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. Portions prioritize quality over way-too-much quantity. And, to nobody’s surprise, meat dishes like key wat are also superb.

Bridgette Johnson opened her café in 2020, then made it feel instantly indispensable to the neighborhood. Don’t let the “juice bar” part of the name fool you; Central Cafe starts the day with breakfast burritos and espresso (plus juice and smoothies) and rolls on into grilled cheese, layer cake, and happy hour taquitos you can consume on the homey covered patio.

The story ofLuam Wersom working his way up from dishwasher to owner at this long-standing Latin American and Cuban restaurant is a great one. The food is just as remarkable. Dishes like vaca frita, tostones, and pescado en guiso—even the accompanying rice—bear the finesse of more than 20 years of experience. A 2025 move to a larger location has opened even more room for Wersom and his team's remarkable hospitality, as warm as the titular mojitos are cool.

Get thee to Wallingford for some goat curry, jerk chicken, aloo pie, and other dishes that express owner, and local legend, Pam Jacob’s Trinidadian roots. If you see her doubles (flatbreads made of curried chickpeas) surface as a special on Instagram, hustle to grab one ASAP.

After all these years, Seattle’s equivalent of Paris café culture still perches on Post Alley in Pike Place Market. Here chef Daisley Gordon does right by essential dishes—quiche, pan-roasted chicken, oeufs en meurette—and instills in his kitchen the sort of perfectionism that renders eventhe simplest asparagus salad or steak frites memorable. The patio hits the sweet spot for another hallmark of Parisian café culture: watching all the people go by.

Mark Fuller may be the culinary brains behind the General Tso’s chicken and honey walnut prawns. But co-owner Patric Gabre-Kidan is one of the savviest operators in town; he masterminded the bar, the cocktails, and the unrelentingly great atmosphere at this neo-dive inspired by Chinese American restaurants of yore.

Kristi Brown practices her own brand of Soul food, tethering a menu of grilled pork chops and fried catfish to Seattle and its crossroads of Asian flavors. Chinatown–International District influence delivers dishes like a po’boy–banh mi hybrid, pho-inspired gumbo, even maki rolls with cornmeal-crusted catfish. After years of catering, Brown created a neighborhood beacon in the Liberty Bank Building, the dining room’s modern edges softened with tufted booths, coppery ceiling panels, uproarious conversation, and a vintage back bar where Damon Bomar presides over drinks.Seattle Met’s 2021 Restaurant of the Year.

Every weekend, the shrimp and grits, biscuit sandwiches, pimento BLT, and old-school small-square waffles draw lines for brunch. But most of these favorites also surface during the weekday lunch hour, when the vibe inside the midcentury-toned dining room is way more relaxed.

Owners Yodit Seyoum and Filli Abdulkdra have put their own stamp on the former Amy’s Merkato. The menu’s huge and contains a diversity of Ethiopian and Eritrean food, including breakfast foul (even a vegan version), a traditional clay pot service for the shiro wot, and dishes like qateqna, a rarity on Seattle’s Habesha menus. All this, plus espresso and market shelves of bulk spices and pantry items.

Owner Theo Martin and Jamaican-born chef Bobby Laing have perfected the island food/soul food balance of oxtail stew and jerk chicken—or gumbo and tostones, fried green plantains smothered in garlic and red onions. Homespun desserts like 7Up pound cake are absolutely worth an order, provided they haven't sold out already. An oasis since 1978, Island Soul is the sort of restaurant to which nearby residents pledge lifelong allegiance, but that also merits a drive across town.

Capitol Hill’s restaurant scene changes by the minute, but chef Sabrina Tinsley’s northern Italian menu is a comforting constant on 12th Avenue (ditto that gorgeous space). Tinsley embraces the Emilia-Romagna region—land of prosciutto and parmigiano-reggiano and hearty meat sauce—and channels Capitol Hill at its energetic best. 

Bill Hart’s Southern-style pie shop isn’t just homey, it’s actually located in a house. The converted residence between two busy arterials even has a sign asking visitors to keep their feet off the chaise lounge in one of the side rooms. Another good rule at the Mt. Baker store is to purchase whatever the friendly counterperson tells you is fresh from the oven, whether it’s old-fashioned bean pie, chess pie, or the velvety, down-home sweet potato. It carries just the right amounts (meaning less than most versions) of sugar and spice.

The unassuming storefront on Rainier Avenue belies a curiosity-inducing menu riddled with plays on the classic dish—choose cod, catfish, salmon, halibut, oysters, prawns, clam strips, or even crab puppies with your chips. Owner Stevie Allen’s Louisiana roots show in the spice, broad range of fried creations, and the jazz soundtrack playing in the clean, red-white-and-blue space. 

This unassuming spot keeps limited hours and eschews delivery apps or even a website. Word of mouth is what propels Andrae Israel and Sharron Anderson’s unrivaled retro comfort food, from fried pork chop sandwiches to the Montana potatoes, an egg-topped skillet of cheese, peppers, and breakfast meat. It’s not hard to make food this decadent taste good; it takes real attention to make it this great. Anderson’s family once ran a chicken and waffle restaurant up on MLK, so any order that involves fried bird feels like a sure bet.

