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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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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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Attic Alehouse & Eatery
The Attic is a friendly neighborhood pub and a good spot for a beer 'n' burger.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Catfish Corner
For traditional, inexpensive Southern-style fare, head to this no-frills corner hangout. Catfish strips are the specialty, and you can accessorize them with all the trimmings, including collard greens or red beans and rice, while meeting the neighbors and catching up on local gossip.
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Dick's Drive-In
Sometimes you don't want gourmet. Sometimes you just want a big, greasy burger at , with fries and a shake, and you want it all for less than around US$5 . At Dick's, you can have it - plus a bonus sideshow of parking-lot hijinks that peak right after the bars close. It's not just fast food; it's an institution. There are other locations around town; their bright orange signs are hard to miss.
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Elliott Bay Café
This cozy crypt underneath Elliott Bay Book Co is a clean well-lit place to settle in with a book and a bowl of soup or salad, or a Bukowski's Ham on Rye sandwich (named for the grisly old barfly poet), and browse the book-lined walls while you eat.
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Ezell's Fried Chicken
There's fast food and then there's fast food. This is the good kind. Ezell's dishes out crispy, spicy chicken and equally scrumptious side dishes like coleslaw and sweet-potato pie. This place boomed after Oprah Winfrey hyped the fried chicken here as some of the best in the country.
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Farestart Restaurant
Now in an attractive and much larger new space, FareStart continues to serve substantial meals while benefiting the community. The ever-changing lunch menu is pretty darn gourmet for the price - try the veggie reuben, or a flatiron steak in blue-cheese sauce. All proceeds from lunch and the popular Thursday-night Guest Chef dinners support the FareStart program, which provides services for the disadvantaged and homeless. Reservations recommended.
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Hattie's Hat
This might be the best place in town to make that ever-so-delicate transition from weekend breakfast to dinner and drinks - you can get coffee with eggs and toast all day long, and nobody will find it odd when you switch to beer, even if it's not quite noon yet. The dinner menu is, unsurprisingly, not super ambitious, but the food is plenty filling and better than your average greasy spoon.
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Hunt Club
The Hunt Club ought to be on the shortlist if you're looking for a special-occasion, top-end restaurant. The setting is ultra posh and absolutely beautiful: an intimate mahogany-paneled dining room shimmering with candles and decked with flowers. The food is equally stellar, featuring local lamb, fish and steaks from sustainable farms, accentuated with inventive sauces and regional produce. Reservations are recommended.
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Kingfish Café
The Coaston sisters' café, opened in 1997, turns out fried chicken that has locals lined up for miles, every night. Don't forget to save room for the sweet-potato pie and Red Velvet Cake.
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Matt's In The Market
A beloved spot that's been closed for renovations, the expanded Matt's was due to reopen as this guide was being researched; check the website for updates.
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New Orleans Creole Restaurant
Enjoy some live Dixieland jazz with your homemade gumbo or jambalaya in one of the coolest spaces in Pioneer Square. This bourbon-heavy institution serves unpretentious food in an attractive space (warm lighting, exposed brick walls decorated with portraits of jazz greats) that's kid-friendly until . There's live music most nights.
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Old Town Ale House
This cavernous and warmly lit red-brick pub serves humongous sandwich 'wedges,' stacks of delicious fries and microbrewed beer in a convivial atmosphere.
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Orange King
At this old-fashioned greasy spoon, miraculously, you can still get a burger and fries for less than around US$4 . It's not gourmet, but it's fast and cheap.
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Paragon Bar & Grill
The Paragon is a bastion of American regional cooking, with a specialty in grilled fish and updated classics. Try the avocado shrimp cakes, either as a starter or in a sandwich, or go with a classic cheeseburger. There's an open fireplace, a lively bar scene (the bar's open until ) and live music most nights.
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R & L Home Of Good Bar-B-Que
You can't get within a block of this little neighborhood joint without drooling from the smell of barbecue. The storefront looks a little unpromising, but inside there's a wood-paneled cafeteria with curtained windows, a few tables and a counter for takeout orders.
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Red Mill Burgers
This place is constantly collecting accolades for grilling up the best burger in town, and it also fries up the fattest, yummiest onion rings. There's usually a line out the door but it moves along quickly.
