Seattle Restaurants

  1. 5 Spot

    In Upper Queen Anne, everyone's favorite breakfast and hangover diner is the 5 Spot. Good strong coffee keeps the staff ultraperky. Try a local legend, like the red flannel hash, or get crazy with the wild-salmon cakes. On weekends, go early to avoid the lines snaking out the door - or go for lunch or dinner; this is an excellent place for a quiet meal featuring good American cooking.

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  2. 74th Street Ale House

    Some say this traditional ale house serves the best gumbo in town. It also has a couple of nitro taps, plenty of top-notch draught beers and a friendly, casual vibe.

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  3. Agua Verde Cafe

    Overlooking Portage Bay from the southern base of University Avenue, Agua Verde Café is a little gem serving fat tacos full of lemony cod, shellfish or portabella mushrooms, plus other Mexican favorites. There's usually a wait for a table, but you can have a drink and wait on the deck, or order from the walkup window. You can rent kayaks in the same building, in case you want to work off your dinner.

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  4. Alki Bakery

    This is a great place to grab a coffee and pastry, then sit down at a window seat to partake of the bakery's free wi-fi connection while digging your beachfront view. Cinnamon rolls and cookies reign supreme, but you can also get takeout sandwiches and salads to eat on the beach.

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  5. Alki Café

    One of Seattle's favorite spots for breakfast and brunch, the Alki serves fresh baked goods, seafood or vegetable-filled omelets and hotcakes. Once the beach crowd goes home, come here for a relaxed dinner of grilled fish, meats or pasta.

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  7. Athenian Inn

    There's nothing fancy about the Athenian, but it's a landmark and a bastion of unpretentious, frontier-era Seattle, a holdover from the days before Starbucks and Grand Central Bakery ( way before - it opened in 1909). It's been a bakery and a lunch counter and now seems to have settled in as a diner-bar combination where, especially in the off hours, you can snuggle into a window booth and gaze over Elliott Bay with a plate of fried fish.

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  8. Attic Alehouse & Eatery

    The Attic is a friendly neighborhood pub and a good spot for a beer 'n' burger.

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  9. B&O Espresso

    This casually elegant spot has loads of atmosphere and is a nice place to take a date for a leisurely dessert - regulars complain that items on the dinner menu arrive slowly and can be underwhelming. But the dessert case is like a window at Tiffany's, and you can get Turkish coffee here, as well as all kinds of tea, beer and wine and cocktails.

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  10. Baguette Box

    Handy when you just want to grab a quick lunch on the way to the Fremont Troll but don't want corporate fast food, this new sub shop offers a dozen kinds of sandwiches on fresh baguettes. The choices range from the decadent drunken chicken or leg-of-lamb to heart-healthy options like squash-and-eggplant or crispy tofu.

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  11. Bakeman's

    Legendary for its theatrical counter service and its roasted-fresh-daily turkey-and-cranberry sandwich, this subterranean diner demands that you know what you want and aren't afraid to ask for it.

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  13. Belltown Pizza

    Pizza and beer is great, but pizza and hard liquor works quicker. Started as a tiny bar serving New York-style pizza, Belltown Pizza has expanded a lot since then but maintains its original mission of good food and good fun at grownup hours (the bar's open until ). A large pie is enough to feed four hungry people. You can also get salads, pasta and sandwiches.

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  14. Beth's Café

    The best - or at least biggest - hangover breakfast in the world is at Beth's, and you can get it all day long. Key words: all-you-can-eat hash browns. You can't smoke in here any more, which, depending on your view, either ruins everything or makes it possible to enjoy Beth's infamous 12-egg omelet while breathing. Feel free to contribute a piece of scribbled artwork to the wall, preferably one that's strongly pro- or anti-pirate.

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  15. Bimbo's Bitchin' Burrito Kitchen

    A godsend for anyone prowling Capitol Hill late at night, Bimbo's slings fat tacos, giant burritos and juicy quesadillas until closing time. The tiny space is crammed with kitschy knickknacks, including velvet matador portraits, oil paintings with neon elements, and a hut-style thatched awning. Have a margarita with your meal or check out the adjoining Cha-Cha Lounge.