Owner Ed Washington has been scooping ice cream here for more than 40 years, since he opened the shop in 1984—and his children have been helping him out for nearly as long. This kid-friendly ice cream parlor also does a down-home, hand-made ground-beef burger topped with cheese, lettuce, pickle, onion, and optional bacon. Pssst: This is one of the few retailers purveying what may be the Northwest's best ice cream, Olympic Mountain (sold mostly in restaurants).

Owner Solomon Dubie brought Ethiopian coffee traditions to Seattle (a city with a significant Ethiopian population and full of Ethiopian coffee but little sense of Ethiopian coffee culture) inside a former Rainier Valley convenience store, then moved to the Central District (and has since expanded to the University District). While Avole serves a variety of coffee drinks and styles, it is named for the first brew of the first pot in Ethiopia’s traditional coffee ceremony.

Mother-daughter owners Barbara Collins and Lillian Rambus recently relocated from Madison Valley to a prominent new address on Jackson Street. And they brought along a bastion of family recipes. The pair makes marvelous buttermilk and corn-bread waffles, shrimp and grits, or just a simple breakfast with grits or home fries. But Simply Soulful’s most distinguishing quality might be its regulars, the sort of enthusiasts who won’t hesitate to extol (rightly) the biscuit and sweet potato pie to uninitiated diners. 

Co-owner Sachia Tinsley helped open her sister’s beloved Italian spot, Osteria La Spiga, on Capitol Hill, so it’s no surprise the menu at her café embraces European fare like fresh pastas (lasagna with ragù, pappardelle with braised lamb) and beef bourguignon. 

Former ER technician Rhonda Faison sells vivid cold-pressed juice by the growler or the takeaway cup from her counter in the heart of Pike Place Market. The lineup is full of seasonality (watermelon in summer, cranberry and pineapple come winter) but also lots of green juice.

The espresso drink usually known as an Americano goes by the name “Africano” here, a subtle clue that Eritrea-born owner Efrem Fesaha wants Africa’s vast and varied coffee culture to get the recognition it deserves. Boon Boona sources coffee from small farmers across Africa, and roasts its beans at its Renton facility. Additional locations include Redmond, the University District, and near Seattle University.

A longtime storefront on Cherry offers up injera made with care, a lengthy menu that includes breakfast(!), genuine service, and a good-size garden patio during warmer months.

Inside this unexpectedly roomy Jamaican restaurant and lounge, set back from Jefferson Street like a secret, owners Carlene Comrie and Dwayne Blake ply Seattle’s decidedly non-Caribbean environs with big, bold flavors. An order of fiery-tender jerk wings, chicken or goat or shrimp in a bright curry, or the classic beef patty (a pastry with seasoned meat), and tender plantains pack serious transportive powers, even when it comes in a takeout clamshell. 

A fantastic soul food restaurant, once hidden inside the historic Royal Esquire Club, now just up the street in its own space. Mother-daughter owners Talya Miller and LaShon Lewis dish up shrimp and grits, fried pork chops, oxtail and rice, gizzards, decadent mac and cheese, and a great meatloaf sandwich. Yes, the strawberry lemonade is as good as everyone says. 

Chef Honey Mohamed and her mother Marian Ahmed (yes, she’s Mama Sambusa) serve those titular savory pastries, as well as sandwiches, salads, and pasta. Dishes bear the names of family members, and the assurance that the entire menu is halal. Mohamed’s cheesecakes are unexpected and fun and, wow, the kitchen will fry up those samosas until 4am.

After years of selling his okazu pan (Japanese-style fried buns stuffed with curry or creative liberties like salmon, lentils, or barbecue pork) via local coffee shops, Harold Fields now takes direct online orders from his kitchen in Rainier Beach. Submit advance orders for pickup—including the weekend-only beignets, dusted with spiced powdered sugar—and make sure to trythe potato chips, too.

The former chainlet has settled into a single location with a ton of great lunch specials plus a vast and versatile lineup (combo meals! meat by the pound!), all liberally doused in a house sauce more tangy than sweet—no wonder Jones sells it by the enormous jar. Ribs and brisket are more homestyle than high-concept, and the corn bread is as indulgent as any dessert (though that’s no reason to skip the pie).

When first-time restaurateur Tina Fahnbulleh moved to Seattle, she missed the flavors of West Africa—of palm oil and the shrimp pepper sauce called shito—and correctly assumed others did, too. Her elegant First Hill space, with minimalist decor and bright white walls, quickly filled with a steady stream of regulars diving into her grilled branzino on a bed of grated cassava, and newcomers sitting down for plates of fried plantains, veggie handpies, and peri peri wings.

Despite the name of his Bothell restaurant, David Hayward isn’t beholden to a particular style—the Charleston native cultivates his own brand of barbecue, smoking brisket and pulled pork over a variety of woods and making his own sauces. 

