Seattle Best Of Awards

Best Of

Food & Drink

Best Eco-Friendly Lunch

Homegrown
If you're looking for a green lunch�the eco kind of green, that is�Homegrown should top your list. The Fremont sandwich and salad shop is owned by two 20-something guys, Brad Gillis and Ben Friedman, who take sustainable eating very seriously. Not only do they provide a checklist of ingredients on their wall-sized chalkboard, indicating which are local, organic, and sustainable… More >>
Best Food-Related Comeback

The Egg Yolk
One of the amazing things about our society's addiction to nutritional advice is how long debunked notions stick around. Take the great cholesterol ban of the 1980s. Study after study has proved that dietary cholesterol intake and blood cholesterol levels aren't necessarily related, but health-conscious Americans still order scrambled egg whites and substitute margarine for butter. Not in the bistro… More >>
Best New Burger With A View

The Lookout
Barely a month old, The Lookout is striving to be your favorite neighborhood hangout, and has the easy-eating burger to prove it. It's a messy, juice-dripping, minimally dressed, hand-held meal in a soft sesame-seed bun that will fill your belly without too much fuss. The Lookout is the downscaled reincarnation of Artemis, whose owners, Oscar Velasco-Schmitz and Boris Gorodnitsky, saw… More >>
Best Place to Re-Embrace the "Wrap"

Shalimar
Why the tube-shaped lunch took off in the mid-'90s is still baffling. There's the obvious Freudian interpretation, but sometimes a "wrap" with Thai chicken and Peruvian chile-infused rice is just a long, fat, tortilla-wrapped bad idea. The naan sandwiches at Shalimar in the U District take the tubewich places you'd actually want it to go. Shalimar bases them on boti… More >>
Best Corner for Sugar Addicts

The Intersection of Northeast 45th Street and Wallingford Avenue
Wallingford residents are coming to realize that in the middle of their sleepy neighborhood lies a veritable Bermuda Triangle of sugary hazards. At the intersection of Northeast 45th Street and Wallingford Avenue is a corridor of the city that's like a sweet tooth's version of heaven and a dieter's easiest route to disaster�with Molly Moon's ice cream, Trophy Cupcakes, High… More >>
Best Place for Free Happy-Hour Food

Il Fornaio
Downtown's Italian chain eatery Il Fornaio isn't on most people's list of cheap eats. Except during happy hour, that is, when drinks are moderately priced (beer $3, wine $4) and the food is 100% free. In the bar, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, the staff sets out a small buffet of whatever the chef feels like making�usually… More >>
Best Hospital Cafeteria

Harborview's Ninth Avenue Cafe
Sooner or later, you're going to the hospital. Not necessarily because of a car crash or cancer, but more likely to visit friends or family during a routine procedure. You're worried, you're bored, you need a place to sit down...and eat. Eating is healthy. Eating heals. And since they're open 24/7, there's a lot of eating going on in hospitals.… More >>
Best Place to Take a Vegetarian Without Sacrificing Your Omnivorous Ethics

Nguyen family restaurants Tamarind Tree and Long
For those of us trying to be good, ethical omnivores, according to the current fashion, vegetarians can be a real test of one's patience when dining out. Here you are, proclaiming your eagerness to eat tripe and sweetbreads (we should really respect the whole animal, after all) and your newfound enthusiasm for all the "little fish" recommended by sustainable-seafood advocates,… More >>
Best Onion Rings

Red Mill
At Red Mill, they don't serve onion rings so much as thick chunks of onion with a hole in the center. And the onion-to-breading ratio is the inverse of what you would get at, say, Red Robin. Your body needs a bag of these about as much as it does the milkshake you just ordered. But you've gotta do something… More >>
Best Place to Buy Your Pork Belly

