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• Best Place to Inhale a Lemon Bar

  Columbia City Bakery

  To those whose only experience with lemon bars comes from the hockey pucks available by the dozen at Costco, get thyself to the Columbia City Bakery. Using pie crust instead of short dough and a minimum of flour and powdered sugar to avoid popping out squares the density of a deodorant stick, the Rainier Avenue shop has achieved the perfect… More >>

• Best Way to Sober Up After & During a Show at the Croc

  Via Tribunali

  The showgoing public has been conditioned, after years of Dick's Specials and squirts of cream cheese on hot wieners, not to set expectations too high for after-show fourth meals. But when the new Croc opened with a Via Tribunali in the back, we were given an unexpected gift: Via Trib's late-night happy hour. From 11 p.m. to close every night,… More >>

• Best Burger

  Zippy's

  West Seattle's Highland Park neighborhood is so starved for non–convenience-store dining options that the owners of Zippy's could have taken to serving cold, unsweetened oatmeal out of its tiny storefront, and there still would have been lines out the door. Instead, the 2-year-old hole-in-the-wall serves arguably the best burgers in the entire city. The space is about as big as… More >>

• Best Dive Bar

  Darrell's Tavern

  Darrell's Tavern used to have a fleet of big, old Lincolns permanently parked in its front lot on Aurora Avenue North, right next to Highland Ice Arena. Rumor has it that back in the day, anyone who was old enough to drive one of these Lincolns off the lot was also old enough to order a beer at Darrell's. But… More >>

• Best Way to Taunt a Dieter

  Bakery Nouveau

  In a world where everything seems capable of killing you—where oil wells are exploding and breakfast cereals are giving people explosive diarrhea and animals are attacking people in the street—dieting is for suckers. And when talking isn't enough to convince myself or my friends that self-denial is the worst kind of abuse, there's always the twice-baked almond croissant from Bakery… More >>

• Best Burrito

  Chipotle

  Chipotle is perhaps the perfect chain restaurant for Seattle. It's a massive, international operation that all started with just one location and one man. It values sustainability and good farming practices, treats its employees well, and during its expansion phase—though it went over to the dark side by becoming part of the McDonald's family of partner brands—it escaped in 2006… More >>

• Best View From the Inside

  Crush

  It used to be that most restaurants kept their chef and all their cooks tucked away in the back of the house, well out of public view. And this was smart, since in many cases the swells in the dining room really didn't want to see the kind of people who were cooking their dinner. And it was good for… More >>

• Best Cheese Curds

  Beecher's Handmade Cheese

  Cheese curds really don't get the love they deserve. What could be better than bite-size pieces of incredibly fresh handmade cheese? I can think of only one thing: bite-size pieces of incredibly fresh handmade cheese served just feet away from the giant vats in which they were born and soaked down with good olive oil flavored with garlic and fresh… More >>

• Best Reason to Get over Your Hatred of Coconut

  Palace Kitchen

  Coconut isn't quite as divisive an edible as that other "c" word, cilantro. But there are certainly those who'd rather shave their head than eat a plateful of the palm's shavings. These people should go to the re-education camp known as Tom Douglas' Palace Kitchen. There, in Belltown, they'll find the triple coconut-cream pie. Even at $9 a slice, it's… More >>

• Best Non-Sushi Use of Wasabi

  Salumi

  The biggest challenge when you lunch at Salumi is not standing in line. (Suck it up and be patient, and you will waddle out of there with a full belly.) No, the biggest challenge is figuring out what to order. But if it's listed among the specials, go for the Marco Polo, especially if you don't mind breaking a sweat.… More >>

• Best Snitter

  Nielsen's pastries

  This place smells like my Swedish great-grandmother's kitchen, the intoxicating fragrances of flour, butter, and sugar. Nielsen's pastriesin lower Queen Anne is a throwback kind of coffee shop, where Zoka drip is served in cups and saucers. If you're smart, you'll order at least one flaky pastry to go with your brew. Make mine a snitter. This Nordic breakfast of… More >>

• Best Farmers Market With a View

  Market at the Olympic Sculpture Park

  Launched in mid-July, the market on the Olympic Sculpture Park Z path is a multisensory pleasure trip, intended for locals and tourists alike. Wend your way along the gravel path under Calder's Eagle and shop for summer-ripe apricots, tomatoes, and snap peas, with Puget Sound spread out as the background. Permanent and temporary art installations offer a bit of shade… More >>

• Best Drink Name

  Death in the Afternoon

  Gainsbourg’s Death in the Afternoon comprises absinthe and champagne. Been nice knowing you.—Mike Seely 8550 Greenwood Ave. N., 781-2224… More >>

