📍 Added in October: Would some New Yorkers take issue with the fact that a slice at Big Mario’s is a full one-sixth of a pie instead of one-eighth? Would they be annoyed by the crackery crust of a folded slice? Would they refuse to pay $5 for a slice? Sure. But that’s okay. It just means more not-quite-New-Yorky NY pizza for us. Fast, casual service is Big Mario’s hallmark. I love that you can walk in, place an order, get it handed to you on a paper plate, and be out the door in under a minute.

📍 Added in October: 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.

📍 Added in October: Time was when it was very difficult to score a pizza from Moto. The Detroit-style deep-pan pizzas, with their characteristic caramelized cheese “skirt" and wild toppings, would be pre-ordered and sell out months in advance. These days, with an operations manual as finely tuned as his pizza recipe, chef-owner Lee Kindell operates five locations (including one in T-Mobile Park right by Section 314). More Detroit pizza for all is a good thing.

📍 Added in October: Chef Brendan McGill’s new Bainbridge Island fine-dining spot, Seabird, is an ode to the ocean, whose flavor runs like a tide through every dish on the menu. There’s albacore ceviche with sea buckthorn and sea beans, plump mussels steamed in corn curry, glisteningly fresh oysters served with a melon granita, and their signature crab toast: picked Dungeness piled on a slice of sourdough, all under a light and frothy blanket of emulsified Beecher’s cheese.

📍 Added in October: DOCE sells traditional yeasted doughnuts (excellent ones at that) inspired by the flavors of Latin America. The tres leches version is filled with condensed milk custard; another has the classic combo of guava and cheese. My favorite is filled with passion-fruit pastry cream and served with a crème brûlée-style crackly sugar top. I love how the cracks get pushed into the stretchy yeasted dough underneath!

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.

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.

Billiard Hoang looks like a pool hall from the outside, but walk in, and you'll find that half the space is a restaurant worth visiting. I love the rich, gelatinous oxtail pho (I'm a sucker for all things oxtail), with extra-thin and bouncy rice noodles and lots of fresh herbs, as well as their grilled pork banh mi. It's a classic version with juicy strips of grilled pork (with plenty of crispy caramelized bits) and fresh vegetables stuffed into a crisp rice-flour baguette.