Fero's Meat Market
Hey, did you hear that bacon is over? I was as surprised to hear bacon was en vogue as I was to hear it was passé. Those of you less concerned with keeping up with the latest foodie trends (goat? seriously?) than with ensuring that your breakfast, lunch, and dinner servings of bacon are as crisp, fork-ready, and flavorful as… More >>
Best Bar for Spending Way More than Expected

Spur Gastropub
For those of us who like our bar food cheap and greasy and our cocktails classic and simple, the idea of a fancy-schmancy place such as Spur Gastropub makes us wanna get drunk and throw up on someone in protest. And yet, after sampling one of this angular, sparsely decorated haunt's $9-plus signature cocktails (try the absinthe-based "Lover's Lock") and… More >>
Best Hometown Fizzy Mixer

Dry Soda
You don't like it too sweet, but still love the thrill of those pinprick bubbles. Lucky for you, Seattle's got its own grown-up pop, Dry Soda, which makes a great cocktail mixer or straight-up refresher. Founded by Sharelle Klaus, the company was created in 2005 to fill the need for a sophisticated non-alcoholic beverage. Dry's flavor lineup is as short… More >>
Best Omelettes (and Mimosas!)

The Rusty Pelican Cafe
The Rusty Pelican Café possesses a charm similar to that of an eccentric grandmother's home. Its walls, curtains, and tablecloths are a matching, jarring shade of green. Ceramic pigs, potted plants, and I Love Lucy memorabilia occupy every flat surface. Mind you, these aren't your regular ham-and-cheddar omelettes (though you can order those too). We're talking succulent Dungeness crab meat… More >>
Best Gluttonous Brunch Experience

Brown Bag Cafe
"No sissy food here!" reads the sign outside Brown Bag Café. That would be a gross understatement. Even a famished lumberjack would struggle to clean his plate at this family-owned restaurant. (Fittingly, the first Brown Bag in Carnation was a hit with loggers during the '80s.) The hardy skillets weigh about five pounds apiece. The bread, made fresh each morning… More >>
Best Place to Get a Plate of Pastrami and Mustard

I Love NY Deli
In the nearly two years since I love NY Deli opened, it's been a work in progress. At first it was little more than a cubbyhole, hardly big enough to hold one of their reubens. Then they added a deli case, more knishes, and a menu that includes breakfast. But from day one, owner Jon Jacobs and his crew have… More >>
Best Cheap Shots

On the Boards
Last year, On the Boards revamped its house bar, which is open for one hour before a show and during intermissions. Their microbrews and half-decent wine? Nothing new. But On the Boards' $5-a-shot pours of top-shelf liquors are revolutionary: Bulleit small-batch bourbon, Ketel One vodka, Cuervo Reposado tequila. Most of those spirits cost $3 more at nearby bars. (Tradition demands,… More >>
Best Addition to California Avenue

Zeek's
Ask any red-blooded resident of West Seattle's less-trendy burgs what his or her top food complaint is, and half of them will tell you it's the lack of adequate pizza-delivery service. To take nothing away from White Center Spaghetti House, Garlic Jim's, Olympia, or Luciano's, the fact that the Junction franchise of Best of Seattle® Lifetime Achievement Award winner Pagliacci's… More >>
Best Red Velvet Cake in a Red Dye–Flooded City

Bella Dolce
Just as sodas sweetened with sugar are now acceptable to drink in this town�though it's still unclear by what logic the natural-soda industry convinced us that cane sugar is that much better for us than high-fructose corn syrup�a certain segment of the food-loving population has now added red food dye back to their aw-fuckit list, thanks solely to red velvet… More >>
Best Fast Bite in Georgetown

Lorena's Tamales at the 9 Pound Hammer
It's really nothing more than a storage space with a Dutch door for service, but Lorena's Tamales at the 9 Pound Hammer offers well-spiced, corn-husk-wrapped packages of wholesome goodness. The masa is a blank foil for the spicy chicken mole ($3.50)�the most complex and delicious of the three cash-only options (there's also pork verde, $2.50, and veggie, $2). And be… More >>
Best Father-Son Cheap-Fruit Finders