• Best Dog-Friendly Restaurant

  Norm's Eatery & Ale House

  The clientele at Norm's Eatery & Ale House ranges from students hovering over laptops to neighborhoodies looking for a casual place to unwind. Just be sure to keep your food under close watch, since the restaurant is known for its generous admission policy regarding furry patrons. Friendly staff members make sure to keep thirsty hounds refreshed, while you sit back… More >>

• Best Vietnamese

  Huong Binh

  Huong Binh is not a pho shop; they serve one variety—pho ga—only on weekends. Not an inch of its menu is influenced by the modern, nouvelle French-Vietnamese style—no baguettes, no crisp crepes, no paté. The dumplings (banh bot loc) are made of tapioca, stuffed with ground shrimp and slivers of candy-sweet pork, then steamed to bubblegum chewiness and topped with… More >>

• Best Cocaine Substitute

  Lighthouse Roasters

  Some might argue, logically, that the debris floating around in a freshly poured cup of Lighthouse Roasters coffee consists of fine, dark grounds that somehow seeped through the filter. Bullshit—they've got to be granules of blow. There's simply no other explanation for how a single cup of coffee—really good coffee—can get an individual so hopped up. Two cups and you'll… More >>

• Best Place to Request a Song

  Canlis

  A guy walks into a bar. He sits on a comfy black leather bench with one of the most thoughtfully crafted cocktails in Seattle and proceeds to write. What he is jotting on a white paper napkin looks something like this: "Foo Fighters or that song from the Lexus commercial." This is no joke. We've witnessed this scenario before. At… More >>

• Best Dim Sum in the 'Burbs

  Macky's Dim Sum

  Seattle has never been a city short on dim sum. But until recently, if you found yourself stranded on the Eastside and looking for some shu mai, dumplings, or maybe a plate of crispy prawns, you would've been largely out of luck. Fortunately, that's no longer the case, thanks to the opening of Macky's Dim Sum, a suburban Chinese operation… More >>

• Best Posole

  La Carta De Oaxaca

  The menu at La Carta De Oaxaca is a blessedly simple document: just some tacos, a few small plates and appetizers, a couple of dinner plates (like the stewed lamb or chiles rellenos), and one soup. All told, there are fewer than 20 options for those wise enough to show up hungry, but the one that really matters is the… More >>

• Best Dumplings

  Mandarin Chef

  Dumplings are a shared magic, common to almost every culinary canon, present, in wildly differing forms, in nearly all cuisines. From Japanese gyoza and Chinese pot stickers to Tibetan momo, Russian pelmeni, and Polish pierogis, dumplings are one of those food memes that buried themselves deep and close to the heart of all people and flourished across countless generations as… More >>

• Best Southern-Italian Food

  Volterra

  There are good things and bad things about overly cozy restaurant seating, but when the food is outstanding and the stranger next to you is unable to stop raving (at length, with each bite) about her meal, it actually works out beneficially: mentally, you get two meals for the price of one. Volterra, a classy southern-Italian restaurant in old-town Ballard,… More >>

• Best Lunch Worth Waiting For

  Santorini Greek Grill

  Come December, Santorini Greek Grill owner Stavros Iannou will close shop and fly to Greece for two months to visit family and escape the cold. You'd think customers would find a new favorite lunch spot during his absence, but the moment Iannou returns, they come running back. Santorini Greek Grill is an absolute delight, a tiny cash-only eatery that serves… More >>

• Best Oyster Happy Hour

  Elliott's Oyster House

  Best to belly up to the bar early at Elliott's Oyster House for the best deal on the half-shell. At 3 p.m. each weekday, a featured bivalve from Elliott's spectacular selection goes for 50 cents. The price rises 50 cents every half hour after that until happy hour's over at 6. Just like a crack dealer wanting to get you… More >>

• Best Chinese Restaurant

  Bamboo Garden

  Bamboo Garden specializes in Sichuan cuisine—namely braised meats, hot pots, and stir-fry dishes loaded with panic-inducing levels of spice. (The cooks say they go through a pound of peppercorns a day.) But the Bellevue restaurant is also mindful of its more sensitive (read: American) customers' palates. Its menu is divided into two sections: "30 Most Popular Dishes" includes safe bets… More >>

• Best Bar at Which to Enjoy a Salad, a Glass of Wine, and a Magazine

  Café Presse

  While away an evening at Café Presse enjoying the low-key pleasures of a simple salad and a non-fussy wine pour while lazily paging through some high-minded glossy periodical. House wine, red or white, is served by the glass and carafe, and is super cheap and quite tasty. The salade verte is a spherical sculpture of tender butter lettuce dressed in… More >>

