📍 Added in November: West of Chicago Pizza Company’s deep dish might be its more popular offering, but it’s the cracker-thin, square-cut thin crust that is the sleeper hit on the menu. Pair that with an Italian beef—thinly sliced beef that’s braised to melting tenderness and stuffed into a roll topped with Marconi giardiniera—and you’ve got a true native Chicagoan experience. Ask for the sandwich “dipped” in beef jus if you value flavor over stain-free clothing.

📍 Added in November: The diner-in-a-record-shop atmosphere at Easy Street Records is top-notch, as are the biscuits, which are light and airy, even when topped with a couple of fried eggs and a ladle of sausage gravy that manages to stay loose and saucy. Sausage gravy can often be paste-like, but not here. Add a side of golden-brown, crisp-yet-creamy hash browns for a breakfast that will keep you filled until dinnertime.

📍 Added in November: Real tacos al pastor cooked on a trompo in front of an open flame in Seattle? It seemed too good to be true, yet there I was, standing under a portable halogen floodlight, tucking into a plate of tacos stuffed with charred spiced pork that the cook had just shaved directly off the spit. Tender, juicy, and packed with flavor, eating them on the street and paying in cash are part of the seasoning.

📍 Added in November: Even though husband-and-wife team Ryan and Leanna Lengle are not native New Yorkers, the two locations of their Slice Box Pizza (the original SoDo and the newer Magnolia Village) serve up some of the New Yorkiest New York slices in Seattle. The triangle slices are foldable and crisp yet tender, with a bright tomato sauce and just the right amount of aged mozzarella. But their Sicilian squares, with their light-as-a-cloud texture, are what have me going back.

📍 Added in November: After gaining a rabid following at farmers markets, Backyard Bagel opened its brick-and-mortar in Fremont at the end of summer. The bagels are of a modern, less-dense-than-New-York variety, with an eggshell-thin crisp crust and a crumb that is chewy yet tender. If you’re familiar with Mt. Bagel’s offerings, these are in the same delicious vein. Don’t ask for them toasted—the bagels are served so fresh that toasting would only detract from their glorious texture.

Nobody would say that Ba Bar—with locations in Capitol Hill, South Lake, and U Village—flies under the radar, but the slow-roasted duck suprème, served with broken rice, pickled carrots and daikon, pineapple, and nuoc cham, may well be one of the best deals in town. Few restaurants serve duck as juicy and crisp, let alone for only $21. The whole menu is packed with value, but the bún bò huế (spicy beef noodles) and chewy caramelized pork floss cookies are extra special.

Bagel Oasis has been delivering hot, fresh, crackly, chewy New York-style bagels since well before the new wave of bagel shops hit Seattle after the pandemic. They aren’t the flashiest bagels in town, but they’ve got the malty flavor of a true New York bagel. I do wish there was more everything on their everything (the toppings sort of slough off as you eat), but otherwise, it’s hard to fault this bagel. It’s nice to have a good, solid weekday bagel shop.

Bar Del Corso in Beacon Hill is simply outstanding in every way. The pizza is crisp, leopard-spotted, and lightly chewy like the best in Naples; the baccala fritters are whipped and light as a feather; and the prosciutto is properly aged and sliced paper thin so it melts in your mouth. Come in the summer and sit on the back patio to sip perfect Negronis while eating bits of charred octopus and whatever the seasonal vegetable specials are.

With a menu that ranges from very dry-aged to extremely dry-aged, a peek-inside showcase dry-aging room, and a chalkboard menu that offers virtually every tender cut on the steer, Bateau is like no other steakhouse I’ve been to. I enjoy sitting at the bar (where I’ve never needed a reservation) and taking my time to linger over the beef-heavy tasting menu (think: beef lardo melting over brown butter barley). They have an especially good NA cocktail program.

This is a fantastic butcher shop where the butchers truly know the meat, from the cut, to the diet, to the breed, to the aging process (many months long in some cases!). If you’re the type who likes a steak with character (and are willing to pay for it), this is the shop for you. For a more hands-off experience, book a table at The Peasant, a posh, meat-focused restaurant inside the shop (open Thursday–Sunday) that handily dispels the notion that British food is bland.