Tony's Market
Tony's Market sits on a gravel parking lot at a corner of 35th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Barton Street that's near about nothing. Tony's moved to the spot after the stand's namesake owner, Tony Genzale, sold his property in Burien, where he'd been a fixture for 18 years. "So many people make the extra stop to shop here," says Genzale's… More >>
Best Dessert Date

Dessert Thali at Poppy
The boozy first kiss is a time-honored tradition�inhibitions down, libido up, body loose, eyelids already at half-mast. But if you don't drink or smoke, how're you going to lurch into first contact without fear of choking? Get high on sugar first. Dana Cree's $15 dessert thali at Poppy is ideal for easing pre-mack jitters. A large tray arrives at your… More >>
Best Place to See an Artistic Representation of Your Food Before You Order It

Unicorn Crepes
There's a street in Japan called Kappabashi-dori that's almost entirely dedicated to restaurant supplies�including sampuru, those amazing plastic food displays seen in the windows of Japanese restaurants. But you needn't fly across the ocean (you can't afford to anyway, right now)�a trip to the International District's Unicorn Crepes is all you need to satisfy your curiosity. Every crepe the proprietors… More >>
Best Place to Hide With a Big Beer

Post
At this still-new bar on Post Alley, you can sit outside in the sun and observe Puget Sound, but it somehow feels more appropriate to find a stool inside the long, dark breadbox of a bar at Post. The decor is minimal, gray is the predominant color, and the low, exposed ceiling gives the space a sense of sleekness and… More >>
Best Saturday Afternoon Zen Session

Teacup
With its tiny sniffers and minuscule cups, the Gung Fu service nearly resembles a child's tea-party set. But small does not mean inelegant. Gung Fu turns tea into a multisensory experience. Teacup's Brett Boynton practiced the ceremony here in Seattle and in Vancouver as well as Taiwan. Now every Saturday he uses it to introduce anyone wandering into the Queen… More >>
Best Pizza in the Rainier Valley

Vince's - Closed
Seattle is currently in the throes of romance with Neapolitan pizza, and Rainier Valley is no different, with Tutta Bella and Pulcinella Pizzeria Napoletana occupying real estate in the 'hood. Owned by the folks who opened the latter, Vince's boasts a dining area reminiscent of Lake City's Italian Spaghetti House. Vince's fare, however, is akin to that of Eastlake's criminally… More >>
Best Way to Take Rachael Ray and Run With Her

Molly Moon's Sam's Sundae
Everyone knows by now that EVOO, as Rachael Ray has renamed it, is the healthy fat. The fat you're supposed to whisk into vinaigrettes, toss vegetables for roasting in, dress pasta with. Why, just dipping your finger into a puddle of extra-virgin and licking it off confers benefits the likes of which your butter-addled body has never experienced. That's why… More >>
Best Menu Item Name

Mulleady's Irish Pub's Irish Knockers and Colcannon
It's not anywhere near the top of the page, but the first thing most people notice when they read Mulleady's Irish Pub's menu is the Irish Knockers and Colcannon. Besides mentioning that knockers are a pork sausage, which the cooks at Mulleady's Irish Pub have Uli's custom-make for them, and that the colcannon actually means mashed potatoes threaded through with… More >>
Best Inspiration to Restaurant Designers

Hing Loon
As baroque patterns and large-format decals go the way of neon "sculpture" and Southwest-theme stencils, restaurant designers are desperately flipping through art-history textbooks to find the next trend in wall treatments. They need to visit Hing Loon in the International District, where the future�functional wallpaper�is now. This Cantonese restaurant would be about as distinctive-looking as a University Way convenience store,… More >>
Best Farmers Market Booth to Put Down Stakes

