Eating
Seattle’s food scene was always noteworthy, but in recent years it has exploded thanks to the popularity of farm-to-table practices and new American cuisine. As with other major cities you’ll also find that immigrant communities have made their mark, as have flighty contemporary dining trends.
Northwest and Pacific Rim Cuisine
A lot of Seattle’s gourmet restaurants describe their food as ‘Northwest cuisine.’ Its cornerstone is high-quality regional ingredients that grow abundantly in Washington State: seafood so fresh it squirms, fat berries freshly plucked, mushrooms dug out of the rich soil and a cornucopia of fruit and vegetables.
Another distinguishing feature is pan-Asian cooking, often referred to as Pacific Rim cuisine or fusion food.
What Seattle Does Well
Surrounded by water, Seattle is an obvious powerhouse of fresh seafood. Local favorites include Dungeness crab, salmon, halibut, oysters, spot prawns and clams.
Other genres in which Seattle excels are bakeries (a by-product of its cafe culture), Japanese food (the sushi is unwaveringly good) and – perhaps surprisingly – spicy Ethiopian food; the bulk of the East African restaurants are in the Central District (CD). The city used to be noted for its dearth of Mexican restaurants, but in the past decade or so many shockingly good ones have opened.
Best Restaurants In Seattle
Sitka & Spruce If you had to sum up Seattle cuisine in three words, this is it.
La Carta de Oaxaca Unmissable regional Mexican cuisine and the best brunch in town.
Staple & Fancy It’s worth blowing your budget on the tasting menu at this rustic Italian spot.
Maneki This traditional Japanese restaurant is a unique dining opportunity in town.
Best Seafood
Walrus & the Carpenter Ballard oyster bar where they serve ’em raw with white wine.
Steelhead Diner Located in Pike Place Market, with fresh fish bought yards from your plate.
Sunfish Head to Alki Beach for some of the best fish-and-chips in the city.
Pike Place Chowder Pike Place institution where there are always 40 people queuing for four tables.
Best Recent Openings
Heartwood Provisions New fine dining that actually makes a splash on the scene.
San Fermo A welcome recent addition to Ballard in one of the neighborhood’s oldest buildings.
Kamonegi The traditional soba noodles and tempura here have shaken up the Fremont dining scene.
Arthur’s Aussie-inspired breakfast and lunch bites sure to keep the bad-weather blues away.
Drinking & Nightlife
It’s hard to complain too much about Seattle’s crappy weather in a city where local beer and wine, artful craft cocktails and one-of-a-kind spirits are in such abundance. No doubt about it, Seattle’s an inviting place to enjoy a drink, whatever your poison.
Macro Numbers of Microbrews
The microbrew explosion rocked the Northwest around the same time as the gourmet-coffee craze, but not coincidentally: Seattle’s Redhook Brewery was co-founded in 1981 by Gordon Bowker, one of the guys who founded Starbucks.
You can find microbrews practically everywhere, but brewpubs often feature signature beers and ales not available anywhere else. Most of the brewpubs offer a taster’s selection of the house brews. Pints range in price from $5 to $7, and you can usually get a small sample to try before committing.
By Neighborhood
Capitol Hill is the place in Seattle for a night out, with gay bars, dive bars, cocktail lounges and themed bars aplenty. Belltown also has a famous bar scene, although it’s not as grungy as it once was. Of the city’s outer neighborhoods, Ballard and Fremont are a must for beer lovers with old-fashioned pubs sitting alongside boisterous brewpubs and cozy nano-breweries, while the U District is resplendent with dive bars.
Best Brewpubs
Fremont Brewing Company New old-school brewery where you can taste beer at wooden tables on the factory floor.
Populuxe Brewing Beloved Ballard microbrewery made for lazy summer afternoons.
Pike Pub & Brewery One of the oldest and most cherished brewpubs in Seattle.
Optimism Brewing Co At long last, a new industrial-style brewery and tasting room in Capitol Hill.
Best Whiskey
Westland Distillery Micro-distillery with tasting room and the yardstick against which other Seattle whiskeys are measured.
Bookstore Bar Settle down on a sofa with a book and a glass of the water of life.
Radiator Whiskey Pike Place bar with a menu exclusively for Manhattans.
Whisky Bar A new location hasn’t dampened the throat-warming effects of the numerous whiskeys.
Macleod’s Genuine Scottish pub in the bar bonanza of Ballard.
LGBTIQ+ Bars
Pony Capitol Hill’s own agora, located in a renovated auto shop.
Wildrose Lesbian pub in Capitol Hill.
R Place The place to watch go-go boys gyrate before trying some moves of your own.
Outwest Bar A mellow LGBTIQ+ outpost in West Seattle.
Entertainment
Quietly aggrieved that it was being bypassed by big-name touring acts in the 1980s, Seattle shut itself away and created its own live-music scene. There are also plenty of other artistic strands, including independent cinema, burlesque theater, bookshop poetry readings and some high-profile opera, classical music and drama.
Live Music
One of the major strengths of Seattle’s music scene is its diversity of venues. Here you can attend concerts at a 17,000-capacity arena, midsized bastions of the ’90s grunge heyday, neighborhood bars, jazz clubs, and small pubs and cafes that specialize in undiscovered talent.