• Best Ducks in a Row

  Kau Kau Barbecue

  Suspended by hooks piercing their sinuous necks, waterfowl hang, browned skins glistening in the window, at Kau Kau Barbecue, waiting for you to take them home. Slice into one, and the crisp duck skin oozes rich fat; underneath, the sweet meat is tender and juicy. Selling for less than $17 each, you'll unwrap a premade gourmet feast on the cheap.… More >>

• Best Local, Affordable Produce

  Bill Pace Fruit and Produce

  Yes, you can find beautiful, locally grown produce at all the farmers markets around town. And you can find cheap produce at an array of bargain stands, like Beacon Hill's MacPherson's Fruit & Produce. But where can you find both at the same time? Bill Pace Fruit and Produce at Mercer Slough Blueberry Farm. As its location suggests, you can… More >>

• Best Brewpub

  Big Time Brewery

  University Way presents such a turnover-prone kaleidoscope of ethnic eateries, niche retail outlets, and budget-friendly takeout that it's easy to forget about the strip's perennials, like Big Time Brewery. Despite its extremely close proximity to the University of Washington campus, "Seattle's original brewpub" isn't really a college bar. Granted, plenty of profs, grad students, and slacker alums who never gave… More >>

• Best Unintentional PR Stunt

  Golden Tate wandered into the Top Pot Doughnuts

  The time was 3 a.m. on June 5, 2010. Seahawks rookie wide receiver Golden Tate wandered into the Top Pot Doughnuts housed in the Bellevue condo complex where he lives. Nobody would notice one less maple bar, right? According to Top Pot co-founder Mark Klebeck, a baker had left the store unattended when Tate and another person entered. Not only… More >>

• Best Mobile Pork-Delivery Vehicle

  Maximus/Minimus

  Several notable food trucks ply Seattle's highways, byways, and neighborhoods these days—a boom fueled partly by convenience, partly by the fact that most food-truck meals are significantly cheaper than sit-down meals in proper restaurants, but mostly because food trucks have become fascinating ways for talented cooks to showcase the things they do best without fluffing out their menus with a… More >>

• Best Japanese Small Plates

  Chiso

  Taichi Kitamura, founder of the Fremont Japanese restaurant Chiso, could've chosen an easy path. Doing sushi in a city obsessed with seafood, with eating fish, with all things Asian? That's cake. But Kitamura had a different vision for Chiso when he opened it in 2001. (Kitamura has recently sold Chiso to Hirohiko Kirita, and opened Tamura Sushi Kappo on Eastlake.)… More >>

• Best Breakfast With Jesus (and Pancakes)

  Silver Fork

  The Silver Fork has served generations of Seattleites looking for the simple consolations of soul food and comfort food and breakfasts served all day in generous portions. And while it does good business on most mornings, if you're really looking to atone for (or recover from) Saturday night's sins without actually setting foot inside a church, the Silver Fork on… More >>

• Best French Restaurant

  Le Pichet

  Le Pichet is the motherfucking best. The food is deceptively simple but expertly prepared. The roast chicken is amazing: The skin shatters when you bite it, and the flesh beneath is so succulent it drips erotic juices into your mouth. The chocolat chaud is a quivering cup of pure melted cocoa crowned with a fluffy nimbus of whipped cream; it's… More >>

• Best Korean Restaurant

  Kimchi Bistro

  Lynnwood and Shoreline offer the most options in the Seattle area when it comes to Korean food. Surprisingly, a small space tucked inside a strip mall on Capitol Hill surpasses them all. Kimchi Bistro is a modest, family-run business, with only eight tables on the floor, Korean skin-care ads plastered on the walls, and soft rock playing overhead. But the… More >>

• Best Pizza

  The Independent Pizzeria

  Pizza is having a moment in a notoriously pie-passive town. While a plethora of big-name and certified Neapolitan places all over Seattle vie for your attention, consider instead this unprepossessing spot, tucked in the unlikely neighborhood of Madison Park. Run by a well-traveled former upstate New Yorker, The Independent Pizzeria is not trying for fame, but it is aiming for… More >>

• Best Carnivorous Experience

  Ipanema Brazilian Grill

  Rodízio (Portuguese for "rotation") is a Brazilian style of restaurant service: You pay a fixed price and passing servers bearing meat-laden skewers repeatedly offer to slice from them onto your plate until you signal them to stop. Ipanema Brazilian Grill offers 18 differently prepared meats during dinner, including buffalo, lamb, pork, and several cuts of steak. All the animals are… More >>

