廚師Carolynn Spence想出了一個enthusiastic menu for her fish house in the ground floor of the Palladian Hotel, e.g., Vancouver scallops with gin Hollandaise, charred octopus with hazelnut romesco, and shrimp scampi with corn pudding. They’re all solid and just a little bit weird. Plus, Shaker and Spear has sage sausage-fried Scotch olives that make for a great opener.

Belltown /市中心Chinatown-Inte的表弟rnational District’s well-lovedTamarind Tree, Long does a spread of North and South Vietnamese dishes in a slick, upscale, museum-like setting. Tamarind Tree rolls, along with a few other fan favorites, can be spied on the menu, but Long does its own unique thing quite well. Go with a group, pick out one of the interesting salads — say, cognac scallop pomelo salad or soft-shell crab banana blossom salad — and then aim for the family-style stuff, like the curry duck, the squid stuffed with ground pork, or any of the noodle dishes.

This business lunch stalwart has been around for a long time, but with no loss in quality. Barolo does mostly coastal Italian fare — king crab fettuccine, vongole in bianco, penne con salmone affumicato — and the white tablecloths, colossal wine list, and dapper waitstaff never crack a smile. Dr. Frasier Crane would take a first date here. That said, everything’s fantastically prepared and perfectly plated, right down to the late-night bar menu.

The soup dumpling war rages on between Taiwan-based corporate chain Din Tai Fung and local chainDough Zone, and Seattle’s got TWO of the former now — one in University Village and another in Pacific Place. While DTF (heh) is a little fancy-schmancy for a teahouse dim sum snack like xiaolongbao — swirly teardrop-shaped dumplings, filled with either pork or crab and hot, heavenly broth—no one’s worried too about it after the first bite.

In the bottom floor of the Hotel Theodore, Rider looks like your standard-issue upscale downtown hotel restaurant until you get to the menu. Dishes center around Pacific Northwest cuisine, particularly seafood; everything’s locally sourced and put together in out-of-the-box ways that delight. Standouts include the whole trout with black garlic and turnips as well as the halibut with pearl barley risotto, stinging nettle mole, and kumquats.

Dragonfish looks like it was designed by a Holiday Inn Express architect in 1994, but it’s what’s on the inside that counts. No one can step to Dragonfish’s twice-daily happy hour — every day around 4pm, the place fills up with the after-work office crew, there to load up on campy cocktails and respectable sushi. Folks can get tipsy and full here for less than $30, and it’s open late. What’s not to like?

It’s sorta ridiculous to say that Loulay is overlooked, since it’s the brainchild of Thierry Rautureau, one of Seattle’s most celebrated chefs of all time. But it seems like no one ever talks about this place (anymore?) and that’s a shame. Rautureau’s thing is taking American standards and instilling them with his generalfrancité, which results in dishes like roasted chicken with bacon lardons and Parisian gnocchi, Dungeness crab beignets, or atrès françaischeeseburger with bacon-onion jam, comté cheese, and butter lettuce (and an option to add foie gras).