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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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Cedars Restaurant
Cedars serves enormous curries and vindaloos so smooth and creamy you want to dive into them. Eat here just once and you will dream about it later. There's also a great selection of Mediterranean specialties like shish kebabs, falafel and gyros, much of which is vegetarian. The covered wooden patio is a cool hangout in nice weather.
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Chaco Canyon Cafe
Just below Cedars, this comfy Southwestern-style nook offers a menu that's all vegan, 90% organic and almost half raw-food. New to the raw-food movement? Try the spicy Thai grinder or the gluten-free kiwi lime tart. There's also a long list of vegan sandwiches and drinks, and a little window by the entrance where you can pick up vegan, gluten-free, wheat-free baked treats from Flying Apron organic bakery on your way in or out.
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Chandler's Crabhouse & Fresh Fish Market
All windows, with a great view of Lake Union, Chandler's may feel a bit like a chain restaurant (because it is) but it's the reliable place to go if you want to sit near the water and dine on ocean-fresh seafood. You can also buy fish or crab to ship home.
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Cherry Street Coffee House
Relaxing and friendly, this high-ceilinged coffee shop (part of a small local chain) will make you feel like you live in the neighborhood. Curl up in the bay window seat with a yummy salad, sandwich (around US$4 to around US$6 ) or smoothie, or start your day here with coffee and a bagel (bagels $1 to $3). Beer is also served.
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Chez Shea
Hidden in one of the market's many corners, Chez Shea combines great views over Puget Sound with spectacular multicourse meals, making this one of the city's most romantic restaurants. The chef's tasting menu (eight courses, around US$72 ) makes the rounds of basically every edible thing to be found in the Pacific Northwest, depending on season. The attached Shea's Lounge now has a three-course menu (around US$25 ), if you're not quite ready to commit.
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China Gate
Like House of Hong, the China Gate now has all-day dim sum. The Hong Kong-style menu offers a couple hundred choices, and the building is interesting in its own right - it was built in 1924 as a Peking Opera house.
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Chinook's At Salmon Bay
Across the Ballard Bridge in the Fisherman's Terminal, Chinook's is where fish practically leap out of the water and into the kitchen. You can't get it much fresher than this, and the selection of fish and range of preparations is vast. Another plus is watching the fishing fleet coming in or fishers mending their nets from the massive restaurant windows or the sundeck in summer.
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Cyber-Dogs
One of those all-things-to-some-people places, like Easy Street in West Seattle, Cyber-Dogs is an all-veggie hot-dog stand, espresso bar, internet café and youngster hangout/pickup joint. It advertises by way of miniature hand-scribbled-and-stapled chapbooks with cute indie-rock-style cartoons. The best part, though is trying the insanely imaginative non-meat 'not-dogs' with tastes-better-than-it-sounds toppings (eggplant, potatoes, hummus).
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Dahlia Lounge
Owner Tom Douglas began fusing flavors at this Seattle institution in the late 1980s and single-handedly made Seattleites more sophisticated; his empire has grown a lot since then, but the flagship restaurant remains a local favorite. There's a bakery next door where you can pick up one of the Dahlia's fabulous desserts to go. Reservations are recommended.
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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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Espresso Vivace Roasteria
Asked what's the best coffee in Seattle, most people will mention Vivace. There's also a walkup window on Broadway, if you're in a real hurry for your caffeine fix.
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Etta's Seafood
Famous for its gourmet seafood brunch, including such mouth-waterers as poached eggs with Dungeness crab and chipotle hollandaise, Etta's is a reliable and classy place with a fish-focused dinner menu - you can never go wrong with the king salmon.
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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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Floating Leaves Teahouse
Supposedly the first authentic Chinese teahouse in Seattle, Floating Leaves is modeled after the teahouses of the owner's native Taiwan. A contemplative place, it holds classes on tea culture and has occasional live music.
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Flowers
One of the most stylish places in the U District, Flowers offers a vegetarian buffet until , and dinners include meat choices. The lunch menu includes 20 sandwiches, each around US$5 . After hours, it becomes an inviting place to sip a cocktail, munch on an appetizer and 'do homework' with a promising study partner.
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Flying Fish
Still the reigning king of fish dishes in Seattle, or at least in Belltown, Flying Fish is a reliable spot for seafood. Combine several small plates, share a platter of oysters, or go with a main dish, such as yellowtail with eggplant and soy ginger sauce, or monkfish in coconut peanut sauce. The dining room is bustling and energetic, the service friendly and top-notch. The menu changes daily depending on what's fresh.
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Fx Mcrory's Steak, Chop & Oyster House
This vast Pioneer Square landmark across from the sports stadiums is a weird blend of class and ass - it's a majestic old space with a bar on one side, fancy dining room on the other and an oyster bar in between, but the ball-cap/jock quotient gets high on days when the Seahawks or Mariners play. McRory's claims to have the largest selection of bourbon in the world - believable when you ogle the pyramid of booze behind the bar. Tuck into classic fare like prime rib or Dungeness crab, or share a seafood platter of raw oysters on the half-shell, smoked salmon, prawns, crab, Penn Cove mussels and scallops.
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Georgian
A treat above treats, the Georgian at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel is one of the most imposing restaurants in the city - the ornate high ceilings and dripping chandeliers, shiny silver and gilt details will have you swooning. The food is equally eye-catching and inspired by regional ingredients, such as scallops with truffles or roasted sea bass. Service is tops here, and it's one of the few places where Seattleites tend to be sharply dressed.
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Globe Café & Bakery
Even non-veggies go out of their way for the Globe's incredibly rich vegan food, especially the tempeh-and-yam gyros dripping with onions and tahini sauce. The industrial gallery-type space attracts a ragtag clientele of workmen, young punks, homeless people and middle-aged intellectual poets to its low booths within funky art-covered walls. Hipster boys in an open kitchen churn out tofu scrambles, french toast and sandwiches to die for.
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Grand Central Baking Co Soup & Sandwich $
This artisan bakery in the Grand Central Arcade builds sandwiches on its own peasant-style loaves and baguettes, with soups, salads, pastries and other treats.
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Green Leaf
A tiny nook with shiny black tables, this cozy joint is known for inexpensive noodle dishes packed with flavor, as well as huge bowls of traditional or vegetarian pho and a swoon-inducing version of bahn xeo - sort of a cross between a pancake and an omelet.
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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.
