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Feed me, Seymour! 2014 "Best Eats of Seattle", now w/ click aid for the direction impaired
Man, a lot of the spreadsheet had to get adjusted this year. 2013/2014 has been a turbulent year for the restaurant industry (I'll likely stop doing this list entirely when Seattle's $15 minimum wage thing kicks in and half of the city's eateries shut down). This past year we bid a sad farewell to Rover's, for 25 years the unquestioned best restaurant in the city and one that could stand toe-to-toe with French Laundry, Per Se, et al. Thierry is still around though, opening casual bistro Loulay afterwards. Emmer & Rye, Red Fin Sushi, Madison Park Conservatory and others are gone. The Miller's Guild, The London Plane & Red Crow are either here or coming to take the flag. I've decided to add links to Google Maps for each location in the sheet, as numerous people stated it was too much effort to type the name into their smartphone's navigation on their own. The links are a work in progress, I'll add them down the spreadsheet as I have bandwidth. Bit time-consuming to pull them all up via map, then shorten the URL in another window, copy, paste, repeat.
As always, broken down into top 5 offerings by category/genre (via opinion of my own deeply-embedded-in-the-Seattle-food-scene foodie household as well as those in my circle of similarly food-crazed people), as well as notated by price and location. I may add a Table of Contents to allow people to click right to the section they want rather than to scroll through the entirety of the list (which now spans about 225 rows), I might not get to it.
The list might evolve some over the course of the Summer. A lot of the area's notable chef's are either planning to open new restaurants between now and Labour Day or else have recently done so, and there just hasn't been opportunity to try them out yet. As per usual, if any requests for a specific category come up, let me know and I'll try to draw from my circle's pool of knowledge to create it. One thing of note: I'm not a hipster. By any definition. I also don't really keep company with any. As a result, places that are popular with the thick-rimmed non-prescription glasses because they've already got 20/20 vision wearing, skinny jean adoring, walk around with a suitcase 45 record player accessorizing, "I was into all of these places before they were cool", scruffy beard sporting, we're-so-counterculture-by-all-being-exactly-alike, crowd (typically places with ridiculous menu descriptions that only hire servers with ear gauges that make them look like Dumbo) aren't real big hits with my group. This means places like Le Petit Cochon and their 'phat ass porkchop' didn't make the cut and I can't really offer much advise on where to go if that's your scene.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqMQiLE417ZHdG5rYlZWU3dMY1gzcVBEVU1MRk9LaFE#gid=0
As always, broken down into top 5 offerings by category/genre (via opinion of my own deeply-embedded-in-the-Seattle-food-scene foodie household as well as those in my circle of similarly food-crazed people), as well as notated by price and location. I may add a Table of Contents to allow people to click right to the section they want rather than to scroll through the entirety of the list (which now spans about 225 rows), I might not get to it.
The list might evolve some over the course of the Summer. A lot of the area's notable chef's are either planning to open new restaurants between now and Labour Day or else have recently done so, and there just hasn't been opportunity to try them out yet. As per usual, if any requests for a specific category come up, let me know and I'll try to draw from my circle's pool of knowledge to create it. One thing of note: I'm not a hipster. By any definition. I also don't really keep company with any. As a result, places that are popular with the thick-rimmed non-prescription glasses because they've already got 20/20 vision wearing, skinny jean adoring, walk around with a suitcase 45 record player accessorizing, "I was into all of these places before they were cool", scruffy beard sporting, we're-so-counterculture-by-all-being-exactly-alike, crowd (typically places with ridiculous menu descriptions that only hire servers with ear gauges that make them look like Dumbo) aren't real big hits with my group. This means places like Le Petit Cochon and their 'phat ass porkchop' didn't make the cut and I can't really offer much advise on where to go if that's your scene.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqMQiLE417ZHdG5rYlZWU3dMY1gzcVBEVU1MRk9LaFE#gid=0
Quintious on
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Recently I moved over to Google Maps Engine since they took away my places from google maps. It's a million times better for managing a list of site plus you can pull it up on your phone to look for nearby places or group by category. Maybe that might help you here?
2015 PAX Prime Omeganaut (I will forever hate Katamari)
Pizza isn't real high-quality up here, unfortunately. A lot of that pizza list is the best of an inferior overall product (Kylie's is the only one on the list that stands tall on its own in any city/circumstance). WIth regards to Pagliacci, get yourself the Grand Salami primo and substitute the standard pepperoni for Salumi's pepperoni, add Walla Walla onions, and substitute the standard salami for the Salumi's Rosemarino salami (if it's available - it's a very limited quantity item) with heavy sauce if that's your thing, and you'll be right as rain - so long as you like pepperoni, salami, and onions. They can have some great pies, you just have to know how to customize what they put on the menu in order to get it to that point.
Get thee to Kukai in Bellevue.
You would think that in a city with such a large Asian population, ramen would be better represented out here, but it's not. Kukai is awesome, though. They keep tinkering w/ the menu, though, and it's not always for the better.
The locals go apeshit over a place called Shiro's, which is a sushi place downtown. He was Jiro's (of 'I Dream of Sushi' fame) apprentice, so the guy has pedigree. Unfortunately, the two times I've dined there, it's bordered on vile. I don't know if I'm ridiculously unlucky or if the locals just don't have a clue what sushi is supposed to taste like.
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Thanks! I'll check it out for sure.