• Best Underground Chocolate-Chip Cookie

  Elliott Bay Cafe

  This cookie offers the city's best compromise between the dual camps of soft and crunchy, with a no-doubt-about-it buttery richness. The chips are dark and the cookie is on the thin side—yet these sweet rounds score points for old-school, make-the-kid-in-you-happy nostalgia while giving a nod to the gourmet. Revisit the old Elliott Bay Book Company location, because Tamara Murphy's basement… More >>

• Best Way to Satisfy Your Sweet/Salty Craving

  Molly Moon's Salted-Caramel Ice Cream

  Order a cone of Molly Moon's salted-caramel ice cream and find a perfect mix of savory and sweet, touched by a bit of the salt shaker. Visit the Capitol Hill outlet (there's one in Wallingford too) and take yourself across the street for a sit in Cal Anderson Park, where you can watch other people exerting themselves while you lick… More >>

• Best Pepperoni Pizza

  Pegasus Pizza & Pasta

  Pegasus Pizza & Pasta cuts its pepperoni into curlicues and bakes them until they're crisp—magically making them taste like strips of bacon, only with an unusual pungency. You can try this treat in the form of a plain pepperoni pizza. What you really want to do, though, is order the house special, which comes loaded not only with what Pegasus… More >>

• Best Microbrewery

  Big Al Brewing

  And by micro, we mean, like, one guy—in the beginning, anyway. Alejandro "Big Al" Brown was a homebrewing fanatic when Pacific Rim Brewery in White Center went tits up at the end of 2007. Brown thought his own beer good enough to emerge from his rec room and into a legit facility, and soon Big Al Brewing was born. Brown's… More >>

• Best Place to Induce Childhood Memories

  Unicorn

  With playful items like elephant ears, corn dogs, fried Twinkies, and Lucky Charms on the menu, it's hard not to feel like you're sitting under the big top at some sort of grown-up circus when you dine at Unicorn. Chef Josh Nebe (late of Steelhead Diner and Barrio) is a kid at heart, constantly crafting new dishes that will tickle… More >>

• Best Happy-Hour Fish

  Nijo

  There are a million sushi restaurants to choose from in Seattle. Even more places offer happy-hour deals to entice those willing to duck out of work a little early to score cheap drinks and discounted snacks. And while a decent number of places populate the territory where these two data sets intersect (meaning sushi bars with good happy hours), the… More >>

• Best Tapas

  Ocho

  Given enough time, energy, and beer, people will argue forever about what are and aren't authentic tapas. There are as many opinions on the matter as there are people willing to argue about it, and not one of them will ever admit that anyone else knows what real tapas really are. Which is why, when Zach Harjo opened Ocho in… More >>

• Best Burgers for Drunks

  Dick's

  There are better burgers in the world than those served at Dick's. There are better burgers in Seattle. There are probably better burgers within stumbling distance of some of the various Dick's locations. But the one thing Dick's has going for it that all those other places don't? Dick's will always be there for you whenever you need it most.… More >>

• Best Cutting-Edge Cuisine

  Spur Gastropub

  Dana Tough, half of the two-chef team behind Belltown's Spur Gastropub, trained at Tilth under Maria Hines and worked with her at Earth & Ocean. Brian McCracken, the other half, met Tough at Earth & Ocean and has a resume heavy on stagier work, catering and working lines like the one at Mona's in Greenlake. Neither guy has anything in… More >>

• Best Late-Night Munchies

  Bimbo's

  bimbos cantina is a gift from God to inebriated Seattleites, serving stiff drinks and burritos the size of babies late into the night. But the most daunting offering on the Mexican bar's menu is the Stoner Nachos. This aptly named creation is nothing short of epic: A huge plate of Nacho Cheese Doritos comes loaded with melted cheese, green onions,… More >>

• Best Deep-Fried Dill Pickle

  Blueacre Seafood

  Outside the South, deep-fried dill pickles are still an oddity. And when they do show up on a menu, they're usually all wrong. But Louisiana-bred Kevin Davis does right by the pickle at his new Blueacre Seafood, where it perches atop a grilled-salmon sandwich. These crispy pickle chips add a tart crunch to the juicy filet o' fish. If you… More >>

• Best Flaming Cocktail

  Hula Hula's Volcano Bowl

  Queen Anne's beloved tiki bar Hula Hula is beyond kitschy, decked out in rainbow hues with tiki statues and posters of hula dancers and surfer dudes. But it's all business when it comes to drinking—Hula Hula's Volcano Bowl is a potent punch made with five different rums (including Bacardi 151), soda, and orange and pineapple juices and set ablaze before… More >>