Anita's Crepes
Plenty of farmers-market purveyors have graduated to brick-and-mortar status, but none have made the transition better than Anita's Crepes. Its bright-yellow Leary Way location is a beacon of hominess among the car repair shops and gas stations surrounding it. And it's lovely on the inside, too, with an open kitchen, a friendly, doting staff, and savory or sweet buckwheat crepes… More >>
Best Way to Make a Meal Out of the Cheese Plate

Bleu Bistro
Practically every Seattle restaurant has some sort of cheese plate on the menu. Usually the anticipation of a platter full of fromage is met with paltry portions, an inflated bill, and a half-filled belly. Not so at Bleu Bistro on Capitol Hill. The spread arrives on a wooden board, of which every inch is covered in some sort of delicious… More >>
Best Place to Feast in Lenin's Shadow

Royal Grinders
Fremont is home to some seriously delicious sandwiches, but the king among them is found only at Royal Grinders. Tucked behind the Lenin statue, owner Jai Suh and his hardworking (and very attractive) staff have been serving up grinders, panini, and gelato for about two years. Their refusal just to slap sandwiches together means your lunch may take a little… More >>
Best Spam Conversion Mechanism

Marination Mobile
There seems to be no more reliable business plan in Seattle these days than selling food off a truck�especially if you're giving something down-home a little upscale twist. And the Spam items at Marination Mobile already have homesick Hawaiians and post-bar drunks memorizing the truck's schedule. For the traditional Spam musubi of Hawaii, Marination takes a giant slice of grilled… More >>
Best French Toast

Tilth
The French, who invented everything worth eating for breakfast (croissants, omelettes, café au lait served in a bowl), call their eponymous toast pain perdu, or "lost bread." American brunch cooks seem to take the virtue of reusing stale bread as its own reward, stacking up sloppily fried white bread ringed with a yellow-brown fringe of egg-wash dribbles. An eight-ball of… More >>
Best Pounded Meat

Feierabend
Prediction: Years from now, when the sea monkey of a neighborhood known as South Lake Union knows a very low vacancy rate and has seen its second round of ill-conceived wine bars come and go, Feierabend, with its faithful, steady homage to Deutsch fare, will still be there. And credit will go in large part to the schnitzel�or more accurately,… More >>
Best Alternative to High Tea Service

Remedy Teas
Given the prices charged at the Fairmont Olympic or the Sorrento, few of us can afford to make teatime a habit. Luckily, Remedy TeaS on Capitol Hill offers an ample-as-you-please tea service all day, every day. A modern and inviting atmosphere replaces white tablecloths and fine china, and the space supports quiet conversation without the excessively hushed tone of off-season… More >>
Best Unsung Patio

Serafina
Some restaurants and bars live comfortably outside the PR and marketing stream. They have a neighborhood-centric and sentimental customer base as solid as an old-growth tree, and so neither need�nor get�the buzz. Serafina on Eastlake has a loyal clientele, thanks in part to its crack service staff and greenery-bedecked patio, which looks more like the courtyard of a getaway spa… More >>
Best Busta-wha?

Pam's Kitchen
Achieving the title of Seattle's best Trinidadian restaurant admittedly isn't that tough, given the field of competitors. But Pam's Kitchen is rightfully a U District pride and joy, in part because it serves the softest and best thing you'll ever wrap around slow-cooked meat. Buss-up-shut is island slang for a "busted-up shirt," which is most definitely what these tortilla-cum–Indian flatbreads,… More >>
Best Place to Eat Like a Tourist

Elliott's Oyster House
Unless you're catching the Water Taxi to West Seattle or hopping a ferry, you probably steer clear of the cruise-ship crowds and Curiosity Shoppes of the downtown piers. But if so, you're missing out on one of the best deals in town, at Elliott's Oyster House. Looking part rec room and part wooden boat, the back bar at Elliott's showcases… More >>
Best Mecca for the Irish in March