The Arts
Seattle is a book-loving town and there’s a literary event practically every night. The film industry also has national stature.
Theater runs the gamut from nationally recognized productions and touring Broadway shows, to staged readings of obscure texts in cobbled-together venues or coffee shops. The Seattle Symphony has become nationally known and widely respected, primarily through its excellent recordings.
Readings
Maybe it’s because of the rain, or maybe it’s all that good coffee, but Seattleites read voraciously – whether it’s the latest literary novel, an underground comic or a home-stapled zine. A lot of authors live here and there are some important literary landmarks worth checking out.
For detailed event schedules and to find offbeat happenings at nonmajor venues, check listings in the Stranger or the Seattle Weekly websites or look for events calendars posted in bookstores around town. Most readings and open-mike events are free.
Best Live Music Venues
Crocodile Nationally renowned midsize live venue that helped promote grunge.
Neumos The other pillar of Seattle’s dynamic scene has updated and remains relevant.
McCaw Hall Go and hear the Seattle Opera raise the roof.
Chop Suey Diverse selection of live acts, with indie alternating with hip-hop.
Tractor Tavern The anchor of Ballard’s live scene specializes in alt country.
Best For Undiscovered Talent
Espresso Vivace at Brix Hip coffee bar where local bands play regular laid-back sets.
High Dive Small Fremont dive for up-and-coming bands.
Nectar Lounge Early promoter of Seattle’s now-famous hip-hop scene.
Owl & Thistle Downtown Irish pub with fine fiddlers and folk music.
Shopping
Seattle, like any big US city, has a whole range of big-name stores. More precious and of more interest are the one-of-a-kind shops you’ll find hidden down alleys and crammed between coffee shops. The city’s tour de force is its bookstores and record stores, surely some of the best in the nation.
Independent Bookstores
Ironically, the city that spawned Amazon guards one of the best collections of indie bookstores in the US. In 2015 Seattle prepared itself for the ultimate oxymoron when the tech giant opened its first bricks-and-mortar bookstore in the U District (you can give it a miss). With print book sales on the rise for the first time in over a decade, it’s proof that bookstores can and will survive.
Viva Vinyl
Vinyl is dead? Think again. Sales have been rising in the US since the mid-2000s. The word on the street is that Seattle has more record stores than any other US city, and with such a weighty musical legacy to call upon, who’s arguing? Every neighborhood has its favorite independent dealer; some are encyclopedic, others no bigger than an average student bedroom.
Marijuana
In Seattle adults aged 21 and over may buy up to 1oz of pure weed (or 16oz of solid edibles, or 72oz of liquid product) for private consumption from a licensed seller. The ‘bud tenders’ who work behind the counter are knowledgeable, chatty and always ready with recommendations and advice. If you’re a total novice, just let the staff know. Dispensaries tend to be total judgment-free zones.
Best Bookstores
Elliott Bay Book Company Best bookstore in the nation? Add it to the list of contenders.
Ada’s Technical Books & Cafe New-ish book specialist in Capitol Hill with beautiful decor and a fine cafe.
Left Bank Books Just in case you lost your copy of Das Kapital.
Best Record Stores
Bop Street Records Astounding array of every musical genre known to Homo sapiens.
Easy Street Records & Café Drink coffee, imbibe beer, eat snacks and…oh…browse excellent records.
Georgetown Records Rare picture-cover 45s and vintage LPs next door to Fantagraphics comic shop.
Singles Going Steady If this name means anything to you, this punkish record shop is your nirvana.
Best Dispensaries
Herban Legends Professional but, as the name suggests, doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Origins Cannabis Things are a little bit friendlier in West Seattle, including their dispensaries.
Ganja Goddess At the time of writing one of the few dispensaries accepting payment by card.
Outdoors
Never mind the rain – that’s why Gore-Tex was invented. When you live this close to the mountains, not to mention all that water and an impressive mélange of parks, it’s just criminal not to get outdoors. One of Seattle’s greatest assets is that it’s a large city that doesn’t require you to leave to find outdoor recreation.
On the Water
Seeing Seattle from the water is a surefire way to fall in love with the city. The calmest, safest places to launch a boat are Green Lake, Lake Union or near the water-taxi dock in Seacrest Park in West Seattle. There are many places offering kayak and canoe rentals in these waterfront locales, as well as outfits that do classes and instruction, usually from around $70 per hour.
Hiking
In Seattle, it’s possible to hike (or run) wilderness trails without ever leaving the city. Seward Park, east of Georgetown, offers several miles of trails in a remnant of the area’s old-growth forest, and an even more extensive network of trails is available in 534-acre Discovery Park, northwest of downtown.
Burke-Gilman Trail
Cutting a leafy, vehicle-free path through multiple north Seattle neighborhoods – including the U District, Fremont, and Ballard – the Burke-Gilman Trail gets busy with human-powered traffic on sunny weekend days, when cyclists overtake joggers, and skaters weave in and out of walkers and strollers.