• Best Retro Dining

  XXX Root Beer Drive-In

  They play the Happy Days/Grease card a little heavily at Issaquah’s XXX Root Beer Drive-In: burgers named for cars (the “ ’58 Impala” is a half-pound bacon cheeseburger) and a relentlessly catchy AM-radio soundtrack (Chuck Berry, the Cowsills). But we love it because it feels like an authentic hangout. Its orange and yellow picnic tables are just the place to… More >>

• Best Pizza Bagel

  Blazing Bagels

  It sounds like such a good idea, but so often the pizza bagel is a total disappointment. Often what you get is a plain bagel onto which someone has smeared a touch of bland tomato sauce and a few pathetic strips of cheddar cheese. But Redmond-based Blazing Bagels gets it right. The top of the bagel is covered in oregano… More >>

• Best Coffee Shop With a View

  Starbucks on the 40th floor of the Columbia Tower

  OK, so you didn't become a downtown lawyer with an office in a fancy high-rise affording you spectacular views of the city at your feet. Get over it, then head for the Starbucks on the 40th floor of the Columbia Tower, in the so-called "Sky Lobby," where you can have the views without the legal drudgery (or the megabucks salary).… More >>

• Best Bathroom-Stall Graffiti

  Alki Tavern

  Transcribed from the men's room stall at the Alki Tavern: "The 3 rules of old age: never pass a john, never waste a boner, never trust a fart." And here you thought a beer-drinker's maturation process couldn't be summed up in 12 words or less.—Mike Seely 1321 Harbor Ave. S.W., 932-9970… More >>

• Best Hole in the Wall

  Mee Sum Pastry

  How appropriate that this year's award for Best Hole in the Wall goes to a place that is literally not much more than a hole in a wall? Mee Sum Pastry (specifically, the Pike Place Market location) is just a walk-up storefront, and it stands as a perfect example of what street food should be, since everyone who comes here… More >>

• Best After-Hours Scene

  Beth's Café

  You can eat at Beth's Café during daylight hours, but to step inside the cramped space while the sun is up is kind of like seeing your favorite dive bar with natural light streaming through the windows, or a tranny hooker the morning after—disturbing and revelatory in ways discomfiting to the spirit. Beth's in daylight makes you wonder what you… More >>

• Best Fusion Tacos

  Marination Mobile

  "Best" and "fusion" are two words not often found in the same sentence. At least not in the sentences I write. In almost every case, fusion is what happens when chefs or owners don't really know what they want to cook, so they end up cooking everything poorly rather than a few things really well. Marination Mobile, though, is an… More >>

• Best Reason to Eat Lunch Early

  Paseo

  The first time I went to paseo's Fremont location looking for sandwiches, they were sold out. I ended up eating one of the greatest plate lunches of my life instead. Second time I went looking to score a sandwich, the same thing happened. The thing I really wanted—the medianoche, or Midnight Cuban, all full of pork and ham and banana… More >>

• Best Mojito Mavens

  La Isla

  It wasn't until he relocated to Cuba and started downing mojitos by the gallon that Ernest Hemingway descended into full-blown alcoholism. But had La Isla existed in the '40s, his troubles would have begun in Ballard. Granted, the establishment is actually a Puerto Rican restaurant, but its bartenders have the traditional Cuban highball down to a science, churning out hundreds… More >>

• Best Modernization of Mashed Potatoes

  Joey's

  Remember the days of mashed-potato volcanoes with hot lava (read: gravy)? They're over. Sorry, mom. Instead, meet Joey's crispy mashed potatoes. The chefs at this popular restaurant have remade a childhood favorite into an even more comfortable food that can be eaten sans utensils. They start with the traditional blend of potatoes, heavy cream, milk, and herbs, but then roll… More >>

• Best Chicken and Waffles

  TASTE

  Yes, fried chicken and waffles are a wacky pair, but, like Brad and Angelina, it somehow works. At least that's what fans of Roscoe's in L.A., which popularized the dish out West, have known for decades. TASTE does a motherclucking fine rendition of chicken and waffles for its Sunday brunch. The kitchen flips birds from Stokesberry Farm onto a waffle… More >>

• Best Big Pimpin' Happy Hour

  The Brooklyn Seafood, Steak, & Oyster House

  Located in the heart of downtown Seattle, The Brooklyn Seafood, Steak, & Oyster House exudes old-school class and charm, with its copper-trimmed countertops, high-backed leather seats, and the city's largest selection of fresh oysters. (Jay-Z would approve.) On weekdays during happy hour, brokers and lawyers looking to blow off steam crowd the bar until it's standing room only. But you… More >>

• Best Vegetarian Restaurant

  Café Flora

  After a few years of living flesh-free, an herbivore’s diet can start to seem a little bland. That’s why it’s so nice when vegetarian restaurants take some creative license and do something adventurous within the confines of meatlessness. But sometimes you just want comfort food. Café Flora offers the best of both worlds: You can get tacos and black-bean burgers… More >>

