This Piedmontese pasta specialist is not just the best Italian restaurant in Seattle. It’s the best restaurant, full stop. Bold? Sure, but so is the mountain of silky sage butter tajarin or braised rabbit agnolotti you eat by candlelight after an early December sunset, or fried zucchini blossoms snacked between gulps of tangerine-tinted paper plane cocktails come summertime.
This eight-seat wood grain counter in Hillman City is more than a 10-course dinner inspired by the owners’ Filipino heritage. Each dish represents a part of history that connects our city to Filipino culture, and Archipelago only uses ingredients exclusively sourced throughout the region. After two hours, you’ll walk away from Archipelago with a belly full of outstanding lechon (crispy skin and all) and a newfound appreciation for both Filipino food and the surrounding PNW.
A night at this institution, run by Shiro Kashiba who was trained by Jiro Ono (yeah, that Jiro) is going to be perfect, and the couple hundred dollars you’ll spend on raw fish will be worth it, whether you’re at a table or you showed up before they open to secure seats at the bar. It’s all a blur of sake, soy-brushed tuna, silky uni, fried prawn heads, seared flounder fin, Norwegian smoked mackerel, and a sweet egg finale that deserves its own extended tribute on our NPR affiliate.
A meal inside this quiet soba-focused Japanese restaurant in Fremont can be reserved for a massively special night out that’s disguised as a tame one. There’s a relaxed mood in the dining room that’s most appropriate for knocking things back like fresh sea urchin and marinated ikura on a delicately battered shiso leaf, chewy buckwheat noodles swirled in potent curry broth streaked with melted mozzarella strands, and spicy habanero-infused plum sake.
Eating at Musang is like being guests at a pal’s dreamy dinner party, and we’re not just saying that because this Filipino restaurant is located inside a renovated craftsman. From peppery pork lumpia with a crackly shell dunked in chivey sawsawan to a flame-seared, peanut butter bagoong-basted short rib kare kare, these are dishes that make us want to stop everything and sing about them as if life were a movie musical.
You’ll have one of the best meals all year at Beast & Cleaver, a tiny butcher shop in Ballard. This isn’t in reference to the porterhouse you could pick up and grill at home, but rather to their after-hours wine bar nights on Tuesdays through Thursdays. With a menu of expertly cooked steaks, snacks, and surprises, this operation makes for one of the most unique dining experiences in Seattle.
Whether you’re with a big group toasting with glasses of prosecco and snacking on fontina-stuffed arancini, or having a solo meal at the bar headlined by a haystack of cream-spiked pappardelle bolognese, you’re in for a meal that’s just as thrilling on the first visit as it is the twentieth. Whatever you do, an order of fettunta and the spinach lasagna layered with pesto, velvety besciamella, and marinara must make their way to your table and mouth.
This monthly-rotating tasting menu spot coaxes intense flavor out of seemingly simple ingredients. A vegetarian barley porridge with eggplant and dill pollen could take on any meaty stew. A rich XO sauce underneath seared scallops is the best application of geoduck this city has ever seen (the bar was not high, but still). Hot, lunchtime-only arepas are immensely comforting and come stuffed with stracciatella and prosciutto as popcorn-scented steam floats around.
Most of Seattle’s best sit-down dinner spots are a pain to get into—you’ve got to reservation-stalk here, wait a long time there, and the cycle continues. That’s not the case at Familyfriend. This casual Guamanian spot on Beacon Hill is open every day, has little-to-no wait, and every dish on the menu is a hit. We self-soothe with coconut corn soup, daydream about beach vacations via tostadas topped with lemon-soaked octopus and shrimp, and chomp into the best cheeseburger in the entire city.
Whether you’re looking to slurp your first oyster or your 6,387th, the best place to shoot them back is at The Walrus And The Carpenter. If raw bivalves aren't your thing, we can also vouch for the delicate cornmeal-dredged ones dipped in an excellent cilantro aioli—as well as all of the other small plates like scallop crudo with yuzu kosho salsa verde, beef shank terrine with fermented hot sauce, and goat cheese with apricot jam.