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  16. Bizzarro

    With a name like Bizzarro you'd never guess that this Wallingford hotbed is an excellent neighborhood Italian café. When you learn that it's actually someone's garage crammed with kitschy art and weird antiques, the name makes sense. Deliciously buttery pasta dishes, a good wine list and frequent live music add to the experience.

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  17. Black Bottle

    The huge crowd congregating outside the front door of this new Belltown restaurant is your first clue that something interesting is happening inside. The menu offers further clues: octopus carpaccio, lemon-squid salad, saffron risotto cakes. It's a spartanly decorated but warm-looking space, with friendly service and a chic atmosphere. Plus, you can't beat a Belltown menu where nothing tops around US$9 .

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  19. Boulangerie

    One of Seattle's best neighborhood bakeries, Boulangerie whips up French-style pastries and bread loaves delivered with a smile.

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  20. Buenos Aires Grill

    Tucked into a Belltown side street, this Argentinean steakhouse serves minty fresh cocktails, unusual salads (like hearts of palm) and huge portions of well-prepared steak. The cooking aromas will lure you in; the fun vibe and the staff's tendency to tango on request will make you linger.

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  21. Cactus

    Instantly cheery, this Mexican-Southwest restaurant - with branches in Kirkland and Alki Beach - is a fun place to go and pretend you're on a sunny vacation even if it's pouring rain. A margarita and a king salmon torta or butternut squash enchilada will scare off the grayest clouds, and the jaunty waitstaff and fun music do the rest.

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  22. Café Allegro

    This exposed-brick café, tucked in the alley between NE 42nd and NE 43rd Sts, east of University Way, helped launch the Seattle coffee scene. It's full of students scribbling over papers or mooning over professors. Upstairs has a large-windowed smoking area.

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  23. Café Campagne

    At this casual younger sibling of the upscale Campagne, the quality of the French-style cooking is what you'd expect from such a talented kitchen; the prices are more manageable, and you don't have to dress up for dinner.

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  25. Café Flora

    A longtime favorite for vegan and vegetarian food, Flora has a gardenlike feel and a creative menu, with dinner treats like seitan spring rolls and breaded coconut tofu dipped in chili sauce, a portobello French dip, caprese pizza and black-bean burgers. Or go for the hoppin' john fritters or tomato asparagus scrambles at brunch.

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  26. Café Septieme

    The fact that Septieme has gone from super-trendy to warmly familiar probably says as much about the changing neighborhood as the place itself. A pretty, Euro-style restaurant-bar with red walls and white-clothed tables, Septieme serves filling but sophisticated burgers, salads, pastas and fish dishes; the bacon-provolone cheeseburger is great. In nice weather, outdoor tables provide first-rate people-watching. It's equally comfortable as a morning coffee shop or a classy late-night cocktail bar.

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  27. Caffe Minnie's

    At the northern end of Belltown, almost in Lower Queen Anne, is this appealingly worn-in 1950s-style diner, a blessing for insomniacs, bar-crawlers, truckers, fugitives or those with the munchies after . You can have breakfast all day while looking out the window at a little cake shop and a chintzy costume-rental store.

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  28. Campagne

    You have to love a place that cut off part of its building to save the one tree in the market, as the bar at Campagne did. Nestled in the courtyard of the Inn at the market, this is a favorite among Seattle's traditional French restaurants. Try the pan-roasted sea scallops or the free-range beef tenderloin. Reservations are recommended. The lounge is open until midnight.

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  29. Canlis

    This place is old-school enough for either prom night or your grandma's birthday dinner. The traditional, classic food and service are both top-notch, and you can rest assured that none of the style is affected. Canlis has been around since 1950 and its authenticity shows. The view is lovely, too. Reservations are recommended, especially for weekends.

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