• Best Cupcake to Eat With Jameson

  Cupcake Royale

  Cupcake Royale rolls out a cupcake of the month every...month. And when they're gone, baby, they're gone. Which can be heartbreaking. March's Irish Whiskey Maple Cupcake is shaping up to be Cupcake Royale's McRib. I'd be lying if I said I've even once seen a bottle of Jameson since St. Patrick's Day and not daydreamed about splashing it down between… More >>

• Best Hummus

  Petra Mediterranean Bistro

  There are lots of reasons to go to Petra Mediterranean Bistro, not least among them the stunning pictures of Jordan's ancient city, for which this elegant Belltown establishment is named. But, really, you need no other reason than the hummus—in particular the "mosabaha" hummus (there are three kinds). For one thing, this dish is so generously portioned that it can… More >>

• Best Bread Basket

  La Rustica

  When you get free bread with a meal, you don't have much leverage to make sure that bread is of superb quality. In fact, if a restaurant wants to serve you only the crusts from stale loaves of Wonder bread, you've really got no recourse to bitch. What are you going to say? "Hey, waiter, these bread crusts aren't what… More >>

• Best Thai

  Bai Tong

  When looking for a great place to eat Insert-Name-of-Cuisine-Here, people have all sorts of systems. They look at the neighborhoods and the crowds, read the menu, talk to the owners. But for a quick bit of gastronaut shorthand, one can always look to a restaurant's history: How and, more important, why did it get started in the first place? In… More >>

• Best Mexican Small Plates

  El Mestizo - Closed

  El Mestizo might be relatively new to the Seattle restaurant scene, but it came out of the gate booming—serving a menu that reads like a greatest-hits collection of Mexican resort food, abuelita cuisine, and bar grub gone upscale. There are alambres straight out of some Mexico City all-night diner; Pueblan chile en nogada (fat, roasted poblano peppers stuffed with what… More >>

• Best Tacos on the Eastside

  Taqueria La Venadita

  If you happen to find yourself on the Eastside jonesing for some serious street tacos, then Taqueria La Venadita is where you want to go. The dining room is simple and spare, the menu short, the service friendly and businesslike when you place your order across the counter and settle in to wait. But the crowds of teenagers, families, couples,… More >>

• Best New Restaurant

  Mistral Kitchen

  Mistral Kitchen is chef William Belickis' re-interpretation of his original Mistral, the restaurant he closed in March 2008, just before pretty much all the air went out of the fine-dining balloon and left many other chefs scrambling just to sell cheeseburgers. The heir to Mistral is a stripped-down, simpler, more casual version of that original destination restaurant (with a small,… More >>

• Best Honey-Walnut Prawns

  Honey Court Seafood Restaurant

  In Hong Kong-style cuisine, honey-walnut prawns are the equivalent of crack cocaine. The seafood dessert consists of plump, deep-fried prawns coated in mayonnaise, honey, and condensed milk, then topped with candied nuts. When addicts want their sticky-sweet fix, they head to Honey Court Seafood Restaurant. Its honey-walnut prawns are to die for, with crispy breading that makes a satisfying snap… More >>

• Best Savory Dessert

  Crush's

  It might be listed on the menu as an appetizer, but Crush's parsnip flan with Steelhead roe, bacon-infused crème fraîche, and parsnip frites is nothing less than an unsweet treat. The flan is a savory pudding with a delicate bitter edge, the perfect foil for the bacony-rich crème fraîche and the orange salt bombs of Steelhead roe. This plate, all… More >>

• Best Breakfast Sammie

  The Crumpet Shop

  Hey, Sam I Am, you say you don't like green eggs and ham? Well, Sam I Am has obviously not been to The Crumpet Shop. At their snug spot in Pike Place Market, a little pesto is folded into eggs and then nuked. Under most circumstances, microwaving eggs is unforgivable, but miraculously, the Crumpet Shop crew gets this scramble to… More >>

• Best Hipster Bar to Withstand Trends

  Linda's Tavern

  New bars constantly come and go on Capitol Hill, but Linda's Tavern is still sitting pretty after celebrating its sweet 16 this year. The once cash-and-beer-only establishment has seen a few changes—it now accepts credit cards and houses a full bar and kitchen, and the jukebox plays CDs instead of vinyl. But nightlife guru Linda Derschang has also held on… More >>

• Best Vegan Restaurant

  Plum Bistro

  Making things like millet and pulverized wheat gluten into something you actually want to consume is no easy feat, which is one reason Plum Bistro deserves credit. But you’re probably not going there to eat a salad unless it’s the vegan Caesar. This is the place to go when you’re craving one of those fleshy, all-American gut-bomb meals that even… More >>