Co-owner and executive chef Dre Neeley and wife/partner Pepa Brower have built a Vashon Island destination, with a menu that cross-references European and Northwest cuisine, with ample dashes of the American South. Neeley is a chef with stamina, able to shift from burgers to souvlaki to tonkatsu sandwiches. 

Rodney Hines isn’t entirely comfortable describing Métier as Washington’s first Black-owned brewery (“We have a horrible history of not telling everyone’s story, right?”) but he’s undeniably a force, helping to break the beer industry out of a very white box. His industrial Woodinville taproom pours a range of reliably great beers; he also has a handsome Seattle taproom at 26^th and Cherry, which immediately became a neighborhood hub, and a partnership with the Mariners in Steelheads Alley.

With its innovative takes on Nuyorican cuisine and laid-back beach vibes, Lenox brings Seattle’s restaurant scene an exhilarating breath of fresh sea air and a free hand in pouring samples of the clarified piña colada. The palm-print wallpaper, rattan light fixtures, and rum-soaked cocktail list transport diners straight to La Placita, the party-hardy Puerto Rico neighborhood for which one drink is named. The cuisine honors the diaspora that brought Caribbean cuisine to Harlem, where Lenox, the avenue, brims with adobo and sazón. At Lenox, the restaurant, those same spice mixes (made in-house, naturally) season the lechon, the undisputed star of the menu, and its shatteringly crisp skin protecting the tender meat rolled inside.

An early graduate of thePastry Project, Hana Yohannestook what she learned and immediately applied it to creating Shikorina, first opening in the Central District in 2021, then moving to Capitol Hill. Her community-first ethos, sustainability mission, and use of local ingredients are remarkable, but get overshadowed by her ombre cakes, berbere caramel cookies, and housemade Pop-Tarts—little envelopes of tender, buttery pie crust brimming with organic, housemade strawberry jam.

Ryan Faniel and Alison Soike took on more than just a restaurant when they bought the Lock Spot in 2021; they took on a history. The nearly century-old restaurant that sits just outside the Ballard Locks bears a history of welcoming in the working fishermen of the neighborhood, even if these days it leans more toward hearty brunches and cozy chowders for hungover locals and tired tourists.

Amy Abera is the chef; her husband, Delish Lemma, runs front of house. Together, these two Addis Ababa natives have built exactly the neighborhood restaurant you want down the street: chill, but with atmosphere. Friendly, but quite serious about the quality of its food. Abera’s kitchen puts out one stacked veggie platter and seldom-found dishes like bozena shero, essentially shiro with beef (according to Lemma, it’s popular in northern Ethiopia). A menu deeply rooted in tradition displays a few Americanized flourishes, like appetizer rolls of injera filled with vegetables. Customers in the lounge area get to dine off traditional mesobs, those tall, colorful baskets that emphasize the celebration inherent to communal eating.

The upstairs corner of Jet City Harley-Davidson bears little resemblance to Ms. Helen Coleman’s legendary restaurant at 23^rd and Union, where she fed her soul food to the likes of Richard Pryor, Ernestine Anderson, and Ken Griffey Jr. But the brisket Coleman’s daughter, JesDarnel Henton, now serves in this unlikely location hasn’t changed at all, the meltingly tender chunks served over a classic mac and cheese. Nor have the smothered potatoes, shrimp and grits, and Sunday dinner of pan-seared steak with gravy.

No restaurants served egusi soup when Chiedu Idayi moved to Seattle in 2011. He and his mother set out to fix that when they began a Nigerian pop-up in 2022. Two years later, Idayi opened the city's first Nigerian restaurant in the huge and charming former Altstadt space, filling it with the powerful spiced beef suya. Meat pies and the aptly named puff-puffs—fried dough balls—work well for scarfing down before a game at the nearby stadiums, but the signature soups and eponymous jollof rice are worth sticking around for.

The restaurant’s name alludes to grandmothers‚ both in general and those ofGrann founders Reginald Jacob Howell and pitmaster Denzel Johnson. But while the pair learned to cook from the women they honor in the name, the food and setting feel modern, professional, and exciting, fitting for the dynamic duo of chefs-owners as they draw on Southern BBQ, Creole, and Indian (Creole with a big C here, meaning the New Orleans culture) traditions. The best dishes—pimento puri, snapper swimming in a chili mustard oil and “Holy Trinity” sauce—feel like a creole (little c), drawing on multiple sources for inspiration as it evolves into something totally new, delicately woven from its origins.

Vincent Davis’s strip mall doughnut paradise gets a lot of attention for unexpected flavors like torched buttercream or peach cobbler or chicken and waffles, but his combos never feel like gimmicks. Zuri’s makes its own icing—coffee, horchata, ube, mango—and produces a rotating cast of 50-plus doughnut varieties. Davis applies a similar enthusiasm to the Kona coffee and providing allergen-free options.

Two veterans of the Whidbey Island restaurant scene joined forces with former Delancey chef Seddy Livingston to open this charming Coupeville pizza spot and its partner bar. Delancey fans will find familiarity in the wood-fired vegetables and char-mottled pies, made here with island spirit—and ingredients—as part of a much larger menu.