Best Activities
Discovery Park Get a taste of the Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors without leaving Seattle.
Green Lake Park Where to watch other people puff, pant and pose in their REI gear.
REI Tackle the climbing wall in the Northwest’s outdoor megastore.
Best Water Activities
Center for Wooden Boats Go sailing on Lake Union – it’s free on Sundays!
Green Lake Boat Rental Take it easy and have fun in a paddleboat on the waters of this calm, sheltered lake.
Alki Beach Park Swim, splash, windsurf, kayak, paddleboard and get wet in Seattle’s substitute California.
Best Neighborhoods to Get Outdoors
Ballard & Discovery Park Two wild waterside parks to lose yourself in.
Green Lake & Fremont Running, cycling and boating bonanza around Green Lake and on Fremont’s Lake Union waterfront.
Georgetown & West Seattle There are plenty of opportunities for cycling, kayaking, swimming and long walks on the beach.
Madrona & Madison Park Lake front parks and miles of trails for walking or running await.
For Kids
Take it easy, overworked parent. Seattle will entertain, pacify and often educate your energetic kid(s) without them even realizing it. Some of the attractions are obvious – a children’s theater and a zoo. Others are more serendipitous; don’t miss the pinball museum or the exciting urban theater of Pike Place Market.
Dining with Kids
Most Seattle restaurants are kid-friendly. The only places where you’re likely to see ‘No Minors’ signs is in pubs, gastropubs and dive bars (notwithstanding, many pubs will serve families as long as they don’t sit at the bar). Some places introduce a no-kids policy after 10pm.
Pike Place Market has the widest selection of cheap, immediately available food and is a fun place to hang out and eat.
Seattle Center
The Seattle Center has the most concentrated stash of kid-friendly activities in the city. There are several dedicated children’s museums and theaters, and many of the general interest museums and sights have an interactive approach that will appeal to youngsters.
Best Kid-Friendly Restaurants
Beecher’s Handmade Cheese Kids fall instantly in love with their mac ’n’ cheese cartons.
La Vita é Bella A traditional, family-friendly Italian trattoria in Belltown.
Piroshky Piroshky Adventurous eaters will be satisfied with this Russian bakery’s flaky pastries.
Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts Who doesn’t love a good doughnut?
Best Kid-Friendly Museums
Museum of History & Industry Learn about Seattle’s past through interactive exhibits full of tactile components and engaging quizzes.
Seattle Pinball Museum Pay $12 to $15 for unlimited use of several dozen pinball machines. The catch: getting your kid out again!
Museum of Pop Culture You could fill an afternoon in the Sound Lab alone, where adults and kids can requisition drum kits, guitars and keyboards.
Museum of Flight There are plenty of interactive exhibits for airplane-obsessed young ones, including a flight simulator.
Best for Getting Outdoors
Discovery Park Miles of safe trails and beaches for kids to explore.
Hiram M Chittenden Locks Watch the boats traverse the locks and see the fish ladder.
Center for Wooden Boats Come for free sailboat rides on Sundays from 10am (first come, first serve;
Alki Beach Park Perfect for sandcastles and beachy picnics.
Tours
Seattle seems to excel in first-rate city tours undertaken by various means of transportation including buses, boats and even a specially adapted bus-boat. Non-daunting tours on foot are similarly popular. Some tours are neighborhood-specific, others cover a particular topic; several pull together the city’s best sights.
Art Walks
If you’re an appreciator of the arts it’s worth checking your calendar before scheduling your visit, to try to catch one of Seattle’s many monthly gallery walks. The chic First Thursday Art Walk in Pioneer Square bills itself as the oldest in the nation, while the grungy Second Saturday Art Attack in Georgetown is the place to see cutting edge work.
Best Tours
Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour Head under the city itself on this mega popular Pioneer Square excursion.
Seattle Free Walking Tours Tackle the labyrinthine Pike Place Market with the experts.
Road Dogs Seattle Brewery Tour Hop from brewery to brewery while sampling the city’s finest beers.
Fremont Tour Unforgettably kooky and quintessentially Seattle.
Coffee
Every rainy day in this city is just another opportunity to warm up with a cup of joe. Seattle practically invented modern North American coffee culture, thanks to a small store in Pike Place Market that went global: Starbucks. But these days that storied chain is just one of dozens vying for attention.
Local Coffee Chains
Unless you fell asleep in 1984 and have just woken up, the word ‘Starbucks’ needs no elaboration. But Seattle hosts a number of other, smaller coffee ‘chainlets,’ many of which only have branches in the city and its suburbs. Each has their own unique charms, and some are known for excelling in things like ultrafluffy foam or a particularly friendly atmosphere.
Best Coffee Shops
Zeitgeist Coffee At Zeitgeist it’s all about the coffee – and the gorgeous almond croissants.
Storyville Coffee New kid on the block, but already making a name for itself.
Espresso Vivace at Brix Drink coffee, listen to the Ramones, check out the latest street style.
Milstead & Co Multi-roaster in Fremont choosing the best coffee on the market; menu changes daily.
Victrola Coffee Roasters When hipsters go to heaven they get teleported to Victrola in Capitol Hill.