• Best Place to Get Old-E and Eggs

  Turf

  Forget what you think you know about the Turf, the divey eatery at the populous/notorious corner of Second and Pike. Sure, their exterior and smoke-crowded steps do not a warm reception make. But inside it's all comfort, and the clientele is decidedly un-Seattle. Exchanging friendly banter with your neighbor is not frowned upon, and there's a general feeling that we're… More >>

• Best Liquid Trend

  Coffeehouse/Bar Hybrids

  For decades, when coffee and booze met in Seattle, they did so inside a hot buttered rum, Mexican coffee, or some other winter warmer that's meant to give you a multidimensional buzz. Such meetings still occur, but the relationship between coffee and booze has received a refreshing shot in the arm (or throat) of late, what with the likes of… More >>

• Best Popcorn

  Wedgwood Broiler

  Air-popped popcorn is far more delicious and healthy than microwave popcorn, or that shit they serve you at multiplexes that's the equivalent of, like, 45 bacon cheeseburgers. It stands to reason, then, that the Wedgwood Broiler could charge a pretty penny for offering its customers such a superior rendition of matured kernels. But no: the Broiler provides its buttery bowls… More >>

• Best Place to Eat Gyros With Cabbies

  Mawadda Café

  There's something to be said for the cliché about following cabbies to find the best, cheapest food in any city. As evidence, exhibit #1: Mawadda Café, where owner Rami Al-Jebori serves a good number of cab drivers, and a whole lot of those smart enough to follow these knowing scouts to Hillman City, with the hands-down greatest gyros in the… More >>

• Best 100-Year-Old Fish

  Maneki

  Pretty much anyone who has an opinion about the Japanese food in Seattle will tell you that their favorite place to get the good stuff, the rare stuff, the real stuff, is Maneki. In more-or-less constant operation for over a hundred years, Maneki is a very traditional Japanese restaurant and sushi bar, offering everything from the simplest miso soup and… More >>

• Best Old-School Cocktails

  Tavern Law

  The shrub. The cobbler. The fizz, the flip, and the sling. They may sound like dance moves or a list of deviant sex acts, but they're really ways your great-grandmother got hammered way back in the day. And now you can take after her at Tavern Law—where not only can you drink like they did in the old days, but… More >>

• Best Place for Pirates to Eat Tater Tots

  Benbow Room

  When the venerable Admiral Benbow Inn finally gave up the ghost a few years ago, its passing was attended by fans, pirates, even the mayor. And when partners Jay Wergin and Jeff Loren picked up the space recently, with every intention of turning it into a retail sausage company until it became easier for them just to open a restaurant,… More >>

• Best Pineapple-Inspired Plate

  Pineapple Fried Rice

  Everything—upside-down cake, baked ham, pizza—tastes better with pineapple. It packs a punch so powerful that when used as a chaser, it even eliminates the sting of a bottom-shelf tequila shot. But to experience the full potential of the fruit's flesh, you must order Malay Satay Hut's pineapple fried rice. It's an awesome fusion of bitter, salty, and sweet flavors—a mountain… More >>

• Best Gourmet Mini-Mall

  Melrose Market

  This hot new Capitol Hill property was not curated by a gourmet developer, but it might as well have been. A high wooden ceiling, fat support beams, and good old bones at the Melrose Market give the former auto-repair shop a European feel, while the food purveyors are almost all locavore. Pick up a locally raised rabbit at Rain Shadow… More >>

• Best Cooking Class

  Art Of The Pie

  Kate McDermott is determined to make the world a better place, one pie at a time. Her Art Of The Pie classes are crazy-hard to get into. But if you're lucky enough to find a spot at the counter, you're in for an action-packed, hands-on experience during which students learn the advantages of using a combo of leaf lard and… More >>

• Best Not-So-New Local Beer That's Just Beginning to Appear on Tap

  Fremont Brewing Company

  This little-known beer company has been quietly making appearances on well-thought-out drink menus all over town, though you still might not recognize its name. Fremont Brewing Company makes small-batch artisan beers, with barley from the Okanogan, Yakima Valley hops, and water from the Cedar River watershed. Their best brew is their first, Universale Ale: both light and full-bodied, this hop-rich… More >>

• Best Place to Taste Chocolate

  Claudio Corallo

  Hidden off Westlake Avenue, Claudio Corallo is a chocolate haven for anyone looking to feed a sweet tooth. Inside the small boutique, a flat-screen television displays images of the shop’s namesake chocolatier hiking though the jungles of West Africa, where he creates rich treats such as chocolate bars with nibs (crushed cacao) or “sandy” bars that contain crystallized sugar for… More >>

