用餐者should pay special attention if they want to sample the Japanese confections known as wagashi from Phinney Ridge’s tiny Tokara. Due to limited supply, call ahead to order and arrange a time to collect desired treats such as sakuramochi, made with pink mochi, filled with red bean paste, and wrapped in a salted, pickled cherry leaf — typically available during cherry blossom season. In Kyoto fashion, diners should enjoy them with tea.

Yes, patrons can get savory selections like Japanese curry, udon, and sushi here, but the bigger draw are the desserts from Setsuko Pastry. They’re sweet, but not too sweet, often balanced by a hit of bitterness from matcha and other ingredients. Favorites include green tea roll cake (sponge cake wrapped around azuki bean paste and fresh cream), strawberry shortcake, purple sweet potato cheesecake, and mochi brownies.

用餐者在這個熱點抓住一個托盤,U區slide along the line, cafeteria-style, to place a noodle order. The next step is to choose some deep-fried delights a la carte, like the excellent tempura chikuwa, a fishcake in the shape of a tube. With two locations (the other is on Capitol Hill), this mini-chain is the first in Seattle to serve udon made on-site, with the cold preparations showing off the chewiness of the al dente noodles best; diners can even watch them being made while they wait to order.

This izakaya in Wallingford is a perfect place for a group to enjoy drinks and share small plates. Dishes include grilled mackerel, grilled tuna collar, a variety of yakitori, fried chicken cartilage, kushikatsu (tonkatsu on a stick), and even French fries with wasabi mayonnaise. Yakinonigiri (soy-sauce-glazed grilled rice balls) are the perfect dish to fill up at the end of a meal.

Star chef Mutsuko Soma makes soba from scratch every day atthis Fremont destination, which was chosen as one ofEater’s Best New Restaurant in America in 2018. Soma serves traditional soba shop dishes like seiro soba (cold with dipping sauce) and super-crunchy tempura but also more creative dishes like soba with oysters and gochujang broth and oreo tempura served with mini toasted marshmallows. Make a full night of it by sampling some sake and snacks at next-door sibling barHannyatoubefore heading over to Kamonegi for dinner.

This small Capitol Hill dine-in-only restaurant consistently draws crowds for its perfectly executed katsu dishes. The fried pork and chicken cutlets are prepared in multiple ways: topped with grated daikon radish, drowned in sweet miso sauce, or laid atop bubbling clay pots of vegetable and mushroom stew. Don’t leave without trying the tomato and cheese katsu or the curry katsu — whose sauce, made with dark chocolate, tastes toasty and complex like a good mole negro. For most dishes, diners can choose between four different types of pork, the most expensive being the Iberico pork loin. Reservations are only open for parties greater than six and wait times can be over an hour.

One of Seattle’s only dedicated kaiseki restaurants, located in the shadow of the Space Needle, makes food almost too beautiful to eat. The premium kaiseki option takes diners on a journey that includes small bites, soup, sashimi, a braised dish, a grilled dish, a rice dish, and dessert. In keeping with kaiseki’s emphasis on seasonality, the menu changes monthly, and customers covet the counter seats, where the chef can tell diners the story of each dish, from ingredients to preparation to picturesque plating.

At his lively Capitol Hill restaurant, Shota Nakajima (ofTop Chef名聲)著重於醃製,遍體鱗傷,twice-fried karaage with dry and wet seasonings including curry, teriyaki, and salt and pepper. A “Fuckit Bucket” easily feeds three or four people with three full pounds of chicken over a pound of fries and some shredded cabbage, and a late-night dine-in-only menu with Japanese egg sandwiches and fried rice is available until 1:30 a.m.

This unmarked, easy-to-miss place in the International District’s Nihonmachi is reminiscent of many family-owned restaurants in Japan that somehow manage to cook a little bit of everything, really well. There’s an eight-seat sushi bar where diners can order excellent sashimi and nigiri, but Tsukushinbo stands out for its snacks like the ochazuke (rice stew), topped with salted salmon and salmon roe, and its agedashi nasu, made with tender deep-fried eggplant drenched in a perfectly balanced broth. Go soon; word is,the restaurant is closing this summer to make way for two new restaurants.

Seattle’soldest sushi restauranthas been open since 1904, surviving the incarceration of its owners during WWII. Maneki remains as resilient as ever: Since the pandemic started, the Japantown restaurant has offered online takeout orders for its large menu of sushi rolls, udon noodles, and Japanese comfort food. Indulge in the beef sukiyaki or unagi donburi, or make a takeout meal out of snacks, like the spicy cod karaage, potato croquettes, and onigiri (rice balls).

Fuji Bakery, with locations in Interbay, Bellevue, and the International District combines ingredients and techniques from Japan and France to create wonders like the yuzu bacon epi. Many people visit Fuji for its savory breads and pastries, such as kare-pan (curry bun) and brioche saumon (salmon brioche). Others prefer the sweets, like anpan, green tea Danish, year-round panettone, and best-selling crunchy cream doughnut.

Sandwich House TRES in Bellevue focuses primarily on doing one thing and doing it right: beloved crustless sandwiches made with soft and spongy white bread. (Crouton alert: Customers can help themselves to crusts from the “free” bin.) This sparse spot with just two tables does bustling to-go business, offering an extensive sandwich menu featuring four “zones”: meat, seafood, vegetable, and fruit. It’ll take two sandwiches to fill most diners; make one a pork cutlet.

At this Mt. Baker restaurant, chef Toshiyuki Kawai serves Japanese fine-dining with a Frenchified Pacific Northwest fine-dining twist. Dishes on the current menu include risotto with black cod tempura, iberico shabu shabu with ratatouille, and an ahi tuna tartare with watermelon gazpacho.