The so-called “Georgian cheese boat” craze has died down a little since the late 2010s, and Instagram feeds might not be brimming with luscious khachapuri photos anymore, but that’s no reason to love Skalka any less. The cozy bakeshop does a variety of savory khachapuri from around the former Soviet republic, like the classic eye-shaped khachapuri adjaruli, with a gooey sulguni cheese, a butter pat, and a sunny egg, or the khachapuri imeruli, which hides the cheese inside the bread like a giant pupusa. They also do creative modern takes that are just as delicious, like a beef stroganoff khachapuri with pickles and an egg on a sulguni cheese base. Fun fact: The wordskalkameans “rolling pin” in Georgian!

This swanky date-night spot proves you can go big AND go home. PNW-born chef Christina Siegl spent half of her career at Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe, but she’s back at her home base now, where she’s really making the native produce shine. The rest of the 84 Yesler team features alumni from iconic restaurants like Sushi Kashiba and El Gaucho, so they’ve majored in Northwestern cuisine, especially our spectacular seafood. The result is dishes loaded with local jewels like morels, huckleberries, oysters, scallops, and spot prawns, all organic and locally sourced. Some all-season faves at 84 Yesler are the pappardelle with Dungeness crab, lemon butter, and fine herb oil as well as the steamed Penn Cove mussels, served with mustard seed cream sauce and an artisan baguette.

This dear little Turkish cafe in Pioneer Square has been here seemingly forever, and it’s still serving reliably lovely Mediterranean dishes. Veggie options abound, such as the grilled eggplant sandwich, the falafel pita, and the meze platter, featuring some of the best hummus in the city. The kalamata-studded lamb shepherd’s salad is a star as well.

Of Seattle’s precious few Cambodian restaurants, Phnom Penh Noodle House is the old-schoolest, having been an HQ for the city’s Khmer community since 1987. Now in its third incarnation, it’s disappeared a few times and then miraculously returned, most recently in 2020. Original owner Sam Ungconfidently boasts that he makes the best noodles ever, even better than all the noodles in Cambodia — he and his adult daughters, who now run Phnom Penh, are widely hailed for their mee katang (wide rice noodles in soy sauce-based gravy, available with various meats and veggies) and the Fishermen’s Bowl (prawns, calamari, fish balls, and fish cake over thin rice noodles in a garlicky broth).

Stately old Il Terrazzo Carmine has been holding it down for decades, but it closes at 4 p.m., right about when a pre-game dinner needs to begin. Thankfully, football fans can go next door to its trendy sibling bar, Intermezzo Carmine, where the atmosphere is less old-guard and clubby and more fresh-faced and millennial. Chef Juan Vega runs both kitchens, but Intermezzo’s menu focuses on small plates, and as such, the service is a lot snappier.

Folks sometimes call this place “the Japanese Denny’s” thanks to its shabby diner aesthetic, its ‘80s vaporware cocktail bar, its deep-fried comfort food, and the late hours it keeps. The yoshoku Japanese-Western menu is a wacky bricolage of American classics like spaghetti — say, topped with soy sauce-butter chicken or bolognese and garlic mayo — and variations on doria (a Japanese casserole of rice, meat, and cheese), ramen, udon, katsu, omelets, Asian fusion hamburgers, and platter-sized pools of curry. It’s always a weird, fun time in here.

This reincarnation of Seattle’s snazziest 24-hour restaurant packs every bit of swingin’ mid-century punch as its original Boren Ave. location did, up to and including the swiveling leather captain’s chairs at the bar. What also followed along to Pioneer Square is 13 Coins’ colossal, ‘60s-era menu: Dutch babies! Calf’s liver and onions! Asparagus in béarnaise sauce! There’s something for pretty much everyone.

Eastside-based dumpling chain Dough Zone’s newest outpost, a block north of Uwajimaya in the Chinatown International District, slings its famous xiao long bao and handmade noodles with speed and style. Yi bin noodles and juicy pan-fried jian baos are additional standouts, and everything’s cheap, too.

合情的散步安裝所有相同的多汁,messy, marvelous Caribbean sandwiches as the Paseo in Fremont, via the same simple counter service. Just four blocks from the stadium, this location is especially worth knowing about, not only because it’s bigger and less crowded, but also because it has parking.

與俱樂部在共享空間,業主Pedrito Vargas”casual, colorful SoDo restaurant serves killer pan con lechon, media noche sandwiches, puerco asado (roast pork with black beans and plantains), and ajiaco criollo (a Cuban country-style stew with pork, yuca, and corn on the cob), plus plenty of fun specials.