.

The menu shifts constantly based on the seasons and turns over completely every several weeks, but past highlights have include a porcini macaron and fantastically tender octopus cooked with bay leaf and splashed with fish sauce. Sitting at the chef’s counter really makes you feel like you’re at a dinner party hosted by an incredibly thoughtful, inclusive host (there are vegan, vegetarian, and pescatarian versions of the tasting menu). Eating at Musang is like being guests at a pal’s dreamy dinner party, and we’re not just saying that because this Filipino restaurant is located inside a renovated craftsman. Throughout our many visits here, we’ve joined in on dining room-wide toasts and “Happy Birthday” singalongs, which would be enough to make Musang an exciting place to have a meal. But we’d also sit in a dark coat closet just to eat their exceptional takes on Filipino classics.

These arrive at the table almost too hot to touch, soft interior still puffed up from the wood oven. If you’re coming from downtown, there’s no better capsule of Seattle than a trip on the West Seattle water taxi for kalbi beef tacos or kalua pork sliders. The cheerful Korean-Hawaiian flavors that defined Seattle’s earliest food truck scene now hold down Marination’s most memorable brick-and-mortar, a former fish and chips shack by the water taxi station. The waterside location inspires an extra dash of Hawaii on the menu, like plate lunches and shave ice.

From peppery pork lumpia with a crackly shell dunked in chivey sawsawan to a flame-seared, peanut butter bagoong-basted short rib kare kare, these are dishes that make us want to stop everything and sing about them as if life were a movie musical. Said musical would feature hits such as “Jollibee’s Jealous,” a jazzy little number about their rice-dredged buttermilk fried chicken, and “My Ginataan Devotion,” a ballad for their crisp vegetables in coconut sauce and vegan shrimp paste. Tomo in White Center serves the kind of meal that makes us wish time travel were real.

This tiny omakase place on Capitol Hill first achieved fame for being so good it made the Seattle Times restaurant critic tear up. But you’re more likely to be laughing than crying at Keiji Tsukasaki’s counter. The former DJ cheerfully ditches the air of mystique some highly skilled sushi chefs seem to cultivate. He’ll drink a beer while he’s working, tell you which sake to drink with which course (and refill your glass with a heavy hand), all while abso-fucking-lutely wowing you with his food. The menu changes with the seasons but past highlights include sea snails served in their shells, toro topped with mushrooms for added depth of flavor, and a monkfish liver so rich and velvety it’s literally a dessert course. Cultural influences play a big part in the food scene in Seattle, and you can find some of the best Asian food in the United States here.

The expansive beer garden patio offers umbrellas, striking views, and a host of summery drinks. If you can’t steal away, a counter at Sixth and Virginia is an office lunch game changer. Any list of Seattle’s best restaurants might include one of a half dozen of the spots from Renee Erickson and her Sea Creatures group, each with European elegance, Pacific Northwest core, and a lively coolness. But Boat Bar, the seafoam and white ode to the French coast and its fruits de mer, marries the chilled oyster bar vibes of Erickson’s breakout star Walrus and the Carpenter to the hip, beefy Bateau right next door.

Fresh-shucked shellfish, seafood platters, and clam dip share the menu with artful salads, steak tartare, and a burger. That Boat Bar takes reservations and offers the option to order a steak from Bateau makes it the most crowd-pleasing of the Sea Creatures spots. This Piedmontese pasta specialist is the best Italian restaurant in Seattle, full stop.

Pilar’s pastry background means saving room for sweets is a requirement, and tarta de Santiago (Galician almond cake) goes nicely with MariPili’s many sherry choices. Erasto Jackson combines exacting barbecue with soul food staples and Jamaica’s tradition of seafood and jerked meats. Jackson puts in long hours smoking meat, cooking, and mixing his own rubs—and it shows.

The onions are so tender and flavor-packed you should be able to get a sandwich that’s just onions, and in fact, you can. Closer to Lake Union, at the corner of Eastlake Avenue and Louisa Street, Mioposto Eastlake runs a new 84-seat pizzeria. Aiming for a third-place vibe, the neighborhood pizzeria has a dog-friendly patio and a daily happy hour (3-6 p.m.) with $11-$15 Neapolitan pies. Our complete list of 46 new Seattle restaurants and coffeehouses is below — plus, we’ll welcome back some beloved haunts that said goodbye years ago.