• Best Place With an Ampersand

  Sitka & Spruce

  When Sitka & Spruce chef/owner Matt Dillon decided to ditch his strip-mall locale and head to the new Melrose Project this past May, fans wondered if the warmth of the small Eastlake space would translate to Capitol Hill. It did. The new incarnation has the intimate feel of the old Sitka with the added romance and charm of Dillon's other… More >>

• Best French Toast

  Randy's Restaurant

  Plenty of renditions of French toast around town are a gazillion times more creative than the Texas-toast take on the dish offered at Randy's Restaurant. But sometimes straightforwardness is worth celebrating, especially at such recession-friendly rates, and double-especially when you can get whatever you want at all hours of the day, any day, what with Randy's being one of Seattle's… More >>

• Best Ouzo Pour

  Mike's Chili Parlor

  Ouzo is a licorice-y Greek liquor akin to sambuca and Jägermeister—only classier and with a sexy foreign accent (and a hairy back). You can shoot ouzo, as you would sambuca or Jägermeister. But if you have any respect for the hooch's heritage, you'll order it like Mike's Chili Parlor serves it: in a small glass, with a single, perfectly squared… More >>

• Best Poutine

  Steelhead Diner

  In the list of great guilty-pleasure foods, few dishes can hold a candle to a plate of poutine artfully done. Second only to comedy writers, poutine is the greatest export of our neighbors to the north, and nowhere in Seattle is it done with more art and less irony than at Kevin Davis' Steelhead Diner. Sure, you can get a… More >>

• Best Breakfast Deal

  Toulouse Petit

  There are a lot of good deals to be found while cruising the riches of Seattle's restaurant scene. But the hands-down best one, for those obsessed with scoring cheap but delicious breakfasts on the high end, is the breakfast happy hour at Toulouse Petit. Dig it: From 9 to 11 a.m. Monday through Friday, just about every dish on the… More >>

• Best Custom Cocktails

  Zig Zag Café

  To pull up a stool at the Zig Zag Café is to sit in the presence of genius. Less a cocktail lounge than a center of drinkable scholarship, the Zig Zag acts kind of like the nation's strategic cocktail reserve—a place where all knowledge relating to the mixing of spirituous beverages is collected, pored over, studied, and utilized in the… More >>

• Best Place to Have Dinner and a Movie All at Once

  Cinebarre

  Food and a flick has been a standard date-night recipe since the days of drive-ins. But Cinebarre in Mountlake Terrace makes the best local case that those two tastes taste better together. The grub is cheekily-named standard fare (try the "Blue Velvet" burger); the beers are extra cold, and five for the price of four if you get them in… More >>

• Best Free Weekend Brunch

  QFC - Closed

  When it comes to enjoying an idyllic Saturday afternoon, the city offers an overabundance of eateries, from quaint bistros to greasy spoons to dim sum. A pleasant experience at any of these establishments is always rudely interrupted by the arrival of a bill. That is, unless you choose to brunch at the QFC on 15th Avenue East. On weekends, the… More >>

• Best Veggie Burger

  Zippy's

  Of course, the beefy burgers are the main draw at Zippy's, the West Seattle hole-in-the-wall cafe. But even the most ardent carnivore should check out the fan-freaking-tastic black-bean burger. This beauty, made from a recipe created by the owner's wife, is cooked on the flat-top until it's slightly crispy on the outside but still creamy inside. Like the rest of… More >>

• Best Loco Moco

  Kauai Family Restaurant

  Last time I checked, round-trip airfare to Kauai was $500. Good thing you can take care of that craving for da kine plate lunch by taking a quick trip to Georgetown. Kauai Family Restaurant is typically jam-packed, especially at lunch. The menu covers the usual melting-pot territory from the 50th state: katsu chicken, Spam musubi, kalua pig and cabbage. All… More >>

• Best Locally-Made Pâté

  Sea Breeze Farm

  You'll find Sea Breeze Farm country pâté (the thick, chunky kind) at farmers markets all over town—which is a blessing, because otherwise you'd have to hop a ferry to Vashon to procure some of the good stuff. Made with pork liver, ground pork, pork fat, eggs, and cream, it's spiced with clove, nutmeg, pepper, and allspice. Spotted with pistachios, this… More >>

• Best Indian Restaurant

  Taste of India

  The distinctive Mughal-style arch and neon roofline of Taste of India exude a thoroughly unique aura, if not a particularly authentic one. And as one of three Indian restaurants on a short stretch of Roosevelt Way (with half a dozen more on nearby University Way), this eatery has to handle menu staples exceptionally well to separate itself from the pack.… More >>