Market House Meats
Sometimes a sandwich with an inordinate amount of meat is in order, a sandwich wearing nothing but some cheese and maybe some mustard. At Market House Meats, you've got just a couple options�pastrami or corned beef, hot or cold. The corned beef is also available in a grilled reuben: blanketed with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Thousand Island dressing and book-ended… More >>
Best Place for a High-Heeled Date

The Harvest Vine
Bar seating, allowing you to see everything that emerges from the kitchen, is de rigueur at The Harvest Vine, for anticipation is nine parts of pleasure. Joseba Jiménez de Jiménez's small, Spanish-inspired plates guarantee you don't get sated too soon�plus, many of them are meant to be consumed hand-to-mouth. The Harvest Vine possesses a genuine European atmosphere; you will feel… More >>
Best Reason to Brave the Tourists Before Noon

DeLaurenti Specialty Food and Wine
Bigger than your open palm, and generously studded with half-hazelnuts and Belgian Callebaut dark chocolate, the chocolate-chip cookies at DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine exhibit a careful balance of crisp-edged texture with a gooey middle, and the subtle flavor of a butter-based dough. Get there just before 11 a.m. if you want a warm one, as they only bake eight… More >>
Best Old-School Place for an Old-School Cocktail

McCormick's Fish House and Bar
Housed in a 1912 building with an embossed copper ceiling, McCormick's Fish House & Bar has polished brass detailing, deep-green leather seating, and a generous smattering of historical photos. In short: everything you need for a serious old-school drink, including a bartender dressed more formally than the patrons. The best thing to request (especially if you're trying to hold out… More >>
Best Reason to Drive to Factoria

Curry Leaf - Closed
What's the rule about restaurants in strip malls? Contrary to other locales, it goes something like this: The worse the decor, the better the food. Curry Leaf possesses bad mauve walls to scare off the uninitiated�but sit tight, as the cuisine will reward you for braving the Eastside traffic. They dish up a mean tikka masala, but you'll make the… More >>
Best Stand-In for an '80s-Era McDonald's Hot Apple Pie

High 5 Pie's Flipsides
McDonald's doesn't make their artery-clogging, deep-fried, burn-inducing apple pies anymore. Instead you're going to have to visit any of a number of local coffee shops (Fuel Coffee, Caffé Vita, Caffe Fiore, and All City Coffee) for a modern, portable version of the fruit turnover. Wrapped in cinnamon-touched, all-butter crusts, High 5 Pie's Flipsides include apple, cherry, and blueberry. Launched in… More >>
Best Pork in Soup Form

Tonkotsu Ramen at Samurai Noodle
If you've never had pork broth, it's time to remedy that. The tonkotsu ramen at Samurai Noodle�noodles in a milky, meaty soup, the product of pork bones simmered for hours�is the richest thing in the house, and for many patrons the only thing to order here. It's glistening and topped with generous slices of roast pork. Service at Samurai is… More >>
Best Reason to Eat Your Cupcake Top-Down

Yellow Leaf Cupcake
I have to admit, I consumed my first Yellow Leaf Cupcake top-down, driving home from the Belltown shop that co-owners Michael Hein and Tony Portugal opened in May. And yes, even after the frosting was gone, the denuded cake was still worth eating: moist, flavorful, no mere platform for a rich smear of sweetened whipped butter. But what a smear… More >>
Best Reason to Attend a Mariners Game

Grounders World Famous Garlic Fries
In 2001, Grounders World Famous Garlic Fries arrived at Safeco Field, marking the most significant year in the stadium's decade-long history. (Oh, it's also the year Ichiro joined the Mariners.) Those glorious fries, hand-tossed and seasoned with copious amounts of chopped garlic, parsley, and kosher salt, are so damn tasty, they've kicked the oh-so-cliché hot dog off its #1 spot… More >>
Best Animal to Watch Devour Its Food