Edit: good lord how could I forget the made to order donuts, don't ask questions, just get them.
90 character limit on thread titles. Tried it (actually, Elf needs food, not warrior), wouldn't fit.
There's also Jinya's now in Crossroads (also Bellevue, for the out-of-towners). I'm torn on which I prefer; I think the broth at Kukai is better, but the slices of pork you get in your broth at Jinya are better done. The first time I went to Jinya the egg was overdone but subsequent times it's been right.
Edit: Thanks for the doc though, I live in the area and it's still cool to take a look at recommendations. Though if you're going to throw Woodinville places on some of them, Hollywood Tavern (down the street from Redhook/Barking Frog/Herbfarm) is also pretty tasty.
Onions?! Why would you ruin a pie with onions?!!!
If you want good sushi I highly suggest this place http://sushikanpai.us/ They were on the ground floor of the apartment building I stayed in when I went to ECCC. Amazing food and cheaper than Shiro's. Also not too far of a walk from the convention center. It's just about 5 or 6 blocks south on 8th.
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My issue w/ Jinya is that, the three times I've been there, they've given me "white boy ramen". By that I mean by the time it got to me, the broth had cooled to a point that it was unacceptable. Further, the sodium levels were way off (far too low) compared to what I'm used to experiencing. A great ramen should have a broth so hot that you *will* burn yourself if you don't know how to eat it, and the salt levels should be quite high. I do agree Jinya's meat offerings are better - and their add-ons are more competitively priced. But Kukai, as you say, has the better broth, serves the bowl to me screaming hot, has generally better appetizers, and thus wins my ramen challenge, as it were.
(And I like Hollywood Tavern, just not sure where they'd fit in any top 5 given distance and competition - I only included Barking Frog and Herbfarm in very specific "I don't care what it costs!" sections, where offerings are less plentiful)
CyberDogs was a disappointment last year. It was marginal at best.
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They make soydogs. Your expectations should have been beneath basement level (I've never eaten one, and never will). I only included that whole 'Grasseaters' section because people kept asking for it - have long-refused to set foot in most of those places, and relied upon word of mouth to come up with that group. Life's too short to eat tofu chalkmeat.
PAX Prime / PAX Dev 2014
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Oh my Dayum
Oh my goodness
They goin' Ham
Hope I can get into Piroshky Piroshky this year. Last year it was packed and the lineup would've been absurd. I'm not one for huge lineups, even for good food (time management).
I highly recommend Maneki. I went there a couple of years back, and their chirashi was amazing. Then again, midwest sushi is what I'm used to.
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There are many genres of Asian cuisine to where I am not only willing to turn a blind eye to poor health code inspection scores and blatant violations right there in front of you (see 'Kau Kau' on the spreadsheet, for example), but actually question the quality of taste if I don't see such things. Sushi, unfortunately, is not one of them. I want my sushi joints to be so sanitized you could perform open heart surgery in them. Sushi Kanpai, unfortunately, doesn't follow food safety guidelines and sanitation standards at all - and with raw fish, that's just something I won't mess around with.
Le Panier has the most amazingly, light and flaky pastries I have ever eaten. We alternate between them and the crumpet shop.
Best almondine croissants I've ever had
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And the breakfast tarts... oh and the eclairs.
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Jillians has actually been renamed to the World Sports Grille. Still overrated though.
Also Cactus in South Lake Union is good "Mexican" food in my opinion. Haven't had a bad meal there yet. I put it in quotes because it's a really more like Mexican fusion.
I would also say to everybody else that on Friday you should expect some of these places to be absolutely packed with people. Some of the lunch places like Salumi are very popular among locals who work downtown to get a sandwich and the line can get very long. Also PAX attracts a lot of people who get hungry at the same time you do, so plan accordingly. I would advise to get reservations if possible if you want to go to a popular place that is close to downtown for dinner as well as trying to eat lunch at a slightly off time (11:30-1:30 will be the biggest rush). Again you don't have to do this, but if you want to avoid long lines you'll need to travel farther away from downtown, eat at someplace not as good or expensive, or go during slightly off hours. The metro system is really pretty good and can get you most places in Seattle because some of the places mentioned in the doc are actually pretty far away from downtown and CERTAINLY too far away to consider walking there.
Seattle is also having a huge push in the Food Truck scene. The top 5 listed are fantastic, but there are so many other ones that are fantastic as well (Where Ya At, Matt has been voted a top 10 food truck in that nation - Cajun food). So many good ones that I would recommend giving any of them a try (unless they just look super sketchy with no line). They tend to follow big events, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was some parking lot where a lot of them will post up. Food trucks are my current obsession, so I'll try to post updates here as I learn more (ya, I'm a foody enough to follow them on twitter).
BTW I can support this list as very well thought out and accurate. Quintious certainly knows what he's talking about when it comes to food.
Also another +1 to MOD pizza. It's really nothing special but it's fast and cheap for a "build your own thin crust pizza" type place. Great to go with a group of people because you can order whatever you want, have it be cheap, but also not have it be terrible fast food.
P.S. Try to avoid any "chains" during your visit. While they offer safe options, the food is usually below average and expensive for what you get compared to a lot of the local places (For instance: Go to Wild Ginger instead of a place like PF Changs). Not telling anybody what to do...just providing my person thoughts on the matter (note: not a hipster either).