City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 441-1430

Address: 2000 4th Ave. (Central)

Description: Tom Douglas’s Greek-inspired taverna serves modern Mediterranean food with a North African riff. A selection of kebabs and tagines is on the menu, along with several meze plates as starters and a fish of the day. Try the Lola Sampler, which gives a great variety of kebab, olives, dolmades, hummus, and pita. Lola offers a late-night menu and breakfast as well as lunch and dinner; Seattle Metropolitan Magazine called it the best breakfast in town.

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 956-0500

Address: 2334 2nd Ave. (Central)

Description: This place is as much an experience for all the senses as it is a restaurant. It’s a great place for groups or parties, where you can sit around a large, low table on floor pillows and share the large platters of kebabs, tagines, and couscous dishes. They will even cook a whole lamb for you, with three days’ notice, for parties of eight or more. As may be expected with a place like this, they have belly dancers; in fact, everything is a performance here, even down to the tea service poured in the traditional style, from about 2 feet above the glasses. The entire restaurant is sensory overload for the eyes, with intricate tile mosaics, sumptuous textiles, stained glass windows, fountains, and gorgeous Moroccan lanterns.

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 632-1913

Address: 1913 N. 45th St. (North)

Description: In the charming neighborhood of Wallingford lies this gem of a restaurant. Joule embodies the uniquely Seattle American/Asian fusion cuisine. One half of the husband-and-wife team that owns the restaurant is Rachel Yang, who expresses her Korean roots in the food, along with a style that is long on French technique. Yang and her husband, Sief Chirchi, did much of their culinary training in New York, and the dishes they serve up are as varied as shiitake lasagna, whole mackerel, Chinese sausage, and Kasu brined pork chops. Some Chirchi Egyptian spices are even thrown into most dishes. A specialty is the kimchee—small side dishes of homemade pickled cucumbers, shitake mushrooms, and even beef tongue—that are a staple of Korean restaurants.

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 324-1108

Address: 622 Broadway Ave. East (Central)

Description: In a brightly colored, very mod space, Poppy serves up prix-fixe thali plates from a constantly changing menu. Thalis are Indian trays of an assortment of dishes, and Poppy’s thali offerings are about as inventive as they come. The owner, Jerry Traunfeld, used to be the executive chef at the celebrated Herbfarm restaurant. Some of the dishes that may be found in Poppy’s seven- or nine-item thali plates are braised pork belly, tandoori chicken wrapped in naan, chickpea-coated fried eggplant, or ricotta dumplings with stinging nettle sauce. Full vegetarian options are always available, and items can also be ordered a la carte.

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Address: 1401 3rd Ave. (Central)

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 328-6544

Address: 1111 E. Pike St. (Central)

Description: Offering four locations in Capitol Hill, Ballard, Madrona, and West Seattle, Cupcake Royale makes their own buttercream frosting using organic sugar, local milk, and free-range eggs. The cupcake batter is made with specially milled Shepherd’s Grain flour sourced from east Washington farmers. Regular daily flavors are chocolate and vanilla with a variety of frostings, as well as a Cupcake of the Month flavor, such as Irish Whiskey Maple and Huckleberry. They also take special orders and deliver.

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 441-3669

Address: 1902 Pike Place (Central)

Description: Yes, it is très French, considering Le Panier was opened in 1983 by a Frenchman who missed his daily baguette. This charming little shop feels as if you’ve stepped from the Pike Place Market into a Parisian bakery when you enter the doors. The delicate sweet specialties include pistachio and orange pastries, a variety of tarts, meringues, croissants, and absolutely divine pain au chocolate. You can also pick up baguettes and other loaves of bread, as well as sandwiches.

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 708-7947

Address: 917 E. Pine St. (Central)

Description: This is Seattle’s favorite ice cream shop, with locations in Capitol Hill and Wallingford. Owner Molly Moon Neitzel calls it a neighborhood hangout where families, kids, hipsters, and ice cream addicts can congregate. The dairy is provided from hormone-free Washington cows, and seasonal fruits and herbs are used in the recipes, resulting in unusual flavors such as lavender, cantaloupe, and maple bacon. The ice cream can also be found on the menu of many local restaurants, and vegan options are always available.

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 632-7020

Address: 1815 N. 45th St., Suite 209 (North)

Description: This charming little shop does nothing but cupcakes, offering 12 flavors every day including some highly unusual ones, such as Chocolate Guinness Stout, Chai Cardamom, and Snowball. There is also a shop in University Village, at 2612 NE Village Lane.

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 838-1960

Address: 1415 NW 70th St. (North)

Description: Before opening Delancey, chef Brandon Pettit traveled all over the USA on a quest to develop the perfect pizza crust. According to most locals and food reviewers, he succeeded. At his rather spare Ballard restaurant, the brick-oven pizza achieves the perfect balance of soft and crunchy, topped with ingredients such as Basque Padron peppers, crimini mushrooms, Leporati prosciutto, house-made pork fennel sausage, and fresh or aged mozzarella. A rather limited choice of wine and beer is also available. Note: At the time of this writing, Delancey is open only for dinner, starting at 5 p.m.

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 322-9411

Address: 1401 E. Madison St. (Central)

Description: Piecora’s is a family-owned and -run pizzeria with the old, hipster-free Capitol Hill vibe—it’s been here for more than 25 years. As the name implies, this is Brooklyn-style pizza, with hand-tossed dough and slices that you fold in half to eat properly. Whole and half pizzas are available, as well as calzones, subs, pasta, and salads.

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 838-7388

Address: 316 Virginia St. (Central)

Description: This is my favorite pizzeria in Seattle. It’s cramped and there’s precious little room to wait, but a spot always seems to open up fast at the long communal tables. You can look right over the counter into the big applewood ovens, to see your pie being prepared and cooked. The crusts are perfectly blistered and crunchy, and they’re topped with local artisan cheeses. As far as toppings go, the old standbys are here, as well as regional additions like Yukon Gold potatoes, delicata squash, yellowfoot mushrooms, and Penn Cove clams. Each pizza pie is just about enough for one person, so why not order two and share?

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 525-1813

Address: 500 NW Market St. (North)

Description: Veraci started out as a traveling pizzeria that was a staple of the Ballard farmers’ market. Now, it has established a permanent restaurant serving wood-fired pizza by the slice or the pie, on its signature ultrathin artisan crust. Toppings and menus change with the season and continue to offer the best of what’s fresh at the market. You can still find Veraci at the Ballard and Fremont markets year-round as well.

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 223-2722

Address: 901 Fairview Ave. North (Central)

Description: As the name suggests, Chandler’s specializes in crab. A lot of it. In fact, Chandler’s Crabhouse serves more crab than any other restaurant in the entire Northwest. Numerous fresh daily selections are available, from Washington Red King and Alaskan Dungeness to Gulf Coast soft-shell, and chef Kevin Rohr makes frequent changes to the menu to reflect the freshest crab on hand. In addition to the ever-present crab dishes, full seafood choices are available including calamari, tuna, lobster, prawns, salmon, and oysters; there is also a very nice selection of meat, from Colorado lamb riblettes to kimchee beef.

City: Seattle, WA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (206) 443-6000

Address: 2020 Western Ave. (Central)

Description: People-watch along Pike Place Market and the waterfront through huge plate-glass windows, as you enjoy Tom Douglas’s take on seasonal, market-inspired seafood. From classic fish-and-chips to Dungeness crab cakes, lobster, pit-smoked salmon, and a tuna sashimi salad, the dishes are all fresh and superb. The weekend brunch is definitely worth a visit, and you can stroll through the market to work off all those extra calories afterward.