The Giant Pacific Octopus at the Seattle Aquarium
Hands (or tentacles) down, the giant Pacific octopus at the Seattle Aquarium is the one to watch at feeding time�if you can stomach it. Every day at noon and 4 p.m., a gutsy staff member lowers a spear of skewered fish and squid down to Buster, the aquarium's 22-pound, almost-2-year-old resident octopus. Sometimes it takes an hour, but sometimes all… More >>
Best Vegetarian Chicken-Fried Steak

Hudson
At your standard American greasy spoon, the cursory effort to cater to vegetarians begins and ends with a soggy Gardenburger. But Hudson has successfully concocted a meat-free facsimile of the ultimate flesh-saturated dish. A Field Roast "cutlet" comes breaded and slathered with white mushroom gravy, nestled atop a big bed of homemade mashed potatoes. It's a meal that takes you… More >>
Best Place to Come Crashing Off the Diet Wagon

Dilettante Mocha Cafe and Chocolate Martini Bar
Let's face it, most diets do not end in less inches and more dates. More often they end with a chair being pulled up to anything with frosting. And if you're going to do it, you might as well do it right, which means Capitol Hill's Dilettante Mocha Cafe and Chocolate Martini Bar. A good sign that you're in the… More >>
Best, and by Best We Mean Most Addictively Snackable, New Cheese

Samish Bay Cheese's Ladysmith
About a year ago, Suzanne and Roger Wechsler of Samish Bay Cheese, which sells at farmers markets around Seattle, unveiled a new line. The best of these unaged cheeses—at least, the one we recommend picking up three Sundays out of four—is the Ladysmith, a clean white dome with a soft, almost airy texture and a delicate tang. The Wechslers make… More >>
Best Carb-on-Carb Action Since Hawaii Invented the Loco Moco

The Yakisoba Sandwich at the Uwajimaya Deli
The adventurous-meat-eating trend seems to be cresting. Within the year, I predict Bizarre Foods' Andrew Zimmern will announce he's giving up roast bat and braised witchetty grub forever to open a burger stand, and all those professed tripe addicts will admit they've eaten as many off cuts of pig and cow as they can stomach. With Dr. Atkins discredited—well, dead—radical… More >>
Quick SW Picks: The Best Seattle Restaurants

By Jonathan Kauffman (with contributions from Maggie Savarino and Mike Seely)BEST BAGELS: Bagel Oasis Their doughy O's have a dense crumb with a kiss of barley malt and a thin crust that blisters up in the toaster. No messing up the classics here. 2112 N.E. 65th St., 526-0525.BEST BREWPUB: Pike Brewing Owners Charles and Rose Ann Finkel helped catalyze the… More >>
Best Fried Ball, If You Can Find It

Hallava Falafel
The yellow truck may not always be operational, but if you find Hallava Falafel with its service window open, step up and order a falafel sandwich. Packed into a fat pita with a piquant tzatziki dressing, tender shredded beets, salted cucumbers, lettuce, and a pickle spear, the fried chickpea rounds are in very good company. (The truck owner, however, may… More >>
Best Local Food Market for Captive Consumers

Bainbridge Island Ferry Farm Stand
The farmers market comes to the boat dock, allowing Bainbridge commuters to shop for dinner on the way home and shop local. Organized by a group called Sound Food, the Bainbridge Island Ferry Farm Stand sells $5 bags of locally grown fruit and veggies on Wednesday afternoon landings (at 3:45, 4:40, and 5:30 p.m.) through September. In this case, local… More >>
Best Reason to Take Light Rail

The International Dining Excursion at the Othello Street Station
No, not to go to Tukwila. Instead, disembark two stops before that bustling metropolis and enjoy an international dining excursion at the Othello Street Station. There's the Vietnamese mini-mall just off the train, where Pho My Chau serves a more-than-respectable beef noodle soup, and Tammy's Deli could supply your house party with banh mi, rice-flour pastries, prepackaged salads, and fully… More >>